OK, why? Look, I don’t have a problem with a 13-year-old handling carnivorous raptors; I don’t have a problem with a 13-year-old competing in an adult world; I don’t have a problem with a girl humiliating the fossilized chauvinists around her; I don’t have a problem with an event less populated than your average 5k fun run suddenly thrust into the international spotlight. The question of “why?” that I ask pertains to focus – why is this film a documentary and not a dramatic recreation? Why do we have this footage? Why did a camera crew annoy a tiny isolated Mongolian family for a year on the off-chance the 13-year-old girl might become the greatest eagle whisperer of her age? What was the camera crew actually there for? Because it couldn’t possibly have been, initially, at least, for our heroine, Aisholpan Nurgaiv.
In the mountains of Mongolia, north of the Great Wall, south of Siberia, the people are few and far between. Your nearest neighbor isn’t likely to hoof the dozen miles or so of elevated tundra between you just to borrow a cup of yak milk and dish the dirt on the only other person you know. Generations upon generations of these nomadic families are eagle hunters, which is to say they collect eagles and train them to hunt stray rabbits and foxes exposed on the frozen land. And the hunters are all men, the kind of men whose forefathers forced ancient Chinese Donald Trump to build a big wall in the first place — no word as to who paid for it.
A girl wants to be part of this boy’s club; she has eagle hunting in her blood. Well, this is what you get when you don’t have cable – ain’t nothin’ goin’ on but the rent. And by “rent,” I mean nothing. Possession-wise and people-wise, these mountain Mongols really have very little going on in their lives. Aisholpan Nurgaiv has but a winning smile and dad’s heart. She sees the hunting; she loves the eagles. She wants in. Would you deny her? Her life is six-to-eight people in a tent on weekends and a dorm/school that resembles Nelson Mandela’s prison on weekdays. Were I she, I’d hunt foxes bare-handed just to relieve the boredom. But dad handles her correctly. He trains her privately; he talks with the elders; he makes sure she’s ready, but he doesn’t skimp on the “paying your dues” part. “You want to hunt? You want an eagle to train? Well, go get one. There’s the nest. Here’s a rope. I’ll hold you. Good luck.”
Aisholpan is genuinely sweet and shy. She seems a tad overwhelmed, but dad walks her though the procedures. I kinda wish she showed a little attitude. This is what you get when you film a documentary and not a drama; you get the feeling here that if you told Aisholpan, “sorry, kiddo, it’s not happenin’ ,” she would just smile, shrug and sidle away. I kinda want to see some three-toothed, fur-wearin’ old-school misogynist to say, “no girl, no way, no how,” and Aisholpan return
the volley with, “HEY! Genghis Kan’t. You got a Mongolian beef with me? Bring it, old man. When’s the last time you raided an aerie? When the Great Wall was just a partition?”
The Eagle Huntress is definitely a feel good film. What there is of it, at least. Honestly, there wasn’t much here, and I don’t know much about Aisholpan other than where she lives and her love for eagles. I wasn’t wild about Daisy Ridley’s narration … although the amateur nature of her delivery and words were the best indicators that this film is documentary and not drama. I’m also a little skeptical about calling this 13-year-old the Michael Jordan of Mongolia quite yet; it seems like the eagle does all the work. Then again, I could say that of horse racing as well. Speaking of which, it bothered me that Aisholpan neither named her eagle nor her horse. Dude, dudette, without them, you’re not even in the contest. If you can keep your children from being bored silly during the copious down time, this is an empowering film. There are both gender and age barriers crossed here and the lesson that merit should trump bigotry is one worth repeating again and again and again, especially to the target audience.
♪ Roles keep on slippin’ slippin’ slippin’ into the future
Roles keep on slippin’ slippin’ slippin’ into the future
I want to capture an eagle, in aerie
I want to compete with fogies
Let my talent carry me
I want to try (oh, yeah)
Yank the Mongols into the future♫
Rated G, 87 Minutes
D: Otto Bell
W: N/A
Genre: How man controls nature in the techno-challenged part of the globe
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Insecure jr. high girls
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Entire classes of Trump voters: misogynists, bigots, haters, fundamentalists
♪ Parody inspired by “Fly Like an Eagle”
