Dark side of Big Miracle

A reading of the books “Freeing the Whales” and “Big Miracle” by Tom Rose, as well as various newspaper accounts, point out something quite dark about the screenplay of the movie “Big Miracle.”

In reality, it was “Inuit” Eskimo Roy Ahmaogak who first sees the stranded whales. It was “Inuit” Eskimo Marie Adams who was the first reporter to conduct interviews at the whale stranding site, doing interviews with “Inuit” Hunter Billy Adams and two North Slope Borough biologists with a TV crew from the local NSB government. There was no white reporters from KTUU-TV from Anchorage at the start of the whale story.

The screenwriters of “Big Miracle” removed from existence the Inuit Eskimo’s accomplishments at the very beginning of the whale saga. The screenwriters chose to make this more a caucasian movie about white people coming to the rescue in the beginning of the movie. There was no outsider white people at the meeting of Inuit whale hunters to talk them out of harvesting the whales. It was strictly an Inuit decision, done without white people giving any persuasive speeches. There was no Greenpeace person in that meeting at all.

In my opinion the movie “Big Miracle” is racist and bigoted, bringing to mind the old cowboy and Indian movies. In the “Big Miracle“ version, Inuits are given the credit for cutting holes in the ice, while the all knowing and caretaking white people make all the major discoveries and decisions. Such was not the case. The “inspiration” that the screenwriters seems to have got from the books is how to marginalize a race of people and their accomplishments.