Kon-Tiki

I happened to borrow this movie from a friend knowing nothing about it, and it turned out to be an outstanding documentary about a journey on an ancient vessel across vast expanses of the ocean. Thor Heyerdahl had developed a theory that the ancient Incas in Peru managed to travel thousands of miles across the ocean to Polynesia, based on certain relics that are found in both places, certain types of ancient sea-going vessels that we know they had available, analysis of ocean and wind currents, and the knowledge that the Incas did, in fact, travel in some undetermined amount at sea.

In order to test his hypothesis, Heyerdahl and his crew construct a vessel as closely as possible to what the ancient Incas had available, using only balsa wood and other materials available at the time, and set out from Lima, Peru's capital, to try to reach the islands of Polynesia, some 5,000 miles away.

His theory, like so much about ancient history, is impossible to prove with 100% certainty, but the coverage of their journey provides for strong support that he is right. The film is really little more than narration of footage taken during the 100+ day expedition, but it is a very detailed description of what it was like and the trials and tribulations that they faced. I often wish that Academy Award winning documentaries were easier to find, and this one from more than 50 years ago is still as interesting and informative as I am sure it was when it was first released.

Although the 2012 Dramatization of this event was very good (see my review), the documentary is even more fascinating. There is nothing like real-life documentation to involve you emotionally to be vested in a good film. And this documentary deserved its Academy Award for Best Documentary of 1950. Nothing was even close to this film.

Thor Heyerdahl made the best sea adventure documentary of all time with this piece. The trip itself makes Columbus and Leif Erikson look like sissies compared to this adventure. Heyerdahl made the trip exactly as Tiki, the ancient Peruvian did, over 1500 years ago. A fascinating piece.

I have watched this film twice now and think its quite good for the limited equipment used to create this film. (filmed in 1947) Dr. Heyerdahl explains his theory about the migration of south American Pre-Colubian Indians to the Polynesia's islands by way raft fell of large balsa trees. This documentary follows Dr. Heyerdahl and crew as they select balsa trees in Equidor and float with them down river to the pacific for assembly in Peru. They launch off on a 101 day sea adventure testing the strength of their primitive raft surviving only by means available to natives of that era. See for yourself, a real adventure!

I got a copy of the book, "Kon-Tiki" when I was ten years old (1962). I still remember the story. I didn't know abut this film until now. It's an amazing story of how a man's belief and conviction can truly change how we think of the world around us. If you like this film you must also read the book.

The movie was fascinating as was Heyerdahl's book. The problem is the "extra" material - an interview with Thor Heyerdahl and extra film clips of the Ra I, RaII and Tigris expeditions. Any first year film student could have done better. There were almost no captions or identifiers, the interview was chopped up and interspersed with clips with no explanation or relevance. The whole looked like a hasty mishmash that should never have been released. The extra color footage was fine. The extra on the "crew" could have benefited from a bit more than the name. As Heyerdahl died in 2002, that would also have been useful information. The photos -- with captions from the book -- were fine, if only the "interview" extra had been done half as well.