Review of Shadow of the Wolf (1992) by Jim M — 09 Nov 2008

Set in the Canadian Arctic 1935, Shadow of the Wolf tells the story of an Inuit hunter who kills a white man, run off, gets hitch, acts miserable, and then comes home to lead the tribe after his father is arrested, jumps out of a plane and turns into a bird...you read that right.

Meandering "Dances With Wolves" wannabe that has a bunch of real Inuit standing around in the backround but gives it's three leads to Lou Diamond Philips (who's basically everything except Inuit), Toshiro Mifune (Japanese) and Jennifer Tilly (Chinese descent, but she does look good naked). All three do the worst impersonation of an Inuit you could imagine. Donald Sutherland appears playing a bastard mountie hunting Philips, yet spends most of his time sitting on his ass waiting for something to happen. The Inuit mysticsm was fine when they treated it as part of their culture but when Mifune starts contolling wolves the reaction is more "Oh, fuck off" (incidently also my reaction to the rather racist portrayal of white people in the film, not one white character has anything close to a redeeming value, but thats multiculturalism for you). Skip it. Canada can do better.