Movie 30 days of Night

[AVaccaro35]

I rented the movie after reading this thread. It's good for a Friday night stay-in-and-watch-a-scary-movie type, but overall it's nothing special. There are a few chilling scenes. Watch it with the lights off. May be interesting to read the graphic novel.

[Majik_Imaje]

I live in Barrow.. and it is amazng the myths that people actually believe. first of all there is no such thing as 3 months darkness or 3 months light.

We get "light" every day of the entire year !!

when I say "light".. I did not say Sunlight.

In Barrow Alaska the sun goes below the horizon on November 17th and it does not come back ABOVE the horizon until Jan 23rd and it will only stay above the horizon for 1 1/2 hours. then it is "dusk" like light for the short remainder of the day.

we do have 3 months where there is more darkness than light, this is what everyone is refering to, but leave out the important details.

On one forum one woman said to me.. .. Now I know your lying to us, you said it was Feb and it was light and then it got dark. and we ALL KNOW, there is six months light and six months darkness !

That is not remotely how it works up here and let me take the time to show and explian how this works.

of course anchorage is much futher south and these times will be way off from how it is way up here.

first let me give you a much better indicaton of where we are talking about.

Barrow vs. Point Hope



As you can see. Point Hope is not what seems that far away, but there is a huge difference between the two. so places like Anchorage and or Fairbanks will not be as severe as the areas of the far north regons above the Arctic circle.

The worst (shortest) day of the year is Dec 21st.

11:30 am - just before noon in Barrow 55 below zero.



by noon time, we will have some light. dusk type light that is sorta bright, but NO sunlight. no. We will have this "dusk" type light for about 2 hours. then darkness again.. This is the worst it gets, then we slowly start to gain extra minutes by the end of Dec. Jan 23rd the sun comes back up above the horizon for 1 1/2 hours then back down quickly, and dusk type light for another hour or two. We are raidly gaining minutes more of sunlight each day and it is noticable, after the week has passed we have much more sunlight than we had the week before. by the end of Feb we have sorta normal type days daylight by 8 a.m. and darkness by 4:30.

Once March arrives now we are gaining as much as 20 minutes more light each day. the days are getting much longer. Mid March (current) daylight by 7 am and darkness at 9 p.m !

with 20 more minutes of light each day the increase is very noticable in the evening. April is the spring hunting season. eveyone moves out to the ocean ice pack to gather food for two months.

We do have darkness but the time is getting shorter and shorter each day. By mid May .. SUNLIGHT 24 / 7 until the end of August.

3 1/2 months of pure sunlight with no darkness at all, the sun never goes below the horizon. Once the end of August arrives, then we start to loose 20 minutes a day and Dec. is the worst month.. so.. if you think your going to spend 3 1/2 months in darkness that is not true.!! We never have a day of total darkness for 24 hours. but we do have days with no darkness at all ever. We do have more darkness than light !!

I hope this has provided an idea how it works up here. Down in Anchorage and other areas, it is no where near as severe as it is in the far Arctic regions this is the worst it can get.

[megensmom]

You make it pretty easy to understand. I am sure someone that lives there would know more than someone that didn't and that was very rude of that person to say you were lying. Unless that person has visted there during different times of the year or lived there they should've kept their mouth shut or said something like Dang I heard it totally different than that,glad you could help me by clearing up those myths.
I was just curious as to how much or how little the movie was correct. I didn't figure it was 100% correct in how they portrayed Barrow. One day I am going to come up that way and visit. Now the hubby may land a job there so he may see it before me.

[Majik_Imaje]

I just love living here in Barrow.

Barrow is just so wonderful and people look you striaght in the eyes, smile and give a big happy hello !!

We moved up here last August 7th. Me and just one of my sons.

We arrived in this village flat broke. we had no money and no place to stay.

You can't possibly do something like that where you live. but it is much different up here.

We found a place to stay the first night and quickly moved out of that place the next morning after we purchased those "kind" people 400 bux worth of food, then we left.

the next night we moved into a nice house with a 71 year old alcoholic who took us in.. We ended up paying 5k per month to stay in that house.!!!

We stayed for two months and just couldn't wait to get out of there.. he was taking everything we made. We paid his bills paid him 1000 a month for rent purchased all his food and cleaned his house.

Severe housing shortages exist in all of these villages. But I have much experience here. and as such it is not difficult. It all depends on who you know. We didn't know anyone.. but we went out on a limb. hoping to make the switch from Pt. Hope to Barrow.

yes we were broke when we got off that plane. but we had something with us that is very valuable. Ivory!! My four inupiaq sons make ivory bracelets and as such we had a good inventory. on us when we arrived.

My sons own, Kotzebue, Point Hope and now Barrow. my boys are considered the best ivory bracelet makers in the whole North Slope.!!

I pulled them all out of high school four years ago. Since then these boys have made well if I told you, no one would ever believe me.!!!

Put it this way.. they make more in one month than I ever made in a year as a union electrician !!!

[megensmom]

Your writing is very interesting to me. However I don't think removing them from school to make bracelets a wise choice because if they ever desire to go anywhere else they may not make it to well with just bracelet making skills. I'm glad they are doing great there it just seems now their futures are sealed they would have to remain in that area. I am not sure what the ivory market is like,maybe they are going to be millionaires and never have to worry about jobs if they wanted to go somewhere else. Did you homeschool them?
I mean no disrespect,I am just curious as to why you choose what you did and since you posted about it I'm sure you won't mind questions.
What do you do for work there? Are you also inupiaq? I am a little confused by you saying the "own" Kotzebue,Point Hope and Barrow,makes them sound like they are some sort of mob or your some type of big drug lord I just don't understand.

[Majik_Imaje]

I am from Boston.. that is my home town for 30 years..

I have been in the arctic for 30 years.. YES I AM 60 !!!

I am Itailian !! from boston massachusetts.. there are no Inupiaq that I have ever met in Boston .

Many of the elders in point hope have used those words to my sons.. you boys own this village.!! because everyone buys from us.. even the teachers in the schools say to the new teachers.. if your gonig to buy arts & crafts.. only purchase from them eves boys. they are the best!! in all villages !!

we don't do drugs. we dont be mean to people. we give give give to these people everything we have. later you will see how we gave one person from this village everything we owned. and we became homeless.

I am just so sorry I gave you the wrong impression I will do my very best to choose MY words more carefully.. and write with more detail..

and no I do not work I retired very young, (from sales of my photographs) !

[karfar]

Originally Posted by DannyL

well anyway, I enjoy a good throat ripping drooling incoherant zombie action flick. Gets me in the mood for the management meetings the next day.
I think I'll put on "28 weeks later" tonight, gotta be in the right mood for tommorrow morning...

28 Weeks Later rocks, that is a good, high paced movie-I just watched 30 Days of Night last night....cheesy, not very good movie at all, like most horror movies, although I love love love horror movies. The thing that freaked me out but was also kind of interesting was how isolated they made Barrow seem. The fact that you can't drive out, only fly, how strange! But kind of cool too. I thought they filmed that movie in Canada?? I'm sure they also brought in & made their own snow. Right now here in parts of Wisconsin, Johnny Depp is filming a John Dillinger movie. In Columbus, WI is where they started filming on Monday. Apparently, even though we've had a crapload of snow this winter, Hollywood is bringing in their own snow to make. I thought that was kind of funny. But I guess it looks more realistic on film than actual snow. Anyway, yeah, I can see how the constant darkness for months, actually in the movie it was for only one month, can make people go insane. Is it true that they make alcohol illegal during that time period? That's what was mentioned in the film. I know, what Hollywood perceives as real is not always how it is, just wondering.

[whitewiccan]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

I know a lady who has been here nearly a decade that had absolutely no idea where "Barrow" was in Alaska when she got on the plane. She came from Los Angeles (she imigrated to the US in the early 1970's and her family is very successful there), and was thinking only that she hadn't seen snow since she was a child...

She was really in for a surprise! It took her a couple of years to learn how to dress properly here. But even though she travels quite a bit, she probably will call Barrow home as long as she can find a way to stay here.


Well, the guy in the movie named Beau is apparently a dead ringer for a friend of mine -- or so his (young adult) children tell us. I'm not sure what a "funky vampire" is like, but yes we do have politicians!

waz it a good movie