Kon-Tiki (1950)

Narrated by expedition leader Thor Heyerdahl, this hour long feature presents quite an impressive observation of just how half a dozen sailors embarked half way across the Pacific Ocean aboard a raft in which no metal or even wooden nails were used. Their plan was to sail, or follow the currents, all the way from the coast of Peru to Polynesia and they had to carry all that they might need. That’s because ancient mariner mythology suggested that fish only lived near the coast and that there would be no chance to harness drinking water from the rain. Of course, as they travelled, they discovered that not only where these “truths” little more than old seamen’s tales, but that there was a plethora of creatures both above and beneath the waves to accompany, feed - and occasionally threaten - them on their perilous journey. From the film, it appears that Poseidon was sympathetic to their cause and so the ocean appears to have remained somewhat benign for their three month trip, but there were still some razor-sharp reefs to be negotiated and swimming (or bathing) was not always sensible if you intended to come out of the water with all the limbs you went in with. The vast majority of the film they shot survived and that makes for a interesting travelogue supplemented by an informed and enthusiastic commentary that illustrates just how ingenious these early navigators were, when equipped with neither compass nor means of motive power. The ultimate point was to prove that these islands could have been populated from the east and not, as assumed, the west. I think he proved his point.