Robert Flaherty Man of Aran (1934)

Man of Aran was made in 1934 about the daily routine for the islander community of Inishmore off the western coast of Ireland.Showing the continue conflict of man versus nature. Flaherty’s goal was the re-creation of a culture that seems to be on the edges of modern society.Documenting their daily routine as they go about their struggles for survives as we see a boy fishing from a high up cliffs. Farming on poor farmland and hunting for sharks in harsh conditions.It’s well documented that more reconstruction was done for man of Aran then Nanook of the north. For example the family were not related they were picked because they look best on camera. It didn’t really matter that much because they were still islander that have been living on the island their whole lives.
 It portrays the characters living in the past even though most of the old fashion techniques they show had been left behind by the 1930’s. Flaherty was trying to repeat the very considerable success of Nanook with man of Aran. But he was hit with the problem that he found it very hard to actually get the funding to make the movie. And when he finally did it was not close to the amount he was hoping for which meant that were it came to film the usual vast quantities of film he would able to film as much as he first wanted to. Even though he have two cameras this time round where in Nanook of the north because of all the travelling around there was only one camera to use for the filming.

Like with Nanook of the north the film follow the family unit that are the norm of that community as they go about their business. Where Nanook family contain his wife children and hunting party man of Aran contain a smaller nuclear family of a father, mother and their sons. The man of Aran is Coleman “Tiger” King the strong and experienced father. Maggie Dirrane plays the caring mother who farms and makes the oil and Michael Dillane is the son who spends most of his days fishing.

Flaherty tries to make this film more dramatic the Nanook in the opening title they say that the island is at the mercy of the desperate environment that surround them.unlike Nanook where there was a contrast narrative going on explaining everything that going on man of Aran only has a few not explain details of what happening. The scene where Maggie is gathering seaweed it’s not explained that she going to used it to help the potatoes grow.

 The film constantly reminds the viewers that struggle with the elements leading up to the final act of the shark hunt and the storm. Unlike with Nanook of the north money had to pass hands before the islanders would go out shark hunting. The islander had stopped the hunting of shark 50 years pervious because it was too dangerous.Plus there was no reason to do it anymore because the main reason they hunted sharks was in order to use their fat as oil for heat and lighting. The oil was later replaced by paraffin so the hunting stops.This is show as an outdated practice by the fact that they still used harpoon to kill the shark as if they still had carry out the hunt they would have used guns or had upgraded their tools to something that work better. Of course even if they did have the better equipment Flaherty would have encouraged the use of harpoon in order to make the scene more exciting. It’s at the very end the big storm blows in and puts the lives of everyone in the boats at risk. In the end the boats get smashes and the islanders walk back home just like with Nanook with the dogs there a real danger as the threat of death hangs over everyone involved.

The criticism Flaherty got for man of Aran was the absence of political and economic concerns like absentee landlords that plagued the community with economic depression that was a present problem. Going out of his way to film something that the islander didn’t even do anymore all in order to make for more exciting viewing seem like a waste. Flaherty film what he could see not what was going on in the behind closed doors. Stating "he photographed what the camera wanted to photograph" and that should be the end of it. The film did leave a big legacy behind as books and plays have been written about the film and the film is shown on the island to visitor.

Bibliography

AID=/20050925/REVIEWS08/509250301http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Ma-Me/Man-of-Aran.html#ixzz2DjNvFAF3   Cinema year by year David Thomson