This is one of the most genuinely multicultural, or cross-cultural, works of film art I have ever seen. There are quite a few films of course that show another culture's point of view -- and no lack of films showing an idealized Indian point of view. But this one shows two very different cultures in early contact with each other -- and for the most part manages to show us each culture, Great Lakes Algonquin and Huron on the one hand, and French/European Canadian missionary colonizers on the other, from EACH OTHER's point of view.<br /><br />It is the most successful example of that I have ever seen.<br /><br />And it does all this within a serviceable plot. Not great, but serviceable -- and apparently true, so far as the basic outlines are concerned at least. As was said above, the early parts of the movie drag too much. The whole movie, in fact, is rather slow. But that tends to be the nature of these sorts of films. Their emphasis is on cultural understanding. It does a pretty amazing job of that. <br /><br />Unlike most films of this sort, the AmerIndians are NOT idealized. (As for instance they are pretty unreservedly in Dances with Wolves and Little Big Man.) The special and central brutality of some of their customs is amply demonstrated, especially towards the end. The Hurons are prepared to skin the rival chief they have captured literally alive, after killing and then burning alive his children one by one, essentially to make a political point. It does not look like an easy life, and I imagine far fewer people would leave this movie thinking they would have wanted to be Indians, or live among them, than feel that way after films such as Dances with Wolves. It was such a hard life.<br /><br />And yet many spiritual and wonderful things about the native culture come through without question. The centrality of dream visions in their spiritual world is given real power, and we can feel it. We can see how they see the French, and the supposed best of the French, the Black Robes. It is very much how one feels when one can understand two mutually exclusive belief systems. I suppose in a sense the point of view is closest to that of the young French companion and guide for the Priest. He falls in love with a beautiful and very young Indian chief's daughter, and tries to join their group -- and yet he also understands the priest, and is attracted to his spirituality. He sees both sides --- and so do we.<br /><br />It is an interesting movie for those who are historically or anthropologically interested. It is probably a bit slow if you are just looking for action in a colorful setting. It doesn't have the pace of Last of the Mohegans, for example. But that movie is mostly about settler and British military life on the Indian frontier -- but bridging understand of the native cultures they are in conflict with and among, to some extent, through the "half breed" hero. This one is mostly about Indian life at first contact with the Whites. Fascinating, if you like this sort of thing at all. I certainly do.