I first saw THE SILENT ENEMY back in 2001 when it was released on DVD by Milestone Films and Image Entertainment. Back then there was no need for a disclaimer about it “being a product of its time” and that it should be viewed “as a flawed though beautiful, suspenseful, and well-intended attempt to honor the Ojibway people”. The movie was in 1930, and remains today, a remarkable achievement that needs no apologies. Although written and directed by non Natives and patterned after Robert Flaherty’s NANOOK OF THE NORTH, the film makes no claims to being a documentary (as NANOOK did) but rather a recreation of a time in the Ojibway tribe’s history before the arrival of Europeans in North America.
The movie was shot on location in Ontario and Quebec and utilizes a completely non-White cast who, along with the filmmakers, endured great hardships in recreating a story of trial and perserverance concerning the Ojibway’s search for food during a famine (the title refers to hunger) that drove them further and further North from their traditional homeland which was just South of Hudson’s Bay. It was shot during the particularly harsh winter of 1928-1929 where temperatures at one point reached 40 degrees below zero. Everything in SILENT ENEMY from the birch bark canoes to the clothes and the animal hide teepees were completely authentic and were made by the then current descendants of the Ojibways.
Woven into the movie’s migration saga is a fictional love triangle (thus further distancing SILENT ENEMY from NANOOK) that was hoped would give the movie more mainstream appeal to an audience in 1930. Most of this plotline was removed when the movie was edited down so that it could be used as an educational film in schools. For years that edited down version (including an added on narration track) was the only version available to see. Finally in 1972, film preservationist David Shepard located a full length tinted and toned print in the vaults at Paramount (the film’s original distributor) and it was acquired by the American Film Institute who began the task of preservation. They premiered it at AFI in 1973.
The original THE SILENT ENEMY VHS and later DVD featured an organ soundtrack that was taken from the original 1930 score which greatly enhanced the viewing experience. That release also featured a number of special features giving background on the making of the movie and the people involved with it. After a few years, this edition became no longer available and all there was to represent the film were cheap Alpha Entertainment dubs of the old educational version. Now Flicker Alley, as part of their Flicker Fusion series, has given us back the original print and it remains a movie that once seen, cannot be forgotten. This Blu-Ray release comes with a booklet and two new soundtracks to choose from.
The Capsule Critic 