What will the Alaskan Arctic look like in another 40 years? Rachel, great post! I will have to catch this flick, but the actual memories from those on the scene, and these reflections of one engaged in the science, will probably stick with me more.
Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Skip to content. The film stars Drew Barrymore, who plays a Greenpeace activist, and John Krasinski, a television reporter covering the story.
Photo: Craig George Over three weeks, the rescue effort grew from local to international. Kunuk thrust the harpoon into the whale, triggering the darting gun that would fire a bomb. Eli Solomon followed with the shoulder gun, to fire another bomb. The whale disappeared beneath the surface. We felt the reverberations of the two bombs come up through the water and the ice.
We waited…. Kunuk raised his hands above his head. It was an instant kill. Johnny and Claybo embraced. They were joyous. This whale had brought its gift to their crew. They would now have the honor of feeding the community. Two months later, the Aiken crew joined with three other successful crews.
Crew members gathered around the prepared whale, joined hands, and prayed. The feast of Nalukataq was about to begin. All who came would be fed generously. All would leave with generous portions to take home with them — as they would in the upcoming feasts at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
A blanket made from the skins of one of the successful umiaks was brought out. The first people to be tossed during breaks in the afternoon serving were children. Come night, in the time of 24 hour sunshine, the youth and adults took over the blanket. In the movie Big Miracle , Malik is the captain who guides the paddling of the umiak toward the whale in the opening scene. He is a fictitious Malik, but is named for a real Malik who I have been told harpooned more bowheads in his life than any other hunter.
In the movie, Malik proves to be the leading force in the whale rescue. The real life Malik would play a similar role, but with different nuance. Tomorrow, I will introduce readers to the real Malik, together with Roy Ahmaogak, who found the three gray whales while out scouting in the hope of spotting bowheads. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery.
Alaska Public Media. The wind has shifted to the west. Kunuk studies the advancing ice. Kunuk and crew — on their way to safe ice.
They needed more. We waited… … in just seconds, the whale rolled to the surface, flipper up. Big Boy Neakok performed his famous flips. Two gun incidents reported in a week at Anchorage schools. At the end of Big Miracle, we learn the spoils of the whale-freeing publicity frenzy: the membership to Greenpeace doubled in the years following. Rachel based on real-life activist Cindy Lowry certainly got what she wanted out of the efforts.
The same goes for movie-viewers. Dolphin Tale resulted in new technologies and prosthetics that are still useful today. Still, raising awareness for the whales has some value, and is not a bad consolation prize. Your Good Partner in Biology Research. View All pathways. John Pingak as Malik drips with a quiet strength whose presence shores up the understanding of his native culture and young Ahmaogak Sweeney as Nathan whose believable wide-eyed innocence entrances Carlson.
Ted Danson, J. McGraw, fairly bursts with malevolent delight at the prospect of drilling in the wilderness and using the whale incident for his own needs, until, gradually and remarkably, it is for the needs of others than himself.
Special mention should be made of the wonderful Kathy Baker as his wife who quietly rolls that first snowball of an idea to help that becomes an avalanche of good will. There are so many others with roles from critical to delightful. Dermot Mulroney, in his second frigid Alaskan role, is fine as a National Guardsman, as is Vinessa Shaw as the Reagan aide who convinces the president to act and whose real life equivalent married the real life equivalent of the National Guardsman.
Tim Blake Nelson brings his usual quirky groundedness to the role of a naturalist, Rob Riggle and James LeGros are incandescent scene stealers as two brothers from Minnesota with a novel deicing machine. Neely also writes a blog about writers in television and film called No Meaner Place.
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