Search - Kon Tiki on DVD

Put this DVD in your player and see REALITY television

Eric J. Anderson | Ankeny, Iowa | 09/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Kon-Tiki won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in the early 1950s. This one-hour feature documents Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's voyage across the Pacific Ocean in a balsa-wood raft, to simulate how South American natives might possibly have voyaged west and settled in the islands of Polynesia.

Crude, black-and-white grainy 16mm film, simple English narration. The production is bare-bones. But I've seen this film two or three times. Instead of "reality TV" which is far from reality, this is reality. Five guys who set out in a boat they did not know would be able to survive the distance, finding out by hard experience what it might have been like for any ancient mariner who tried to do the same.

Many days were calm, and the crew could lash the steering paddle down, letting the wind and the current carry them toward their Polynesian goal. They could get in a basket below the water line and watch the ocean life, or float lazily away from the main raft in a rubber lifeboat.

Every morning they got up and picked up the flying fish that had landed on the raft and been stranded. Breakfast! At other times they speared and clubbed dolphin fish (not dolphins) for a change of meat. They caught many sharks, mainly to discourage them from following the raft. They worried about whales and other large fish, but were never troubled by them.

In about three month's time, they arrived in Polynesia and were driven toward the coast of a small island. They very nearly were wrecked on the reef. It was by no means certain that they would make it safely to shore, but finally the raft came to rest and they were able to unload the important equipment, set up on shore, and radio their successful landing and their position. They met natives (wearing Western clothing) and eventually a boat was sent to retrieve them.

It is a simple story, told in a straightforward way. It doesn't seem especially dramatic, but it is authentic. Five men in a raft, surviving the elements, testing themselves, reaching their goal and a place in the history books."

Excellent movie

popcorn | Wisconsin- United States | 05/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw the second of his movies "Ra" and Ra2" in the theaters when I was just a small boy. then I got to go to Norway and visit the Kon tiki museum. So for me this was a treat to see. but my kids 7 & 10 where glued to this movie. afterwards we pull out the world map and looked up everything on the Net. You have to like Documentaries though!

I hope the other movies will be released soon."