Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

cstotlar-1 I saw this film years ago at the Cinematheque in Paris, along with "Moana" and "Tabu". We think of Murnau as a supremely gifted director and Flaherty as an extremely talented documentarist. In fact, Flaherty was involved in all three films, finally directing "Moana" in the end. All three directors ended up going in quite different directions and somehow Van Dyke's marvelous film got lost in the struggle. In fact, his film survived any competition and is still wonderful to watch. It helps to remember too that Van Dyke was very much a studio director, Murnau was quite foreign to the system and Flaherty was not only painfully slow but hardly ever compromised with other directors, not to mention studio heads. Van Dyke came out with a great film and it's all his and his alone.Curtis Stotlar

Michael Morrison Woody Van Dyke was a prolific director, with many well-loved and classic movies helmed by him. "White Shadows in the South Seas" is one of his best, showing a mastery of camera use and a skill in leading his cast.Monte Blue was, likewise, a very prolific actor, but his lead role here has to be one of his best, and one of his best performances. He was very affecting, very touching, and even handled the pre-Yakima Canutt fight scenes well.There is a realism to this movie that caught my attention, even though I am very familiar with the silent genre, having been, for example, a regular for years at the old Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles when it was run by the great John Hampton.As others have commented here, the beauty of the location joined with the quality of the acting and directing make this masterpiece a cinematic experience, and I urge everyone to grab any opportunity to watch it.

Ron Oliver Spreading from island to island, the WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS corrupt every culture they encounter.This unfortunately obscure film, produced by MGM right at the cusp when the Silent Era was giving way to Sound, is a fascinating look at the vanishing way of life to be found in the South Pacific Islands. Its beautiful, vivid photography justly won the Oscar for Best Cinematography.This 'Camera Record' was directed by W.S. Van Dyke, the Studio's on-location master. The film's prologue states "Produced and photographed on the natural locations and with the ancient native tribes of the Marquesas Islands in the South Seas." The footage depicting the pearl divers and the coconut tree climbers is particularly noteworthy.Monte Blue gives a very fine performance as a derelict doctor who finds himself acclaimed as a white god on an island of gentle, friendly natives. His despair at the arrival of brutish Caucasian traders in this idyllic paradise is riveting. Mexican actress Raquel Torres, in her film debut, is poignant as the island maiden who captures Blue's heart.

zpzjones This is a fine silent film done in the tradition of Robert Flaherty's docu's but with a scenario/script. Monte Blue in his finest silent performance is a doctor who has become disenchanted with his existence & has taken to the bottle. He meets Sebastian, a modern day opportunist cum pirate. He and Monte clash and later Monte is shanghaied by some of Sebastian's thugs and tied to the wheel of a schooner which in the title cards is infested with bubonic plagued dead bodies. The schooner is set adrift in a storm and Monte gets loose from the wheel and tries steering the boat to safety only to end up on some rocks on an uncharted tropical Pacific island. Monte later after the shipwreck meets some native islanders who have been insulated from the outside world-civilisation. They adopt Monte as one of their own and he learns to live with them and has a renewed interest in life. As time goes on Monte(his character is called Lloyd)& the natives become as family. One day Monte goes pearl diving and realizes the value of such an abundance of pearls. Greed overtakes Monte causing him to throw his newfound existence with the natives as well as their trust in the garbage can. He sets out a signal fire atop a hill to be rescued. The only boat to see his signal is Sebastian & his men. They arrive in all of their colonial like arrogance and get the native women to smoke cigarettes & the men to be lazy. Later Monte & Sebastian meet a final time before one of Sebastian's men shoots Monte dead.This is a fine film to introduce a novice to silent films. It's what these films were all about. Fine story telling without any recorded dialogue. Beautiful travelogue like photography(in Tahiti by the way). A 10 out of 10 from me.