Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian explorer, adventurer and scientist best known
for his famous voyages aboard the Kon-Tiki and the Ra II.
By crossing both the Atlantic and the Pacific in simple native crafts, Heyerdahl
showed that ancient peoples could have crossed much greater distances than was
previously imagined and that trade and cultural exchange could have taken place
between Africa and the Americas as well as between Pacific Islanders and South
Americans.
Heyerdahl’s account of his Pacific crossing, Kon-Tiki (1950), has been published in 67 languages.
The documentary film of the voyage won an Academy Award in 1951.
And… now in 2012 a motion picture has been made for the big screen about Thor Heyerdahl and his companions crossing the pacific from Callao in Peru to the islands of Polynesia with no other modern means of help than a Balsa Raft similar to those used 1500 years ago to cross the oceans. The reason of the journey was to prove his theory that people from South America could have settled in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times, to do this he builds a balsa raft to sail from Peru to the Polynesia across the Pacific Ocean along with five other men.
The movie is based on the documentary that Thor Heyerdahl and the crew filmed during their travel in 1947.
I really liked the film. It’s well made and illustrates nicely a proud part of history through one of Norways greatest explorers in modern days.
However there are a few deviations from the original crew. In the 2012 movie 3 of the crew were his friends from childhood, whereas during the original movie none of the crew members knew eachother up front.
Apparently no crew members brought modern help like steel wiers (although this is shown in the 2012 film).
Check out the Film Trailer
More Information on Thor Heyerdahl:
Wikipedia
Tracking the Entire World
Thor Heyerdahl – Sea Routes to Polynesia
More Information on Kon Tiki:
Wikipedia
Picture from the original Kon Tiki expedition:
See the authentic documentary made by Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon Tiki expedition in 1947.
PS: The film is about 1 hour long.
See authentic color film clips from the Kon Tiki Expedition in 1947.
Links to the Kon Tiki Museum in Oslo:
Kon Tiki Movies
1950 – IMDB
2012 – IMDB
Kon Tiki Filmen – Norwegian Only
Thor Heyerdahl has also written many books:
- Expedition Kon-Tiki (1949, in Swedish)
- The Kon-Tiki Expedition, By Raft Across the South Seas (1950)
- Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific By Raft (1951)
- American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (1952)
- Aku-Aku, The Secret of Easter Island (1958)
- Kon-Tiki (1960)
- Sea Routes to Polynesia: American Indians and Early Asiatics in the Pacific (1968)
- The Ra Expeditions (1971)
- Fatu-Hiva: Back To Nature (1974)
- My Lord Jim (1975)
- The Art of Easter Island (1976)
- Early Man and The Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations (1979)
- The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings (1981)
- The Maldive Mystery (1986)
- Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (1989)
- Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru’s Forgotten City (1995, with others)
- Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journey of a Lifetime (1996)
- In the Footsteps of Adam: An Autobiography (2000)
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