Love, friendship, humanity, are themes that always pops up on the screen here and there. Sometimes these special matters gives as a result not really good movies, just a shallow and unemotional examples. But that is not the case with 'Snow Walker, The'; a good, compassionate and even gripping story of an encounter of two different persons from two different cultures, a white man (Pepper) and an Arctic native young woman (Annabella Piugattuk). Charlie Halliday (played by Pepper) is a pilot who lives in North Canada and in one of his many travels along this deserted region, he is asked by a group of Arctic fishermen to help a young and sick woman (Piugattuk) to be attended by a doctor in the city where he lives. He accepted the task but during the flight a malfunction causes an accident and he and his passenger have to struggle for survive in the Arctic tundra. A simple story line with a very good development. All the time we follow the process that turns the simple minded, egoist Charlie Halliday in a man who finally discover within himself the importance of being generous, high spirited and all the virtues of companionship and human respect. The great point of this process is that the movie is never a boring and sentimental tale. On the contrary, there is many moments of suspense, and edge situations, that make the viewer bits his nails. Pepper is good at the lead role but newcomer Piugattuk is fantastic. Director Charles Martin Smith - a good actor, who made great works as an actor before, especially in 'Untouchables, The' by Brian de Palma - captured the essence of the story and his work as a director here is a success because he never loses the point and, finally, succeed to tell us a story that is about the shock of cultures and the stupidity of all prejudices concerning the difference between people, nations and cultures. In fact, we must remember that Charles Martin Smith was the lead actor in celebrated 'Never Cry Wolf' directed in 1983 by Carrol Ballard, a movie with almost the same background. He learned the lesson! So, 'Snow Walker, The' is one of these movies not made with blockbuster ideas. But a serious, well intended product, that shows to all the audiences that we can still find intelligence in the movie industry.
Review of The Snow Walker
