{"id":25720,"date":"2012-05-04T15:11:37","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T22:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=25720"},"modified":"2021-02-03T11:30:49","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T18:30:49","slug":"moana-1926","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=25720","title":{"rendered":"Moana (1926)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;The deepest wisdom of the race has said that manhood shall be won through pain.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Poster-183x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"183\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-25721\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Poster-183x300.jpg 183w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Poster-78x128.jpg 78w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Poster.jpg 275w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 183px) 100vw, 183px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA Polynesian youth named Moana prepares to marry his mate by undergoing a series of rituals.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Documentary<\/li>\n<li>Native Peoples<\/li>\n<li>Robert Flaherty Films<\/li>\n<li>Silent Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nRobert Flaherty&#8217;s commissioned follow-up to his groundbreaking documentary <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=24391\"><em>Nanook of the North<\/em> (1922)<\/a> was this similarly episodic look at the lives of natives in a land still largely free from Western influences. As with <em>Nanook<\/em>, Flaherty took great liberties with his storyline, deliberately recruiting actors to play family members, and requesting that a painful, lengthy, recently outdated tattooing ritual be revived for the purposes of filming. Overall, <em>Moana<\/em> remains a less fulfilling documentary than <em>Nanook<\/em>, primarily because of a problem Flaherty himself hadn&#8217;t anticipated: the Polynesians weren&#8217;t engaged in the same kind of man-against-nature survival tactics as their Arctic counterparts. Indeed, their only &#8220;enemy&#8221; appears to be wild boar. While it&#8217;s fun to see Moana and his brother spearfishing and shimmying up coconut trees, and women neatly creating fabric from pulp, these isolated scenes in and of themselves don&#8217;t create much dramatic tension. F.W. Murnau&#8217;s overtly fictional <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18955\"><em>Tabu<\/em> (1931)<\/a> offers a much more nuanced variation on the same theme, and is my recommended pick as &#8220;must-see&#8221; instead. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An intriguing (albeit semi-fictionalized) look at Polynesian culture<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Making-Fire.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Making-Fire.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25723\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Making-Fire.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Making-Fire-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Making-Fire-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Tree-Climbing.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Tree-Climbing.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25722\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Tree-Climbing.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Tree-Climbing-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Moana-Tree-Climbing-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a look simply for its historical status as one of Flaherty&#8217;s earliest films. Listed as a film with Historical relevance and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary&#8217;s book.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0017162\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1926\/02\/08\/archives\/the-screen-nanook-of-the-south.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jonathanrosenbaum.net\/1975\/12\/moana\/\">Jonathan Rosenbaum&#8217;s Review\/Essay<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The deepest wisdom of the race has said that manhood shall be won through pain.&#8221; Synopsis: A Polynesian youth named Moana prepares to marry his mate by undergoing a series of rituals. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Documentary Native Peoples Robert Flaherty Films Silent Films Review: Robert Flaherty&#8217;s commissioned follow-up to his groundbreaking documentary Nanook of the North (1922) was this similarly episodic look at the lives of natives in a land still largely free from Western influences. As with&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=25720\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25720"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68299,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25720\/revisions\/68299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}