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67
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45
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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86
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71
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44
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75
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53
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49
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65
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xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
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43
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69
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Fast Runner, The
Universal acclaim
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 51 votes
Read user comments
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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
Language(s): Inuktitut (with English subtitles)
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 7.8 (out of 10) based on 51 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
John B gave it a10:
How can you not like this film? The artistry, the storyline, the photography - it's all fantastic.
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.
