The Sky Above, the Mud Below

I had meant to see this film when I was a teenager, but I seem to never have gotten around to it, as high school was full of beckoning activities. The filming of this adventure was quite impressive; the entire trip took seven months. Each day of those seven months, or over 200 days, were 200+ days of various challenges, tortuous marches and several unknown dangers. These explorers were facing millions of flies and mosquitoes, treacherous jungle paths (when there was a path; most times there weren't any), endless vegetation and rivers flowing at 30 knots; enough to carry away even the strongest swimmer. There were pygmy tribes, friendly tribes, and mostly cautious tribes, who had never seen a Westerner. The cameraman did a fantastic job getting and developing footage in a part of the world where keeping film dry was a major challenge. You have to see the film to believe that men would put themselves through such adversity, just to explore some new areas of New Guinea. You wouldn't find me there for ten grand a month.

I see dogbowl thought these explorers were wimps. I believe they traveled 700-1000 miles in seven months, three people died, they were near starvation several times, several people had to be air lifted to the hospital near the end of their journey, they were lost many times, ran out of supplies (eventually resupplied from the air), among head hunters many times, endured high and low temperatures with rain and wind (and mud), and bitten by leeches and flying insects for days at a time. The territory they went through had never been explored by anyone other than some native tribes, and I doubt some of them had even explored much of the isolated and wild jungle traveled in this story.

New Guinea is the second largest island on the planet. Yes, they had help from bearers, and were funded by the Dutch government. I don't see how they could be called rich. The support was necessary. It was a large and bold scientific exploration. They did receive air support of food and supplies, which were delivered at the peril of the pilots on several occasions. It's a very good story, which is probably the last of such adventures of its type. Yes, the story is missing the modern cinematography touch, and the narration is somewhat matter of fact, but it's still quite an impressive story.

There is a scene towards the end of this documentary that shows a woman with a baby suckling on one breast and a piglet on the other. That is just one of the many bizarre images that this really quite fascinating film delivers as it follows a team trying to cross the narrowest part of Dutch New Guinea. Assembling a small team, some bearers and half a dozen soldiers, three intrepid Europeans start off to cross four hundred-odd miles of dense, seemingly impenetrable, jungle where the white man has never been before. Initially using the navigable rivers, they meet villagers who are friendly enough to their visitors and who show them many of their festivals, religious and fertility ceremonies adorned with shrunken heads, human bones, tattoos and ancient mysticism. As the column moves inland, their progress becomes laboriously slow but there is still no shortage of tribesmen but many are often less friendly. They never appear threatening, more exuding a "please leave us alone" type of reaction. What does seem a little curious amidst all this wilderness, is that they run out of food! Luckily, they are in radio contact with their base and so can call in for resupplies of food and medicine. Perfectly willing to share the latter with the people they meet, they do appear to have a far more trouble-free journey than you might have expected amongst peoples who were as unfamiliar with them as with their technology, their cameras, guns and radio. Nature, on the other hand, was not always so benign and as they struggles across peaks over ten thousand feet high, their team shrinks, but they are determined to make it to the safety of the northern coast and for many, their first ever sight of the ocean. The photography is really quite astonishing, not least because it's sterling quality and it conveys so much of these people's behaviour in what looks like an entirely natural fashion. From large scale community activities to far more intimate childbirth rites; bodies covered in birthmarks and scars; villages beside rivers that survived as they had for generations, we seem to inconvenience them all as minimally as possible. This is one of those films that really emphasises man's mortality. Without their equipment, and the kindly and curious intervention of their various hosts, these travellers would almost certainly have perished at the hands of a vibrant, colourful and perilous environment that could quite literally have swallowed them all up. It's the kind of place that I hope we never revisit, and that these traditions are left to continue for many years to come - undisturbed by modern society.

Watching "Le ciel et la boue" (called "The Sky Above, The Mud Below" in English), I got the feeling that it may have been one of the last chances that the documentary makers had to do this; after all, how many indigenous cultures still live their traditional ways? At times, the filmmakers use some pre-conscious terms such as "savage" and "civilization", but we understand that they aren't actually trying to attack the people on whom they're focusing.

I will say that the parts about airplanes flying supplies in gave me the impression that the filmmakers wimped out sometimes. But overall, the documentary is a fascinating look at cultures which may not have survived much longer. I recommend it.

When I was growing up I imagined adventurers to be fearless daredevils who travelled into unknown lands by themselves. Boy was I wrong. Apparently the only people who could afford to travel in the older days were rich society men who you can bet would never carry anything by themselves. This documentary was the academy award in 1960, but when viewed by today's standards looks like it is full of a bunch of whimps. The "adventurers" never lift a finger themselves and when any sort of danger arrives they radio for help. Having supplies airlifted to you at the drop of a dime isn't very impressive if you ask me.