NFR Project: 'Tabu: A Story of the South Seas' (1931)

NFR Project: ‘Tabu’

Dir: F.W. Murnau

Scr: F.W. Murnau, Robert Flaherty

Pho: Floyd Crosby

Ed: Arthur A. Brooks

Premiere: March 18, 1931

84 min.

Tabu is one of a small number of films that have been dubbed “docufiction”. This designation represents films that incorporate documentary observation and fictional narrative. It’s a slippery slope – many feel that such dramas are fundamentally dishonest, in that they impose a preconceived narrative onto a natural situation. Such was the dispute between the creators of Tabu.

F.W. Murnau was one of the silent era’s great directors, and he wanted to make a film set in Tahiti. He knew the great documentarian Robert Flaherty, whose Nanook of the North was a primary example of docufiction (Flaherty was criticized for staging some sequences of that movie), was familiar with the region. The two decided to collaborate.

They went to the South Pacific. Flaherty filmed the first few scenes, but then he found himself by Murnau’s arrogance and insistence on having his own way. Flaherty spent most of the shoot processing film. Meanwhile, due to Flaherty’s difficulties with his cameras, Murnau brought out the cinematographer Floyd Crosby to film the rest of the picture.

Flaherty thought Murnau’s conception of the film was short on ethnography and long on implausibility. Murnau overruled him, and Flaherty eventually sold his share of the film to Murnau.

The film is set on the island of Bora-Bora, and we are treated first to a look at the idyllic existence of its natives. We are introduced to the protagonists, the young man Matahi and the girl Rehi. This is interrupted by the arrival of the aged warrior Hitu, who decrees that Rehi is to become sacred to the gods and as such is untouchable -- tabu.

This frightens the young lovers and they escape together, looking to avoid the curse that follows upon disobeying the tabu. Matahi finds works as a pearl diver in a French colony, and the two fit in awkwardly to the decidedly more complex and uncaring modern reality (Matahi has no sense of money, to begin with.) Onto this scene comes Hitu, who swears to kill Matahi if Rehi does not return to Bora-Bora with him.

She submits, and a distressed Matahi swims after the two of them, but the struggle is too great and he drowns. The last image is the little boat, sailing off to the horizon.

The film was shot silent, but the creation of the film soundtrack while Tabu was being made means that it was released with a musical soundtrack and select sound effects. (The film was originally made in color). It was not a box-office success. Tragically, a week before the movie opened, Murnau was killed as the result of a car wreck.

It’s a beautiful film, and it captures a culture now long vanished. It failed to make back its investment, but it did win Floyd Crosby an Oscar for his cinematography.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Flowers and Trees.