The Snow Walker(2004)- User Reviews

We recognize him as the world-weary WWII pilot. He's tasted death over Germany, the 5" thick steaks of Montreal, and the numerous girls of the Yukon. He flies now to pass the time and pay the bills. He is us, he has killed other human beings, and there is now no solid soul-ground beneath his feet. He is spiritually stranded and so, of course, once stranded for real in the Arctic, he wouldn't think twice of abandoning her to 'find help'. In a part of his mind, we are all abandoned, or, as another character relates, we are 'all on our own'.

But, what motivates her? Time and time again, this young Inuit, gravely striken with tuburculosis, appears by his side to rescue him from his own ego and folly. Why? Toward the end of the film, she relates a story: Its the story of a family against the Arctic Hardness. How their God tricks them by using their own ego's against them. Of how the hardness takes them, one by one. Unlike him, this landscape is all the young woman has ever known, and yet it has taught her something valuable. When winter closes in, you must be willing to give your lifes-blood for another. That, just in being human, that other, your brother, warrants such consideration. In such a philosophy there can be no abandonment of another. The real abandonment exists right outside the walls of your hut.

This is a great story that translates perfectly to the film. See it.