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The Eagle Huntress Reviews
While this really isn't a documentary per se, it is shot so beautifully, with such amazing scenry, plus an inside look at a fascinating culture. And, the relationships are touching.
Perfect score, perfect scenery and animals
The scenery in this isn't the only thing of beauty, the relationship between Aishlopan, the eagle huntress and her father is so endearing, and Aishlopan is adorable. I was just willing her to succeed all the way through, so thrilled that the Eagle festival panel judged her fairly. It would be great to have a catch up with her in a few years to see what she is doing. I just loved that Universal 'look' that Aishlopans Mother gives her Father when she starts talking about going to the Eagle Festival :)
- The Eagle Huntress is a majestic adventure. - To be honest, films about hunting don't really appeal to my kale-munching vegetarian self but The Eagle Huntress had a touching message with magnificent visual exposition that even this hippie couldn't argue with. The story follows the impressive teenager Aisholpan Nurgaiv. She's a nomadic Mongolian who hails from a long line of champion eagle hunters. And just to be clear, she hunts wild game with her trained eagle, she doesn't hunt eagles. Aisholpan's father, Rys Nurgaiv, is training her to become the first female eagle hunter in Mongolia. That's enough awesome badassery to justify a trip to the theater but the film really shines in its intimate portrayal of the culture and home life of the Nurgaiv family. Narrator Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) alerts us to the cultural and familial significance of what we're seeing on screen. This format worked wonderfully when showing the family packing up their temporary home, removing the covering, and loading all of the load bearing poles into a rather rusted truck. As The Eagle Huntress progresses, we also see how children live, go to school part-time in boarding schools and have fun. Aisholpan thrives in all of these environments. Although the documentary is beautiful, the message of female empowerment and pioneering spirit is rather explicit and lacking in nuance. It's clear that this is a directorial debut for Otto Bell. At times it felt as though the scenes were staged. A scene where Rys asks his father to bless Aisholpan and her brand new eaglet, though heart-warming in intention, is very stiff and lacking in authenticity. Luckily the film captures our astonishment as we tag along for the eaglet capture, a male-dominated tournament and eventually the true test of will - hunting foxes in the freezing mountains. As Aisholpan faces each of these tests, we are met with the opinions of a select group of elders who doubt her at every turn. The elders' judgements exemplify the message of Aisholpan's triumph over inequality. It gets pretty heavy handed but it's a good message so it's hard to take umbrage. I'm generally not a squeamish vegetarian but at the end of many majestic swoops and tender eagle pets, there were bloody animal innards for me to turn away from. Despite my queasiness, Aisholpan's ability to deal with animals pre and post blood with literal strength and metaphorical tenderness blew me away. She was like a real life Katniss from The Hunger Games or maybe, more fittingly, a real life Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I giggled along with her girlfriends who asked how she could touch eagles and I felt the same admiration. She declared that she wasn't afraid of them. It's so simple and so beautiful to find strength in this young girl's grace. I was in awe. ---------- This review was first published on Narrative Muse, http://narrativemuse.co/movies/the-eagle-huntress, and was written by Melissa Balint. Narrative Muse curates the best books and movies by and about women and non-binary folk on our website http://narrativemuse.co and our social media channels.
Stunning photography and fascinating insight into the life of nomads, who live as their ancestors have lived in the harsh Altai mountains, but also have solar panels and wear Le Coq Sportif tops. Since it is a documentary maybe one judges by different standards, but I found that it didn't go very deep into the tension between the new world, where girls are encouraged to follow their dreams, and the old, where men hunt and women stay at home and cook. This could have made for some powerful drama, but was reduced to some caricature comments from the old hunters and a few scowls when Aisholpan turned up for the first Eagle festival. And for her to win outright at her first attempt smacks rather of the world of Disney. An enjoyable enough watch though.
What a great story. The actors in this movie are superb animal handlers. Watch that girl and her father ride. Notice the way she effortlessly mounts her horse with one hand while controlling a full grown eagle in the other. Wow. I was certain this was a "docu-drama," re-enacted with actors. Not so. Someone heard that a girl in Kazakhstan was training to be an eagle hunter and documented her attempt. No Hollywood endings here -t hey did not know the outcome in advance. When they show the judges scoring, you are seeing the actual judges as they voted on that day. Their facial expressions, even the dramatic pause waiting for the final judge to lift his score, all are the actual judges on that day, recorded for posterity.
great true story of this young girl and her courage to become an eagle hunter as part of her family tradition
Heart-warming story of this young woman's vision and accomplishment. Humor, tenderness, and tenacity. Just the right balance of displaying the curmudgeons who begrudged her gift. And breathtaking scenery. I only wish we'd seen it on a large screen!
Gorgeous film about a culture superficially quite different from that of South Central Pennsylvania. The conservative old men who want to keep women "in their place" and resist a girl taking up a traditional male activity appear to be a worldwide phenomenon, though.
I'll start by saying the cinematography by Simon Niblett is extraordinary. The scenery is gorgeous to begin with, sure, but it takes real skill to capture the shots he did, and that's what first and foremost makes this a film well worth seeing. The storytelling and pace from Director Otto Bell is also engaging, and it's such a unique tale. And who can forget the heartwarming relationship Aisholpan Nurgaiv has with her father Rys, both playing themselves? They are amazing people. There is a feminist message that is empowering to girls here, and it's a movie suitable for all ages. The film did take some heat for being described as a documentary, and while it's based on true events, it feels staged in portions and is a story told after the fact. Some get quite bent out of shape over that, and to them I would just say get over it and enjoy it for what it is - a beautiful movie.
Loved it. A wonderful story, beautiful bird and breath-taking scenery! A great watch!
Outstanding. Breathtaking scenery, wish I had seen it at the cinema rather than DVD but marvellous nonetheless. A well told story of a lovely family supporting their daughter to achieve her dream.
Despite its touching and powerful message as well as its unique glimpse into a foreign culture, The Eagle Huntress felt a little too long and thin of an experience to get full credit for its artistic splendour and societal commentary. Overall I don't regret watching this film, in fact, I feel it enlightened me in many ways. But you would be hard pressed to get me to watch it again anytime soon, as the slow, rural life depicted has a hard time staying consistently engaging for its given runtime.
The animal slavery. I remember when this film was considered for the Oscars race. But some people were saying everything from the film was staged, instead of reality. I was like, had no idea what to say for such accusation since I haven't seen it yet. That's when I just had watched 'Brothers of the Wind', an Austrian documentary style feature film on the almost similar theme. So I had lots of expectation on this one, but now, after watching, in fact, while watching itself got frustrated by it and also very happy it did not make into the Oscars. I expected a Mongolian tale and yes, it was, but about a Kazakh family. Except the subtitle for the language spoken in the film, there was an English narration that voiced by Daisy Ridley in the background to explain the events properly. Because this is not an interview kind of documentary, but follows a couple of characters to their adventures. Yep, almost entire film did not look like a natural event, but pre-planned. It's a directional debut for the filmmaker. Definitely he has the capacity, but did not pick the right theme. It's about a nomad family living in the nowhere of Mongolian grassland. The film opened with by saying the eagle training art is older than many historic events and its people the region has seen. So this little family has no son since the art is only passed on to them for generations. But the 13-year-old Aisholpan is interested to follow her father's footstep. That's where it all begins when she begins her training, following to have her own bird before competing in the biggest annual event in the nation. I don't know when the last time I rated a film this low, especially for a documentary film, probably this one is the first. I hated everything about the film since I'm a big animal fan. Lots of people who saw it appreciating without the brain. I wonder, would they all appreciated as well the abduction films like 'Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story', 'Abducted: The Carlina White Story' et cetera for not revealing the truth, but the crime committed in it, just like an eaglet was abducted in this. For me it looked like about an animal abuse and animal slavery. Everything they did in the film were for pleasure, for the record, for honour and of course for the film-making. Since humans are civilised and at present in the modern world, we had ended many inhumane practices and this is one of them should be abolished as soon as possible. If a farmer uses a cattle (domestic animal) in his field means he's intended to feed the millions. So do you think snatching an eaglet (wild animal) and training it would do the same or any worth. In fact, it is to kill other animals, like the fox. If an eagle hunts a fox in the natural world, that's very natural, but doing it for human is a big imbalance. DON'T SUPPORT SUCH FILM GUYS. Hats off to the Academy Awards for snubbing it. The competition that showed in the film was good, but I really heart broken when they went on to prove even more than that in the third act. It is not an inspiring film, but disgusting. If people/animal fans go after on a fiction feature film like 'Wiener-Dog' for depicting animal(s) badly, why not this documentary film based on the live- real. Please don't show it to the little kids. This film joins the list of those a very few I hate badly such as 'Man vs. Wild'. I regret watching it, but I would have not known such bad practice is still exists in the 21st century. If you are an animal lover like me, stay away from it. Instead, I highly, strongly recommend a beautiful, inspiring, message film 'Brothers of the Wind'. So totally ignorable film. 01/10
Beautiful scenery, very realistic filming of tradition of eagle hunting , and a breakthrough for female empowerment.
On the subject of a daughter-father film ....I saw this documentary just days after the U.S. election. It tells such a powerful story of a 13 year old girl in Mongolia whose father supports her desire to become something that only males aspire to do: bond with a wild baby eagle in the sport/culture of hunting together on horseback for a period of 7 years. After that time, the eagle is set free again. It is never made to be 'a pet', but rather a type of companion with the human in chasing rabbits & foxes in the wild throughout the year for the consumption of the meat to feed the entire nomadic family as well as sell the pelts or trade them for necessities. The use of various small digital cameras with high-tech capabilities made for a tremendously beautiful film. Drone footage over the countryside of Mongolia is magnificent as well as some Go-Pro footage directly from the body of an eagle swooping over the terrain. Neither was overused but merely added to the overall texture of the story unfolding over a long period of time. And I cannot think of another father-daughter film that really warmed me like this one did. 'The Eagle Huntress' really packs a good dose of feminist punch for anyone who feels the need to see more positive female energy in film - or in life in general.