Beach Battle: Inuit Hunters Confront a Huge Walrus in the Arctic

In this thrilling scene from Robert Flaherty's groundbreaking docudrama "Nanook of the North", we witness the incredible courage and cooperation of an Inuit walrus hunting party. Led by the skilled hunter Nanook, the men stealthily approach a herd of walruses basking on the shore. Nanook spots the sentinel of the herd and freezes each time it raises its head to survey for danger. Inch by painstaking inch, he crawls ever closer to his quarry, until he is almost upon them. With a burst of speed, Nanook leaps up and hurls his harpoon with all his strength, burying it deep in the hide of a 2000 kg bull walrus. The enraged animal bellows and thrashes in the surf, threatening to drag Nanook to a watery grave. Nanook strains with every sinew to hold fast to the harpoon line as the walrus heaves to and fro. Desperately, he waves to his fellow hunters on the beach. They race across the sand, grabbing hold of the line to join the titanic tug-of-war. For long minutes the men dig in their heels, pitting their combined might against the floundering leviathan. Slowly, with each heave on the line, they drag the exhausted walrus further up onto the beach, until at last it succumbs. The men erupt in cries of triumph and relief. Wasting no time, the hunters set upon the carcass with their knives, carving off huge slabs of blubber and flesh. For this brief moment, the threat of starvation that perpetually stalks the Inuit is forgotten as they feast on the bounty of the hunt. The walrus will provide food, fuel and materials to sustain the community for days to come. While likely staged for the camera, this scene nonetheless captures the life-and-death struggles and vital spirit of collaboration that allowed the Inuit to survive in the unforgiving Arctic environment. Through Flaherty's lens, Nanook and his fellow hunters become enduring symbols of human resilience, ingenuity and brotherhood against the harshest odds nature can pose.