Review of The Silent Enemy

Docudrama about a tribe of Indians in the Canadian wilderness over the course of a year. The print I saw opened with chief of the tribe addressing the audience before the film itself started. The film proper is full of truly spectacular footage of the native North American's going through their paces from fishing to hunting to traveling in the snow or going down the river in a canoe. Almost 80 years on one still goes "Oh Wow" with much of the footage. Even while its clear that the footage was staged, its more stages in the way of "this is the way we do things". The only real problem is that some of the stuff that helps move the "story" seems creaky. Actually bits of the movie seem creaky. Most of the film is silent with music and narration which seems to slow the pace down and make much of what happens seem quaint. This doesn't mean its bad, it just makes the film okay and not as great as what's in the footage. Worth a look, as a rental if nothing else, more so if you want to see a life that's pretty much all gone now.