NFR Project: 'The Hunters' (1957)

NFR Project: “The Hunters”

Dir: John Marshall, Robert Gardner

Scr: John Marshall

Pho: John Marshall

Ed: John Marshall

Narrated by John Marshall

Premiere: 1957

72 min.

This exemplary documentary doesn’t condescend. It doesn’t preach or make generalizations. It is simply a faithful, unrelentingly visceral account of one group of people living by their wits in the most primitive of conditions.

John Marshall was an anthropologist and documentary filmmaker who imbedded himself with the !Kung tribe in Namibia, on the fringe of the Kalahari Desert (the so-called Bushmen). He learned their language, got to know them individuals, earned their trust. He wandered as they wandered, living in the wild and scraping by on roots, berries, and the occasional influx of fresh meat.

This documentary could have been Disneyfied – made humorous and palatable. Or, it could have been pretentious and haughty. Marshall goes neither route. He respects his subjects, and presents their extraordinary lives in a very ordinary way. His narration is simple, straightforward, and descriptive. He does not project his own concepts onto his subjects. The result is a valuable portrait of people still living close to prehistory.

These are the seeming last of the hunter-gatherers. The women gather food, providing about 80% of the group’s diet. The men are fated to provide the remaining 20% in the form of protein, meat. Their lives revolve around catching and eating prey. They use sophisticated poisoned arrows; they are expert trackers and strategists.

The film opens by outlining the structure and routine of the group. Then four men set out together, determined to bring down some game. They hunt diligently, and finally they wound a giraffe. The animal runs from them, and they spend five days chasing her. The giraffe, exhausted, falls to the onslaught of their spears. They skin and butcher the animal, and recruit help from the base camp to being the bounty back to the tribe. They have nine more days of food.

Marshall delineates the characters of the men he studies. He illustrates character through action. Interestingly, when the men return, after the distribution of the meat, the travelers regale the group with the story of the hunt, with all its vicissitudes and trials. Sharing valuable survival information in the form of a story displays an innate desire of humans to tell their stories – whether around a campfire or on a movie screen.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Incredible Shrinking Man.