MovieChat Forums > Eskimo (1934) Discussion > The ending (spoilers)

The ending (spoilers)

posted 11 years ago by Anna_Screengazer
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So what exactly is Mala's fate? He said he was going to "die like a hunter", and his wife said she wanted to be with him "even in the Long Sleep", so their flight to the drifting ice floe definitely looked more like a deliberate suicide act than an attempt to run away into hiding. Mala wasn't even carrying any gun.
The policemen, on the other hand, looked absurdly happy, wished them good luck and said something to the effect that "the current will bring them both to safety" and "we'll be able to track him back in the spring". And then feel-good music starts to play.
What gives?
Or is this supposed to illustrate the profound lack of understanding between The White Men and the indigenous people?

[–] bron-tay 11 years ago

Just watched it. I got the impression that Mala was ready to suicidally go off by himself, but his wife joined him, wanting his arms around her even in the Long Sleep. THEN, when it was clear they were not going to be hunted but allowed to escape, they decided to continue life together.

I understood the mounty's last words as "He'll be able to trek it back in the Spring," meaning Mala would be gone for the winter and rejoin the tribe within the year. The other mounty said something like "What are we gonna tell the chief?" and the answer was something like "The truth -- that he's not as brave as he thinks." I didn't quite follow that, but I hadn't seen all the parts about the chief. I turned this movie on way early in the morning and I was drifting in and out. But I think the ending was "happy."

On the other hand, there's this from the TCM page:

Mala's performance as the victimized main character is genuinely moving and the film has a classic structure not unlike the great stage tragedies of Shakespeare.

And this from the 1933 NY Times review:

How Mala cheats the Royal Canadian Mounted men in the latter scenes is another tragic note, with which the picture ends.

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