The Snow Walker

The Snow Walker

Category: (DVD)

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Editorial Reviews

When the plane carrying Charlie Halliday, a maverick bush pilot and a sick, young, Inuit woman, Kanaalaq, crashes hundreds of miles from civilization, they are at the mercy of nature’s worst. While search parties try to find the downed plane Charlie decides to trek over land, promising the woman that he will return with help. Despite her weakened condition, she follows Charlie and nurses him back to health when insects, cold and starvation threaten to kill him shortly after he leaves. Kanaalaq teaches him the skills he will need to survive and he comes to respect her wisdom and love her valiant spirit as they each set out into the wilderness. Each will find a startling and solitary destiny in the beautiful and stark tundra. An adventure story that will move and inspire you as it touches your heart.

Customer Reviews

Good!

Reviewed by Valerie J. Rodriguez, 2010-01-30

The scenery was really pretty! I loved the animals and how they portraited the two people on how they survived after the plane went down! The people that wrote the movie did a good job!

Solid adventure flick

Reviewed by One-Line Film Reviews, 2009-11-22

The Bottom Line:

A well-made film about an arrogant bush pilot and a sick Inuit woman stranded in the Canadian wilderness, The Snow Walker doesn't do anything notably or exceptionally well but it moves quickly and never insults the audience's intelligence; if you're the type of person--as I am--who likes stories about survival, you could do a lot worse than The Snow Walker.

3/4

A wonderful film

Reviewed by Alexander C. Woodbury, 2009-11-17

I have seen this film over ten times. I rank the film as one of the greatest ever made. Even though I know the outcome, I'm still moved everytime. The character development is real. The young girl is someone anyone would love. Charlie becomes a better person because of her.

Two views of abandonment

Reviewed by P. Brewbaker, 2009-11-06

We recognize him as the world-weary WWII pilot. He's tasted death over Germany, the steaks of Montreal, the numerous girls of the Yukon. Outwardly boisterous, inwardly wounded, he flies the NW territories to pass the time and pay the bills, and if he 'sees' the local Eskimos at all, its as a profit-making opportunity. Since he is spiritually stranded, once he is stranded for real, would he think twice of abandoning her to 'find help'? In a part of his mind, we are all abandoned, or, as another character relates, we are 'all alone in this world'.

But what motivates her? Time and time again, this young Inuit, gravely stricken with tuberculosis, appears by his side to rescue him from his own folly. Why? This morose invalid doesn't start the film in a promising way, yet we see a woman transformed by the opportunity to care. This woman has trained her whole life to be someone's wife, her hero was her mother. Cruelly, TB has apparently robbed her of her mission. Yet, the plane-wreck that strands them represents a chance to put into practice her short lifetime of training. Will he let her? In the 'real world', his friends search for him. But, like him, they are hobbled by a modern attitude of 'we're all alone in this world' that repeatedly makes their efforts fall short of rescue. Will her more traditional attitude make the difference?

The good woman fishes, she catches small game, and she sews, and sews, and sews. Her heroism is completely traditional, it's poignancy informed by her illness. Her reverence for the dead is also fully formed and uncompromising. If it came to it, she would give her lifes-blood for her loved ones. And she would never abandon another person, unless...

In the frozen Arctic wilderness, abandonment lies just outside your door. As her mother taught her, if she should ever go there, it would not be for herself.

This is a great Farley Mowat story that translates perfectly to the film. See it.

incredible movie

Reviewed by informednow, 2009-07-12

This is an extremely well-acted, tear jerker of a movie! An arrogant pilot and Eskimo girl are stranded in the tundra when their plane malfunctions and crashes. The girl is sick with TB and was enroute to a hospital when the crash occurred. The native Inuit woman grew up in this climate and knows how to survive. She cares for and teaches the pilot the necessary skills and learns to laugh. As he grows in skills, she grows weaker physically until he has to care for her. He also grows as a person and they love between the two (nonsexual) becomes more and more evident. Two completely different people from completely different backgrounds have learned to pool their talents to survive and become emotionally attached in the process. Great movie!