Seven reviews, all positive, and the verdict has held for ninety years: the earliest, from Variety and the New York Times on the film’s release, say much the same as the most recent. Most critics treat it as the founding document of the documentary and praise Flaherty’s closeness to his subject above anything else. The praise clusters on Nanook himself, whom the New Yorker describes as a great, undefeated man, and on two sequences in particular: the igloo construction and the seal hunt, singled out for their ingenuity and force.
The reservations are few and shared. Nearly every review notes that much was staged for the camera, and nearly every one decides it does not matter. Variety concedes the technique is primitive; Empire finds flaws in form and structure but forgives them for the humanity on show. The spread is narrow, from good to rapturous, with the more recent writers slightly cooler than the older ones, and nobody dissents.