Harsh conditions for a Canadian Wilderness Family

THE SILENCE OF THE NORTH (1981)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I am a sucker for frontier life in the days of the 19th century or the early 20th century. You show me gorgeous scenery of the wilderness and a log cabin in the middle of nowhere, and I am hooked (something tells me that I might have been reincarnated from a frontiersman or farmer from that period). Films like "Heartland" come to mind immediately, and the beauty of such films is their depiction of the gritty, harsh realities of said living. "The Silence of the North" is another stirring, amazingly shot example. Though the story is curtailed a bit, it is never less than impressive in terms of characterization if not scope. 

Based on the true story of Olive Frederickson (played by Ellen Burstyn), Olive is a young woman taken in by Walter (Tom Skerritt), an ambitious if unreliable trapper who wants to settle down somewhere north in the Canadian wilderness. They marry, build a log cabin, and Olive consistently gets pregnant. Before long, after an inexpensive purchase of two sledding dogs and the hopes of trapping muskrats, situations in the freezing cold north get more and more arduous. Walter doesn't feel like he's failing but food and supplies are coming up short (especially after getting robbed by a wandering, desperate thief who becomes so numb to the cold, he doesn't feel the loss of his big toe). The situation becomes dire as the starving dogs are killed by Walter because food is scarce, and their first infant child is always crying and mistakenly places bullets to close to the fireplace! After the loss of their cabin, the couple and their baby find their way back with the help of the kind John Frederickson (Gordon Pinset) who shares his home to them - he falls for Olive and runs into her infrequently throughout the early 1900's up until the Depression. No surprise that Olive eventually married John. 

"The Silence of the North" has a frantic, hurried feeling about it, as if Olive herself and Walter were pushing themselves to get out of one scrape after another and move on to the next wild, cathartic situation. Of course, a longer running time would have befitted these perilous events, including a couple of family members passing along the way. The movie is so hurried that it doesn't even allow Ellen Burstyn, an actress who nakedly displays sympathy, to emote properly while traumatic events encompass her surroundings. I would hardly think that is by design, or true to the nature of the real Olive Frederickson (who co-wrote an autobiography, along with Outdoor Life magazine editor Ben East, back in the 70's on which this film is based). To be fair, some readers of the book have said the book is not long enough either, so there you have it. 

Some of "The Silence of the North" can get overwrought mainly because the events seem compressed, resisting the leisurely narrative flow of such a different, slower time where we can catch our breaths. A couple of scenes involving the threat of hungry bears and wolves are undercut slightly by a less than subtle music score. Still, as a picture of living in the rough terrain of the Northern Canadian wilderness and all of its drawbacks, "The Silence of the North" is exquisite filmmaking by documentary director Allan Winton King and some of the images in it I will never forget (the raging icy waters or the log cabin engulfed in flames, or the thief running in the distance after a major snowfall). Tom Skerritt bravely doesn't sentimentalize his character, a trapper who still loves the life despite the difficulties. Kudos to Gordon Pinset as John, one of the kindest, gentlest characters I have seen in a movie in quite some time. There is so much to savor that you can't help but feel Olive's emotional highs and lows thanks to Ellen Burstyn's often understated performance. "The Silence of the North" is at its most powerful when conveying the stillness of its environment and how it affects the people.