Kon-Tiki

I recently saw this movie at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. The start of the movie was delayed in lieu of the HUGE crowd of people waiting in line to buy a ticket in the hot sun. They had three showings, and when I went on Sunday it was the last showing. When the movie started there were only a handful of empty seats, which is very rare for the OMOA. I have seen many docudrama's on TV about events at the turn of the 19th century. The entire set, cars, planes, and clothing date back to that age. That also applies to this movie. One thing I loved about this movie is they also told the story leading up to the launch of Kon Tiki. The film made it very clear that the entire crew knew this was a very dangerous voyage. Yet knowing that everyone of the crew had no doubt about going on the voyage. That is the entire scientific community predicted it was a suicide mission. Everyone on the Kon Tiki was assigned to a task, navigator, radio operator, engineer, photographer, etc. The real story is about mother earth and what she had in store for the crew of the Kon Tiki. There was not one dull moment in this movie. The epic fights among the crew. The scenes of joy, laughter, and extreme danger. The main theme is about several guys that had nothing in common, and as the voyage progresses they banded together as mates.IMDB advised that there are four scenes that did not actually take place on the 1947 voyage, and that the movie is not historically accurate. They say this was done to beef up to movie, and make it more melodramatic. I will have to agree with Hollywood this time. Those four scenes did not change the outcome of the voyage in anyway, and only made it more entertaining.Another note is that this docudrama was so....good when it played at the Oklahoma Museum of Art that at the end of the movie everyone in the theatre stood up and applauded. And YES I did purchase the Blu-Ray DVD from Amazon.

Let me deal with a few technical matters first: The Norwegian audio version on the Blu-ray disc runs for 2 hours, the English dub for only 96 minutes. I have not examined what was cut but I did try the dub in parts and the mix of accents sent me quickly back to the Norwegian, (which has a lot of English in it too). The DVD is not a full copy, it only contains the shorter English dub not the full length Norwegian version.The film however is an astonishing achievement and follows the book surprisingly closely. The whale shark and shark incidents are over-cooked for dramatic effect as compared to the book and the throwing out of the wire never happened as far as I could see. The unfortunate parrot was not eaten by a shark but just swamped by a wave. Despite this making such a film in the open ocean was no easy task and despite the large amount of CGI it comes over very well. The acting is good and the picture and sound excellent. All in all this is a fascinating relook at a subject that is still unresolved. Heyerdahl makes numerous points that cannot be brushed away. Perhaps we will never know the truth but this astonishing, almost foolhardy voyage should certainly light the fire of adventure in us all. I met Heyerdahl years later on Easter Island and he presents his theories with tremendous conviction. Unfortunately this a A locked but I am sure a region B release with English subtitles will appear eventually. A very fine disc.

I'm casually familiar with the Kon Tiki story, and have not read the book. I had seen something on TV about his movie while traveling and it piqued my interest. I finally purchased and watched the blu-ray version this week.Because I haven't read the book, I can't say if the movie followed the true story or not. I can say that I enjoyed the pace of the movie and appreciated how it sounded on my home theater with a recently upgraded subwoofer. The english version is short, about an hour and a half, but is a good adventure story.My 10 year-old daughter watched the entire movie with me (though we fast-forwarded through a bloody scene at the 1 hour mark). Because we got a late start and her bedtime came to soon after we began, we watched in two sittings -- the first 30 minutes (when financing and crew were being secured) followed by the rest. I was surprised that she came back since the first half hour was mainly dialogue; but, I had told her the basic plot so I think that helped keep her interest. After it was over she said that she really liked it.My 6 1/2 year-old son did't stick around too long during the first 30 minutes (dialogue); but, he did sit still for the entire second sitting. The fact that he sat still says a lot and I was quite surprised.Over all, a great adventure story and good family movie. I recommend skipping a few minutes at the 1-hour mark (english version) if younger children are watching. There is also *some* mild profanity but nothing too concerning.

I just saw the latest Kon Tiki film that debuted in 2012at the Nashville Film Festival. It was an inspiring filmthat brought out raw emotion for the six men that made the101 day journey together. Thor was a calm leader that kepthis wits about him even under the toughest of conditions.And it was incredible that he could not swim! I am not sureif all of the facts are true in this film, but it wasextremely well done. The actors are fantastic and engaging.Truly one of our modern day adventurers, Thor Heyedahl hada vision that he shared with the world. This is a must seemovie. Even if you doubt his theory that South Americanscrossed the Pacific to land in Polynesia, the story is onethat you will enjoy and keep you on the edge of your seat!