This film was written and directed by Robert Flaherty in 1934 and portrays the daily life of a family living on the Aran Islands off the West coast of Ireland near County Galway. This black and white film features a family (husband, wife and son) performing their tedious tasks in order to carve out a life on the barren rocky island.  This pseudo documentary represents more like an historical re-enactment within the genre of ethnographic cinema rather than a true representation of life on the island. Where this film falls short was it’s authenticity, with Flaherty taking liberties in truthful descriptions of their way of life.  In Man of Aran Flaherty tries to draw us into practice of the ‘noble savage’ and asks us to believe that this ancient way of life has yet to be tainted by western civilization.  

In order to show how the men of Aran battle with nature, Flaherty directs a shark hunt which has actually not been practised on the island for generations.  According to Hugh Gray, ‘the inhabitants had to be taught shark-hunting in order to supply Mr. Flaherty with a dramatic sequence.’ [1]  A similar hunting scene was filmed in his earlier movie, Nanook of the North in 1922 that pushed the boundaries of authenticity as well.  Flaherty tells the story of the Inuit’s survival in the harsh conditions of Canada’s Hudson Bay area.  In this film he re-enacted a walrus hunt in which the Inuit no longer practised.  In both scenes, the hunters are confronted with the elements of nature as a storm appears.  Both are long drawn out sequences, giving the audience a sense of real time and urgency. 

I felt he portrayed the Irish on the island as pure, untouched and hard working yet he presented them as too primitive and left me with a sense of ‘there’s got to be a better way.’   A good example of this was the scene where the family scavenges crevices in the windswept rocks looking for small handfuls of soil for their garden.  

Although there is an attempt to show us how hard life on the island can be, I wished that he had included the village life and some social and cultural behaviours. Flaherty does give the audience a good sense of the baroness and the harshness of the island through spectacular cinematography.   There are amazing shots of large waves thundering against the cliffs and dangerous turbulent waters below.  Putting all scripting aside, this film lets you imagine and feel what it was like to struggle everyday for survival while instilling in us a respect for Mother Nature.  Robert Flaherty catered to our expectations of the human struggle to survive but not to the reality.