Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Fast Runner, The

Universal acclaim
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 50 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Paul Apak Angilirq
Directed by: Zacharias Kunuk
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 7, 2002
DVD: February 11, 2003
Running Time: 172 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Natar Ungalaaq, Sylvia Ivalu, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Madeline Ivalu, Paul Qulitalik, Eugene Ipkarnak, and Pakkak Innushuk
Evil in the form of an unknown shaman divides a small community of nomadic Inuit, upsetting its balance and spirit. Twenty years pass. Two brothers emerge to challenge the evil order: Amaqjuaq, the Strong One, and Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner. (Lot 47 Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Nearly three hours long, and deliberately paced at that, this first feature ever in the Inuit language is a demanding experience. But the rewards for those who risk the journey are simply extraordinary.
Read Full Review >Variety Lisa Nesselson
The first-ever screenplay written in the Inuit language, Inuktitut -- and the first time's a charm.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Don't miss The Fast Runner. If you do, you will deprive yourself of not only one of the most intriguing feature-film projects in decades and enough plain-spoken anthropology for three credits at Harvard, but one of the most flat-out entertaining movies of the year.
The New York Times Dana Stevens
Not merely an interesting document from a far-off place; it is a masterpiece.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
It is a ripping yarn and a spectacularly new and odd vision.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Some may find it slow. I found it utterly spellbinding.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
So elemental in its means yet so cosmic in its drama, it could herald a rebirth of cinema.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A landmark movie that becomes a priceless entryway into a distant land and its people, few of whom will ever seem as foreign and far away again.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Patrick "Flick" Harrison
This is quite possibly the best Canadian film of all time.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
An experience so engrossing it is like being buried in a new environment.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
A gorgeous, engrossing, utterly alien and fresh movie that has the human truth and impact of classic Greek myth and the overwhelming beauty and mastery of the greatest epic films.
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Exciting not as ethnography but as storytelling, as drama, and as filmmaking.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo
An authentic and thrilling glimpse into Inuit culture and tradition.
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
It's a difficult film to follow and at 172 minutes is maybe a half-hour too long. But simply as a sensory experience The Fast Runner is amazing.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Paul Malcolm
The first REALLY great mythic film of the summer has arrived.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
One of the most enthralling three hours you'll ever spend at the theater.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The perfect antidote to the summer heat in Austin, more refreshing even than a dip in our chilly holy waters of Barton Springs.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
More than once during The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat), it's easy to forget you're watching a movie.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
This long (nearly three hours), revelatory movie is both a thrilling adventure about endurance and survival, and an elegiac examination of centuries-old tribal culture, fast-fading in the new millennium.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
It is an important, thoroughly bewitching work of art.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Loren King
Magically transports the viewer across time and space. As it does so, it becomes a humbling reminder of the universality of the human experience.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
If you're put off by deliberate filmmaking (or subtitles, though the movie doesn't have much dialogue), you're in the wrong spot. If not, you'll see why voters gave "Atanarjuat," as it's officially called, a 2002 Oscar nomination for best foreign film.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
At times it's plodding and inchoate, but there's certainly nothing else like it in the movies right now, and it has at least one great sequence.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Not only is it a reintroduction to a fascinating culture that has survived 4,000 years in a remote and most inhospitable climate, but it's also the first film ever directed by an Inuit filmmaker and featuring an all-Inuit cast.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Director Zacharias Kunuk captures that feeling well, but he never quite develops it into a theme epic enough to fill Atanarjuat's scope. His film is by turns mesmerizing and trying, with enough of the former to make the latter worthwhile.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
By all means, buy a ticket to The Fast Runner, but don't go expecting a masterpiece; actually, in its first hour, the dramaturgy and staging of scenes set in igloos are cramped and amateurish.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Its refusal to draw solid lines between "good" and "evil" characters is more sophisticated than the psychology of most current commercial pictures. It's well worth a trek to a theater adventurous enough to show it.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
It's an endurance test. Though never boring, the movie is a fairly long slog through the snow.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 50 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Meredith P. gave it an8:
Unique film that shows a way of life.
Paul H. gave it an8:
gotta agree with Dan C but this is a unique movie well worth watching. those 2 or 3 scenes are memorable & will stay with you for a long long time.bound to be still watched 50 years from now and a reminder of cinemas importance in depicting other worlds.
Stan B. gave it a9:
I've been reading "The Iliad". It wasn't mluch of a switch to go from Ancient Greece and Troy to the Canadian tundra. A worthy epic!
Bill E. gave it a9:
One of the best movies I've seen in the last 5 years. It took a couple of minutes to adjust to the video rather than film production, but then I sat back and marvelled in delight. I recommend this to all of my friends.
Leticia H. gave it a1:
i watched this film in my grade 12 sociology class, and most of the class snuck out somewhere in the second hour, not to return. I did watch the entire film, and i tried to be objective as my teacher was absolutley enthralled by it. I have to conclude tho, that the only thing that made it worthwhile watching was reading all these reviews after and laughing at the insulting ones and hearing hints of sarcasm from the critics. Truly i was bored by it. I have seen snow before and although some things can seem beautiful a million times over these film makers did not seem to make an effort in that way. I am not biased because i love hollywood movies so much and that is what i was expecting..in truth i neither love hollywood nor expected it, but the content and plot while perhaps true were not uplifting to me. to use the teen term; same crap, different pile. if this film was edited i would be interested to know what they filmed that could possibly have been worse than what they left in. it gets a one becuase it had the potential, with the story line to be a captivating film. i did learn more about the inuit culture, but i do beleive it would have been more interesting in a textbook.
Sio L. gave it a10:
This is a brilliant film that captures the best and worst of human nature... sometimes in the same characters. Once you get past the fact that it is filmed (as far as I can tell) entirely in natural light, and is therefore lacking in Hollywood-style smoothness, it is captivating and potent. I rented it, tonight, and when I return it, tomorrow, I'm going to *buy* a copy.
D. P. gave it a10:
This was a brilliant film. Although I enjoyed the narrative, I am completely amazed that people can live in that kind of environment. An excellent movie.
