KON-TIKI

Norway, 2012,
Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Gustaf Skarsgård
Directed by Joachim Ronning, Espen Sandburg.

Older audiences may remember the stories of Thor Heyerdahl’s epic journey on a balsa raft across the Pacific from Peru to French Polynesia to give proof of his theory, derived from Polynesian legends, that ancestors sailed from South America and settled the islands. Theories to that time favoured migration from Asia. Heyerdahl’s expedition took place in 1947, April to August. The film of his voyage won the Oscar for Best Documentary.

So, now the background to the voyage, the voyage itself and the consequences are dramatized over sixty years later.

This is an old-fashioned kind of film, of heroics against the odds, of an indomitable leader who had a vision which no hardships could block. It is a Norwegian production but filmed in English in Scandinavia, Bulgaria, Malta, Thailand and the Maldives. It looks good, with plenty of photography at sea, fish, whales, sharks, phosphorescent creatures.

We are introduced to Heyerdahl as a young boy prepared to take risks, falling through the ice and rescued but refusing to promise his father never to take risks again. Shift to French Polynesia, where Thor and his wife Liv, are living amongst the locals doing ethnographic studies. It is here that Thor discovers the raft voyage of ancestor Tiki 1500 years earlier.

Shift to New York, 1947, where Thor is unsuccessfully trying to persuade editors and publishers to back him. Huge Pepsi Cola neon signs are seen twice seeming to indicate that Pepsi did sponsor the voyage, but it is only product placement sponsoring this film.

Heyerdahl comes from Viking countries. He is tall and blond but not a heavy or hefty build. But, he is determined, assembles some friends in Peru and builds the raft, made only of the materials Tiki would have used. However, they takes some food supplies, a radio and a camera. The point to be made was that this kind of raft could have gone with the tides to Polynesia.

The main part of the film is the voyage itself, storms, menace from a whale, the pursuit by sharks, being becalmed, the logs absorbing water and beginning to rot. There are also the inevitable tensions amongst the men, especially when the engineer harpoons the whale and the danger of capsize, and when one sailor takes a shark aboard the stabs it, the blood drawing other sharks. Audience attention is grabbed particularly at these crisis moments. Otherwise, interest will depend on interest in sailing, in the sea, in Heyerdahl’s single-minded determination.

In the background is the tension between Thor and his wife, his not returning home to his family, his driven life, always on more quests (which he did until his death in 2002).

This film serves as a tribute to Heyerdahl and his crew (who had adventurous lives afterwards as we are informed at the end).

1. Thor Heyerdahl and his reputation, his achievements? The Kon-Tiki voyage? The film, the book?

2. The prologue to the film, the ice, the boys playing, skating, Erik and the rescue? The urge to further risks?

3. Thor Heyerdahl and his wife? Polynesia, 1937? Research? Living with the islanders? The bonds? The experiences, the Elders, the boat and its strength? The theory that Polynesians came from the east instead of from Asia? Heyerdahl and his excitement? The beauty of the Polynesian islands, the sea?

4. New York, 1946, his visiting the publishers, his apartment, his friends, the mockery, the sailor and the raft and the drift? Hans overhearing? His work with refrigerators? His interest in the voyage, hopes, from the engineering requirements?

5. Thor, his wife at home, the phone calls, his boys, the disappointments in his being in New York? His making the decision for the voyage?

6. Getting the tickets, going to Peru, the hotel, the costs? His plan, the crew? The logs and building the raft? The specifications? The tikis, the food requirements, the sextant? radio, bringing the camera to the raft?

7. The Peruvians authorities’, the errors, reality, the reputation of Peru and the support?

8. The men, their background, Scandinavian, their personalities, Viking history, sailing in their blood? Thor Heyerdahl and his not being able to swim? Accepting his leadership? The tensions, his managing?

9. His strong personality, his vision, determined, even sacrificing his family? His ideas, theories, the facts? His motivation? With the men, doubts, faith? Examining the maps, using the balloon, the radio and connections, the papers? Experiencing the maelstrom? The sail and his reliance on the Tiki?

10. The men, the background of the war, soldiering, killing? Sailing background? Erik and his past? The ethnographer, his studies, photos? Hans and his contribution to the voyage?

11. The whale, the film, the harpooning, Hans and impulse, the blood, the danger? The reactions? Testing for blood, the sharks? The bird?

12. The wood rotting? Hans and his plea?

13. The map, the stillness of the water, the need for winds, loss of contact with New York? The maps?

14. The reef, Hans, their coming ashore? The achievement?

15. The academy award for the best documentary of 1950, the filming on board the raft? The books?

16. Thor Heyerdahl and his wife, the breakdown of communications, the separation? His subsequent life and marriage? His subsequent career on the sea?