Last night I watched Kon-Tiki which is about the expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands in a raft which took place in 1947. Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl wanted to prove that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times, although most anthropologists believed they did not. “His aim in mounting the Kon-Tiki expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to those people at the time, that there were no technical reasons to prevent them from having done so. Although the expedition carried some modern equipment, such as a radio, watches, charts, sextant, and metal knives, Heyerdahl argued they were incidental to the purpose of proving that the raft itself could make the journey.” The film is quite interesting because it describes how Heyerdahl came up with this idea and how he desperately looked for fundings when no one believed in him. It has also several thrilling set pieces: there is a powerful storm; a tense, blood-soaked shark attack; a close encounter with a whale; and a deadly reef to navigate. Besides, there are beautiful pictures of the sea and sea animals, and the Earth. However I did think the film did not focus enough on the human part of the expedition, on the crew’s feelings and emotions. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile watching just to get a sense of wonder !

I would now like to see the documentary about the expedition, also called Kon-Tiki which was produced from a write-up and expansion of the crew’s filmstrip notes and won an Academy Award in 1951.