Review of Kon-Tiki (2012) by Aleksander D — 09 Sep 2012

Six men and a parrot on a raft in the Pacific for a 101 days sees like one of the more far-fetched Hollywood movie pitches, but it is not, it is an Norwegian movie based on a true story, and it is actually quite good.

In 1947 Norwegian Norwegian adventurer and experimental archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl and a crew of five men and a parrot set sail for Polynesia from Peru. A drift would perhaps be a more accurate description; their craft being a raft made of balsa wood with severely limited means of navigation. Their goal was to prove that Polynesia could have been settled from South America, despite the current conventional wisdom that it had been settled from the West. That wisdom has since been vindicated through linguistic and DNA analysis, but a recent study has shown that there probably also is a smaller, yet distinct contribution from the East.

Heyerdahl's 1951 documentary from the expedition made audience sea sick, fortunately not a problem with this one. The documentary also won an Academy Award, the only Norwegian movie do so so far - that will not change with this one.

We hardly get to know some of the characters. It could have been interesting if they had explored the trauma from World War II a bit more for instance.

The movie is certainly not without drama: there are storms, shark attacks and the surfing over the reef around Raroia to name a few. The special effects are the best I've ever seen in a Norwegian movie, but it lacks nerve. From time to time it feels a little like watching somebody else's holiday snaps. One would imagine there would have been more tension on such a foolhardy expedition or just from having six men and a parrot confined in isolation on such a small craft for such a long time, but apparently there was not. The film makers tried to inject some by making Herman Watzinger into something of coward, to his family's chagrin, but it was not quite enough. The tension between Heyerdahl and his wife, Liv, was masterfully done though.

All in all, a good movie, but not a great one.