University of Virginia Library

CINEMA

'Expedition': Naive Heroism

By BARRY LEVINE

In 1969, Norwegian
explorer-scientist Thor
Heyerdahl led an international
seven-man crew across the
south Atlantic in an attempt to
prove that papyrus boats could
have linked the civilizations of
Africa, Central America, and
Polynesia. Such an explanation
would account for the marked
similarities between these
civilizations particularly in the
pyramids, religion, and boat
construction of the cultures.

"The Ra Expedition" traces
the archaeological discoveries
that prompted Heyerdahi and
others to reconstruct older
theories concerning the
world-wide migration of
cultures.

Although the film sometimes
gushes with U.N.
internationalism, and the
narrative sometimes sinks with
heavy metaphors, "Ra
Expedition" is surprisingly
interesting. There is a genuine
sense of participation in the
amateurish photography,
which was shot by two of the
crewmen. The color is
excellent, and the shaky
camera work, the bits and
pieces of the daily lives of the
voyagers, the proud shots of
the crew, the pets, and the
boat, all help to convey both
immediacy and a sort of naive
heroism.

The 1969 voyage of the Ra,
which is the ancient name for
the sun in both Polynesia and
in Egypt, ended a week short
of its destination when errors
in the ship's construction
overcame the crew's stopgap
measures, and it had to he
abandoned. Undaunted,
Heyerdahl, native boat builders,
and experts in ancient
shipbuilding remodeled the
craft and tried again in 1970.
The papyrus ship proved to be
more buoyant on the long
voyage than anyone had
expected: the reeds, when
swollen with water, became a
sealed mass that survived both
the mistakes of the crew and
assault by the ocean.

The film suffers, I think,
when it consciously strives to
construct the impression of
working close to the sources.
And staged shots, as well as the
occasional storm-and-lightning
music, detract from the
immediacy of the voyages
themselves.

(Now at the Paramount)