The White Dawn (1974) | Paramount

Reviews:

“… Set in 1869, The White Dawn (1974) is the story of three American whalers who get lost in the Arctic and are rescued by Eskimos. The film whisks us into a strange and fascinating culture, and,  because it was photographed on location by the brilliant Michael Chapman (who did Body Snatchers and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver as well) it’s absolutely beautiful to look at. As you watch, a curious tug-of-war develops between the whalers and their saviors; the Eskimos try to teach the American’s how to survive while the American’s try to figure out how to exploit them. Most of the cast consists of real Canadian Indians, and the whalers are well portrayed by Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms, and Louis Gossett. A must for anyone that loves movies that transport you to another world.” – The Boston Phoenix

“… Though the Inuit dialogue is helpfully subtitled for the viewer, garrulous Warren Oates and fellow stranded whalers Timothy Bottoms and Lou Gossett struggle to understand: in a narrative that’s part Jack London, part On the Silver Globe, the hostile landscape and unpredictable encounters with native life are experienced by the trio like a head-spinning cinema of attractions, and by the viewer as a new world dazzlingly opened up by Kaufman’s stark visuals.” – David Gregory Lawson for Film Comment

“In 1974 nobody had made a really satisfactory arctic movie since Flaherty's Nanook of the North, and even that was a carefully staged show designed to look like a documentary. The biggest effort had been Nicholas Ray's 1961 The Savage Innocents with Anthony Quinn and a dubbed Peter O'Toole. It suffered from spotty special effects and some bad dubbing. Philip Kaufman's The White Dawn is remarkable in that a tiny crew filmed the whole thing right up in the middle of an authentic arctic winter. As the fascinating docu that comes with the DVD explains, everybody involved had to be a real adventurer. Before Martin Ransohoff found Kaufman, another director turned him down with a simple telegram: "My employment temperature range is between 45 and 85 degrees." With nary a concession to action-movie clichés or feel-good ecological message-making, Kaufman's film is a wonderful adventure in an exotic world.” – Glenn Erickson for DVD Savant

A surprisingly hypnotic B feature based on a true story that took place in the Canadian Arctic around 1900. Three sailors (Oates, Bottoms and Gossett), marooned on the ice cap, are taken in by a tribe of nomadic Eskimos. At a lyrically measured pace, the film unfolds how the three cultural aliens, ironically mistaken as 'dog children' by their protectors, variously adapt to and influence their new way of life. Bottoms, with misty-eyed reverence, drinks it up like a fish (the occasional moments of cloying sentiment are carefully structured around his character), while Gossett enjoys himself from the sidelines. A splendidly cantankerous Oates grudgingly accepts the help, and as his sole contribution to cultural exchange, initiates the Eskimos into alcohol. Most successful, however, is the presentation of the natural rhythms of the Eskimo life cycle, from religious rituals to hunting practices and recreation pursuits. The Baffin Island location, resonantly photographed, is in constant evidence, underlining its key position in the overall pattern. Even Henry 'Moon River' Mancini has come up trumps with a delicately pitched score. A treat. – TimeOut