juneebuggy I really liked this riveting tale of survival in the Canadian arctic. Just a great movie, different, and better than I was expecting. It takes place just after the 2nd world war with Barry Pepper playing a cocky bush pilot working in Canada's north. He is arrogant, brash and still suffering flashbacks (PTSD) from the bomb runs he made during the war.After delivering oil to a remote Inuit community he is asked to transport a young woman to hospital in Yellowknife as she is suffering from (assumed) TB. On the return flight the plane crashes -miles, -hundreds of miles from anywhere. After several temper tantrums and generally being an arse "Charlie" has to rely on "Kanaalaq" and learn to live off the land if they are going to survive and make it back to civilization as winter is fast approaching.Barry Pepper is excellent here and I should give a mention to Annabella Piugattuk who is equally good. This must have been gruelling to film because they really are in the north, the bugs, extreme climate and bleak, remote landscape. Beautiful too though. I enjoyed watching Pepper's character grow up and come to terms with himself and what he did in the war. He is so selfish and arrogant in the beginning and slowly comes to peace. A beautiful story. 11/26/14

caruso-40-531951 A few things to note. the movie was not filmed the US. Most of the animal scenes were real animals being eaten by the actors. Anabelle was not an actor, she was hired for her expertise in the landscape and survival AND her ability to speak English. The story was not written for Hollywood, it was written to highlight the way the Inuit and Yapik and Aluet survive. the scene in the bar with the drunk Native shows Charlie tell him "I'm not your brother", and later Kannala says"Walk well, my brother". The native people had to be family to survive. And finally, the cliché would have been if both survived and if we knew what happened after Charlie was "rescued". This was not a movie to be seen as a "hollywood production" it was a story made visual.

sraweber369 The Snow Walker is a wonderful tale of survival in an unforgiving setting. This film masterfully directed by Charles Martin Smith is about a bush pilot Charlie Halliday(Barry Pepper) is haunted by memories of the war and takes on a immature party attitude. He is assigned to take some drums to a spot on the Arctic coast where a party of Inuit give him some ivory to take a sick girl, Kanaalaq(Annabella Piugattuk). Well on the way to Yellowknife the plane crash lands in the middle of the arctic wilderness. At first Charlie is cavalier thinking he knows what to do and is not endeared to Kanaalaq. The story is how there love grows (not romantically but on a spiritual level)and Charlie grows as a man and becomes a different man.The acting is done well nothing over the top but very believable, the cinematography is breathtaking and the story is endearing.Grade B+

sddavis63 I would say without a doubt that this is perhaps the finest Canadian movie I have ever come across. The cast is strong, the scenery beautiful (the movie is set in Canada's Northwest Territories but I believe filmed in northern Manitoba, and makes full use of the exotic bleakness of the Arctic wilderness) and the story both interesting and emotional.Barry Pepper put on a fantastic performance in a demanding role as Charlie Halliday, an Arctic pilot who crashes en route to Yellowknife while taking a young Inuit woman named Kanaalaq (played very sensitively by an Inuit actress named Annabella Piugattuk) suffering from TB to the hospital. Kanallaq speaks little English, and so Pepper does have to carry a big chunk of the story (or at least the dialogue) and he does so very well. The two have to find a way to survive in the middle of nowhere, with an Arctic winter about to set in and little hope for rescue. The movie traces the growing bond between the two as they face this situation together, a bond made more noteworthy by the fact that Charlie seemed to have little use for the Inuit as the movie opened. You see the bond developing, and you suspect there's sadness ahead, as Kanallaq gets progressively sicker as time goes on. Back in Yellowknife, James Cromwell was effective in a limited role as the owner of the company for which Charlie flew, confident at first that he would be found, then he also gradually losing hope as time goes on.Some might feel that the movie sputters a bit at the end, going out with a whimper rather than a bang, but I thought the ending was quite effective. After Kanallaq dies, Charlie continues his trek through the snow, until finally discovering Kanallaq's people, who (in a scene shot from a very long distance) welcome him into their encampment. I have rarely found a movie as emotionally moving as this one. There's a certain similarity to the powerful Andean survival adventure "Alive." This movie is a very different movie, with a feel all its own, but it's every bit as effective.