Moana (1926) User Reviews

Cultural Document

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 13 January 2016]

Moana was filmed in Samoa in the villages of Safune district on the island of Savai'i. The name of the lead male character, moana means 'deep water' in the Samoan language. In making the film, Flaherty lived with his wife and collaborator Frances and their three daughters in Samoa for more than a year. Flaherty arrived in Samoa in April 1923 and stayed until December 1924, with the film being completed in December 1925.

The youngest of the children Robert and Frances Flaherty brought with them to Samoa was their then-3-year-old daughter Monica. In 1975, Monica Flaherty returned to Savai'i to create a soundtrack for her parents' hitherto-silent film, including recording ambient sounds of village life, dubbed Samoan dialogue and traditional singing. The resulting "Moana with Sound" was completed in 1980, with help from filmmakers Jean Renoir and Richard Leacock, and first shown publicly in Paris in 1981.

The version I saw on Netflix was the sound version, and I can hardly imagine watching it any other way. Although there may be dubbing and it is not the original cast, this does not seem to hurt the picture (especially because I cannot understand what they are saying).

Maybe this is "docufiction", but it still has some level of authenticity that could not longer be done today. Samoa of the 1920s is not Samoa of the 2010s. Even if some scenes are staged or a little bit fake, it captures the people in about as close to reality as is possible. And for that reason, it is worth seeing if you have an anthropological interest. (I feel like it is more realistic than "Nanook", at least.)

1926's Moana indeed made waves with me! It was a pretty unique documentary set in paradise.

[ironhorse_iv · 7/10 · 26 March 2017]

With the recent surge for anything 'South Pacific' thanks to the 2016's Disney animation film 'Moana', I thought it was a great time to look back to one of the films that probably help influence it: the original 'Moana' from 1926. Originally, directed by Robert J. Flaherty of 1922's 'Nanook of the North' fame & produce by Paramount Pictures studio head, Jesse L. Lasky, the purpose of the film was to capture the same magic, he had making 'Nanook' in the Artic with the Inuit People, but except this time in the Oceania with the Polynesians People. They hope that audiences would be just as intrigued with the rich culture of the South Sea, as much as they were with the people of the Far North. However, it wasn't the case. Greeted with indifference during its initial theatrical run, the silent feature was rescued from obscurity by the director's daughter, who decided to record her own soundtrack for the silent movie in 1976 & also returning to the tropic islands to add additional voices & atmospherics. For the most part 'Moana with Sound' kinda work. The result is impressive, working through age and softness, bringing out detail on island life and the participants, displaying surprising clarity for a nearly 100-year-old film. Contrast is generally secure, while delineation doesn't solidify. Damage is still present on the source, but it's gracefully dialed down, leaving some mild scratching and speckling. While, 'Moana with Sound' doesn't represent the initial artistic intent. It did rescue the film from the depths of disintegration & expands on what was already a very fascinating feature. A documentary film rich in cultural history and importance that it was restored yet again, a few years later and put into the National Archives in Washington DC. For the most part, all three versions of the original film are pretty fine, entertaining films. I found Robert J. Flaherty did a good job for what he could had done at the time. He did put a lot of work, with the project, even choosing to live with his wife and their three daughters in British Samoa with the Savai'I tribe for more than a year, with Flaherty arrived in Samoa in April 1923 and stayed until December 1924, with the film being completed in December 1925. He did this all, by developed his film as he went along, in a cave on Savai'i. In the process, he inadvertently poisoned himself and required treatment after he drank water from the cave that contained silver nitrate, which washed off the film stock. The silver nitrate also caused spots to form on the negative, but thank god, it didn't destroy all the beautiful footage, he shot. Although the film was visually stunning, however, like his previous movie, he went well beyond the recording the life of the people of Samoa as it happened. He staged them, leading to some controversy if this movie is even a documentary, even if writer John Grierson first coined the term with this film. In 'Moana', there were many cases of Flaherty interfering & concoct with the people that being portray in order to make a more traditional tribal style movie. A good example of that is the way, the Savai'l tribe dress. At the time of filming, most Samoans, by this time were typically wearing modern Western-style clothing under the influence of Christian missionaries and spoke English. However, in order to produce a fictional account of ancient Polynesian life; he persuaded the tribe to don outdated traditional tapa cloth costumes for the film, as well, as have the women all go topless, while also, using potentially photogenic performers to use more body language. Not only that, but Flaherty also ask them to perform a coming-into-manhood ritual in which the young male lead underwent a painful traditional Samoan tattoo, a practice that had already become obsolete by the time, that they were filming. Those devices have led to Flaherty's films sometimes being categorized as "docufiction". For the most part, these manufacturing of mythology really didn't bug me, as it did help inform and educated the public of what the culture used to be. However, I didn't like how Flaherty needed to create fictitious family relationship in this ethnofiction movie in order to create drama. I get that, he was concerned that there was no inherent 'man vs nature' conflict that he used in 'Nanook' & 1934's documentary 'Man of Aran' in the islanders' way of life, to draw people in, but seeing the day to day basic of the culture should be captivatingly enough. The idea of staging a love story in paradise, between Moana (Ta'avale) & Moana's unnamed fictional fiancé (Fa'amgase), felt a little forced. It kills what the basics of the pure form of documentary, this little has left. Overall: While the film should be shown in Anthropology classes around the world due to its easy accessible and how it conveys lifestyle and ideas of a different culture. I just believe that dramatic should be limited in educational documentary like this. In the end, while "Moana" succeeds in some parts, it could do better in others. Still, it's a documentary worth checking out, regardless.

Another ethnographic documentary from Robert Flaherty...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 12 May 2023]

...this time focusing on Polynesian islanders, specifically the island of Savai'i in the Samoans. Most of the film depicts the gathering and hunting of foodstuffs, be it trapping a wild boar, fishing, catching a large sea tortoise, pulling up taro root, and in one famous scene, watching a young boy climb a perilously tall tree to gather coconuts. Everything leads up to a rite of passage ceremony involving dancing and tattooing.

Flaherty and his wife lived among the islanders for two years gathering footage. As in other films by the director, Flaherty staged some scenes, although ironically it was during a review of this film that the word "documentary" was first used to refer to movies. The version I watched was the beautiful 2014 restoration supervised by Flaherty's daughter Monica. It's known as Moana with Sound, as Monica went back to the islands and recorded ambient nature sounds as well as the chit-chat of natives in their own, non-subtitled, tongue, as well as some of their singing. This new soundtrack was placed over the silent footage from '26. After watching it, I would think the original film would be a bit less enjoyable without the sound. This movie was a hit on the exploitation circuit, where they played up the topless native girls.

exotic south seas... photography from 1926

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 14 March 2016]

Interesting mix of old (black and white) photography, with new, modern sound. In 1926, Robert Flaherty filmed and directed this documentary of Samoa. Lots of climbing up the trees for the coconuts. Beautiful (black and white) crashing waves, pushing water up through the volcanic cones. That volcanic cone looks very similar to the one on the south side of Kauai. But maybe i'm just being too cynical. Tattoo and dance rituals, mostly as we follow one young couple around. The photography at the beginning and the end is washed out, faded quite white, while the photography in the middle is almost too clear, too perfect. Had me wondering if there was some recent photography mixed in here. Who knows? The ceremonial mats that they unroll seem to be brand new, as are the wraps worn by the couple. Interesting film. The cards at the beginning and end tell us that Flaherty's daughter went back to obtain a soundtrack to accompany the original film. Flaherty must have known what he was doing... he was nominated for an Oscar in 1949 for Louisana Story. An interesting watch, whatever is really going on.

The First Use of Term Documentary to Describe Cultural Film

[springfieldrental · 7/10 · 20 February 2022]

The true definition of the cinematc genre 'documentary' has been debated since the early years of film when moving photographic images first recorded remote cultures living far from Western civilizations. Can staged events for film of long-ago abandoned habits still be regarded as a way of explaining how the ethnological practices of an exotic group of people live their daily lives?

Robert J. Flaherty first movie, 1922 "Nanook of the North," gave a glimpse of how an Artic Northern Indigenous people conducted their daily way of living. A couple of years later, contracted this time by Paramount Pictures, Flaherty and his crew set out to photograph a culture they assumed was untouched by modern conveniences in Pacific Samoa. Much to their surprise, despite the Polynesians living the life of tropical comfort, they were governed by a western-style form of government wearing contemporary clothing more like those found in Hawaii at the time. Still, Flaherty worked his magic by demonstrating how the island natives practiced centuries-old customs in his January 1926 "Moano." The movie's title was named after the male lead in the feature film, meaning 'deep sea, deep water.'

In a February 8, 1926, New York Sun review of Flaherty's work, John Grierson wrote, "'Moana,' being a visual account of events in the daily life of a Polynesian youth, has documentary value." This was the first time the term 'documentary,' taken for the French 'documentaire' was used to describe such a genre in cinema. Because of the way Flaherty manipulated the movie's characters, events and reenactment of their customs, today's critics are apt to label his work as a "docufiction," which describes filmmakers' managing the scenes filmed. Flaherty's justification in reenacting long-ago practices is done to give a better understanding of the exotic customs and natural events of these distant people.

The excitement of a majority of documentaries is to show how people survive against harsh elements or battle large beasts of nature in order to survive. Flaherty's initial observation of the Samoans was their environment offered no drama, that their way of living was relatively easy. So the filmmaker, besides capturing the stunning beauty of the tropical island, resorted to filming a way of life that was still labor-intensive in some respects. But he had to tweak other aspects of their day-to-day living to keep his viewers' interest.

Flaherty rearranged the members of the family he was following, injecting other Polynesians into the unit for their photogenic qualities and their acting abilities. Flaherty wanted to show a long-abandoned practice of introducing juveniles into manhood by the painful ritual of a body tattoo. He paid a teenager a large sum of money to be the guinea pig to undergo the ordeal. He also swapped the Samoan's modern clothes for traditional ones such as tapa cloth and topless attire.

A secondary documentary without the reshuffling of facts could easily have been following Flaherty's trials of filming with the basic visual technology available back then. Transporting 16 tons of filmmaking equipment, including color cameras and film stock, Flaherty's crew underwent quite an ordeal on this remote island. Beside camera malfunctions, Flaherty designed his movie to use the more vivid panchromatic black-and-white film, which he had to be develop on the island. Trouble was the more complex process of panchromatic unknowingly leached its silver nitrate into the water inside the cave Flaherty used as a darkroom. He drank some of the water, sending him to the medics to cure his ailment. He also found his raw film contained some spots on the negative, forcing him to discard several batches of footage.

Upon "Moana's" release, American audiences didn't warm up to the exotic scenes of the Pacific. But Europeans lapped up the tropical themes of Flaherty's feature film, assuring the future of documentaries could find an enthusiastic market for the newly-defined genre. In 1980, Flaherty's youngest child, Monica, who was brought over to Samoa in 1924 with her father, went back to record the sounds and dialogue of the island's village life. With the traditional songs of its people, Monica matched the audio with Flaherty's original, although much of the original film composite was denigrated. A few decades later, a more pristine and longer copy of 'Moana" was discovered. Matching Monica's soundtrack with the newly restored version presented the true essence of Flaherty's ground-breaking documentary.

Evolution of the Documentary

[boblipton · 9/10 · 30 December 2017]

Say the name and most people will think of the 2016 animated Disney feature. I just looked at Robert J. Flaherty's documentary about life in Polynesia; after all that time in the Arctic filming NANOOK OF THE NORTH, a couple of years with his wife and children in warm Samoa must have been a very pleasant working vacation. In the early 1980s, a version was released with a new soundtrack, but I looked at a version with none.

These days our concepts of documentaries are informed by an additional ninety years of development. Documentaries are compiled by interviews and delving into archives and by following the subjects around, waiting for something interesting to happen in a cinema verite way; anthropology is a well-developed discipline. In the 1920s, there were no such standards, everyone was inventing new techniques as they went along, Paramount hoped to recoup the money advanced Flaherty for the project, and Flaherty understood the rhythms and techniques of film -- its poetry, if you will. As a result, to the practiced eye, many of the events of this film were carefully staged and edited. Wait until about a third of the way through the film You'll see a youngster, Moana's younger brother, climb a tall palm, gather coconuts, and bring them down. Not only is the sequence edited, with another member of the family watching, but the camera's vantage shifts dramatically, from watching the youngster climb -- from afar -- to watching him twist the coconuts off the tree -- from a few feet away. Clearly this entire sequence was shot over several days.

On the other hand, there are several bits that clearly preserve actual techniques of the period: Moana and her mother making cloth; hauling a turtle aboard an outrigger; cleaning taro, freshly pulled from the earth.

If there is a message in this movie, it is that these people live closer to the earth and sea than the movie's audience. Even a rural audience in this period would be thoroughly civilized, from farm animals, to guns for hunting, to harvesters, to the movie projectors and screens that showed them this film. There is a message that the riches that these trapping of civilization bring are fine and dandy, but so is a coconut you have climbed the tree to get for your family and yourself.

A typical Flaherty reconstruction of the past

[psteier · 5/10 · 11 September 2000]

Customs of Polynesian natives on a Samoan island, centered on the daily life and on the coming of age ceremony of the young man Moana. It reconstructs Polynesian culture before the coming of Western culture, though iron blades are used. Daily tasks like cooking, fishing, hunting and gathering are most of the picture.

Mainly interesting for the material settings. Flaherty treats the Samoan life as almost that of a paradise - the only discomforts being wild boar and the pain of tattooing.