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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
 Posted - 10/28/2008 : 10:34:50 PM
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When making my mental outline for reviewing this one, I knew I would mention Tex and Night Crossing fairly prominently. I decided to go ahead and watch both those films, to see if my memories of them were accurate. I believed that Tex would be a leisurely paced, very well-acted character study, and that Night Crossing would be a solid true-life thriller despite some glaring flaws.
Nailed ’em both. I toyed with the idea of writing up one of these two films instead of Never Cry Wolf; Wolf may be the best known of these three, and the other two are underrated gems that deserve much more notice than they’ve gotten. Ultimately, I went with my original pick. First off, Never Cry Wolf was the best of the three. Second, Tex and Night Crossing have the Walt Disney name at the end, but they don’t announce it (other than the generic Buena Vista credit) at the beginning. Wolf states up front that it is a Disney movie. The third reason.... let me get back to that in just a moment.
So, here’s the big one. This is the one that might have pushed Walt Disney Studios in a completely new direction. The fact that it didn’t says more about the studio than about the film itself.
Reader Beware: I’ve reviewed bad movies and taken great pleasure in going after them with a scalpel (or a blunted axe). And I’ve reviewed a couple of movies that I honestly adore, but could see them for the imperfect (or flat-out insane) creations that they were. This time, it’s different. We’re gonna look at a movie that I consider to be an unsung classic, a truly great film. It has some minor flaws, and some flaws that may or may not really be flaws. They do not take away from the fact that I consider this one to be one of the best movies of the eighties, and one of Disney’s best live-action films ever.
One more warning, and take it to heart. I don’t like to give away movies that people would probably appreciate more by watching them. Ken Begg gave a bit of advice when reviewing a movie he liked, and I’ll repeat it. If at any time you have the slightest hint that you might be interested in watching this film, stop reading! Go out and rent it, or buy it if you see it in the video store (I got my copy for about ten bucks; what the hell was it doing in the Children’s section?! More on that in a moment). Come back to reading after you’ve seen the film. Seriously, I can’t recommend this film highly enough.
There will be the usual array of smart-ass comments here, but they’re more likely to be laughing with the movie, rather than at it; the movie clearly wants us to be thinking these things.
Okay, here’s the intro proper.
It’s possible Food might take up my challenge to review a Ron Miller-era Disney flick or two. (I recommend Tron, if you’re up for it. I thought about giving it a write-up, but I’d find it hard to describe the amazing visuals in that film, its biggest asset.) Speaking for myself, however, this is the capper. This is the one where Disney finally proved they could play with the Big Boys.
So, anyway, Disney had been trying to break into more adult markets, tip toeing into PG-rated fare in 1979. The problem was, they were, in all honesty, making movies chiefly aimed at the kiddies. Night Crossing hinted at a shift toward more mature subject matter. From what I can recall, Trenchcoat and The Devil and Max Devlin had scenes and language which were clearly inappropriate for youngsters, but the movies themselves were extremely lame. Not much of a jumping-off point there. (As bad as Trenchcoat was, it DID have a footnote in film history; I’ll get into that in the Afterthoughts.) I’ve seen bits and pieces of a little biopic called Running Brave, but Disney didn’t produce the film itself; they just distributed it. As good a film as Tex was, it was geared toward teens or families (though it’s perfectly good viewing for adults).
But the upshot of all this windbaggery is, Disney had never really made a movie that was aimed squarely at grown-ups.
Ron Miller was the big man at Disney at this time, and he was still the one who appeared in the produced-by (or exec producer) credit. The better part of Disney’s output was still being done by writers and directors under contract. Midnight Madness was a God-awful experiment. Tron was made by Steven Lisberger’s company; Lisberger had brought the project to Disney. But really, Disney wasn’t going the auteur route.
That all changed in 1983, with Never Cry Wolf.
There’s a good article on the making of Never Cry Wolf here: http://www.astonisher.com/archives/never_cry_wolf.html Clearly, the film came dangerously close to being Disney’s version of Heaven’s Gate. Happily, that didn’t happen. Disney had brought in Carroll Ballard to direct, and they pretty much gave him carte blanche (though they did tighten the reins late in post-production). The result was one of the best movies of the year, and, to my mind, one of the best of the eighties. And this movie really is Ballard’s; unlike a for-hire director, he had a hand in every aspect of this film’s making.
Never Cry Wolf carries a PG rating. There is no profanity (other than one “hell”), and only a mild bit of discreet (but disturbing) violence. There is a long nude scene near the end, but it’s not sexual (how could it be, when the, um, object of attention is Charles Martin Smith, not exactly the leading man type); it’s more like something you’d see in National Geographic.
But, rating aside, the movie was made with an adult sensibility, and it was clearly meant to be viewed by mature individuals. While it’s okay for the older kids, a lot of what this movie has to say could fly right over their heads.
Okay, I’ve brayed long enough. Disney waited long enough before diving into the deep end of the pool; time for me to do the same.
The Mouse Grows Up... And Becomes Charles Martin Smith’s Lunch
The film begins with the title “Walt Disney Pictures” (the first film to have this credit) in a fairly ornate font, printed on a green background, with a wide double-border. It looks quite nice, and it gives the hint that Disney’s going for something serious.
We open on a series of shots of stark, austere mountainscapes, as an eerie, melancholy, and slightly menacing bit plays on the soundtrack. The opening crawl gives the backstory pretty well. The short version is, the caribou population has plummeted recently. The government (we’re never told which country we’re in, but I’ll assume it’s Canada) is ready to give hunters and trappers free reign to take down wolves to their hearts’ content, as it’s believed that the wolves, for some reason, have gone on a caribou-killing spree. To justify that, though, they need some verification (or denial), from a direct witness. They send a lone scientist up north, with the mission of finding evidence for or against this theory, and also (as an afterthought) to learn more about the behavior of the wolves, which are believed to be vicious killers (but no one knows for sure). The book this film is based on was written in 1963, and it changed a lot of attitudes toward wolves. I’ll assume this movie takes place around that time, though it’s never stated outright.
We dissolve to a train making its way north, and we are introduced to our hero, Tyler (Charles Martin Smith). Tyler reveals through narration that yes, he is indeed the scientist chosen to take this project on. He states that when he was picked, he fancied that he’d “become a new man”, ready to take on any challenge he was presented with. That’s a pretty funny declaration, looking at this guy. He’s the stereotypical absent-minded professor type: argyle sweater, tie, smoking a pipe, someone who looks much more at home in an ivy-covered lecture hall than in the great outdoors. Add to that, well, he’s Charles Martin Smith. In this part of the film, he doesn’t seem to be that far away from his Terry the Toad persona. (Carroll Ballard made a lot of good choices when making this film, and he made at least two brilliant decisions. His first was to cast Smith, who is a million miles away from being a leading man, as the hero. The viewer’s perception of Smith as being a bit nerdy will be turned upside down as we see Tyler’s transformation during this film — and that change really is astonishing. I’ll come to Ballard’s second brilliant move in a bit.) Anyway, Tyler’s vision of himself as a “brave new man” doesn’t last long; when he realizes just what he’s in for, it scares him to death.
The end of the line is a little village called Nootsack. Tyler gets into town (with a comically large amount of supplies) and tries to track down a pilot to get him the last three hundred miles to his destination. Most of this is revealed via narration, which will be wall-to-wall in the film. With that much narration, the words and the line reading had better be good. It is.
While waiting for a plane to come in, Tyler hangs out in a bar, striking up a conversation with a drunk. The drunk tells Tyler not to go lookin’ for wolves up north: “You would be the only fresh meat up there. They’ll come lookin’ for ya, just for the ugly fun of tearin’ you apart.” (There’s an anachonism here.... Maybe. We see a color TV in the bar, even though this film supposedly takes place in the early sixties. Of course, it’s never stated when this takes place; maybe they decided it would be the late sixties. You be the judge.)
Tyler meets his pilot, a “pilot/prospector/gambler/real estate tycoon” named Rosie Little (Brian Dennehy! Yay!). Rosie’s plane is pretty damn scary. Seriously, if you gave that rattletrap a harsh look, it’d probably come apart. Rosie himself seems to be quite the eccentric. Anyway, Rosie introduces Tyler to a drink called “Moose Juice” — equal parts Moose Brand beer and pure alcohol. Tyler quickly decides to spend what money he has on enough beer to last six months.
They get Tyler’s stuff loaded onto the plane and try to take off. Tyler’s gear is too heavy, and they start throwing crates out. Tyler crosses his fingers and prays he’s not throwing out anything he really needs. On the third attempt, the plane gets up, and barely clears a line of trees. Tyler narrates, “With my eyes still closed, I realized I was still alive. But this was only the beginning.” And to put an exclamation point to that, this is where the opening credits begin.
I’ve noticed that you can sometimes get an idea of what kind of film is in store just by watching the credits. That’s the case here. First off, this is, to my knowledge, the first Disney film to carry the director’s name above the title. The titles play out in the same elegant font that the studio logo was shown in (as was Disney’s practice around this time), as we’re treated to a montage of shots of the plane flying over the mountains. Again, this is a strong indicator that Disney was going for prestige this time around (which is a double-edged sword; if you mess up a “prestige pic,” you’ll look far worse than you would if you made a cheap B-movie; happily, that’s not the case here). It’s been said that with mountainscapes like the ones we’re shown here, you could just point a camera at random and get a great shot. Personally, I don’t believe this. The best cinematographers are good at making this stuff look easy, as is the case here (the DP is Hiro Narita; check him out on IMDb, his résumé is pretty impressive). Ah, here we go. “Music by Mark Isham.” Casting Charles Martin Smith as the lead was Carroll Ballard’s first brilliant move. Bringing in Mark Isham to compose the score (Isham’s first) was the second. My own opinions on Isham are mixed. He had a very good run during the eighties and early nineties, and 1992 saw him composing scores for The Public Eye, A Midnight Clear, Of Mice and Men, and A River Runs Through it — all hands-down winners, in my book. And then.... What happened? He wrote a good score for Fly Away Home (also directed by Ballard) in ’96, but personally, I haven’t cared for any of his scoring work since then. It’s all run together, sounding very generic. Still, he had a good period early on, and his first score may well be his best; it’s a major contribution to this film. (Unfortunately, a full soundtrack was never released, but Isham’s album “Film Music,” released by Windham Hill around 1986, has about 25 minutes of the score on it.) The excellent opening title music is a good indicator of the tone this film will take.
Ah, here we go. The screenplay was co-written by Curtis Hanson and Sam Hamm. I’ll assume Hanson needs no introduction; I’ve never read Hamm’s scripts for the Tim Burton Batman movies, but I’ve heard they were far more mature than the final product. (Keep in mind that I liked the Tim Burton films, even though, let’s face it, Christopher Nolan has blown both of them out of the water.) The narration was co-written by Charles Martin Smith himself (and he’s not half bad at it). Finally, the director’s credit. Let’s see.... Good writers, adapting a well-received book,* a director who has shown he can handle this time of movie, working with a talented crew and cast. What more do you need? Okay, you can get a bomb with a group like that, too, but here, the cast and crew got it right.
*[I know that Farley Mowat’s book got a lot of criticism for playing fast and loose with the facts, and Mowat’s response doesn’t exactly endear him to me. But since the movie changes some of the story, and renames its protagonist, I’ll treat the film mostly as fiction loosely based on fact.]
As the rattletrap plane continues its flight, Tyler goes back to wondering just how he got where he is. He realizes he’s in way over his head, and considers turning back and going home. He’d be humiliated if he did, but he suspects he “wouldn’t last six hours down there, let alone six months.” He hasn’t told Rosie what he’s planning to do at his site, and Rosie assumes he’s prospecting. We get a brief character bit from Rosie, showing his own frustration at where he is now (this, in my mind, will be very important later on) and giving a glimpse of Rosie’s view of other people.
Just then, yikes, the propeller conks out. Tyler, understandably, is two seconds away from going into full-blown panic. Rosie is angry, but (and this says something both funny and scary about him) isn’t the least bit surprised the engine died on him. And with that, Rosie tells Tyler to take the stick, climbs outside of the plane, and repairs the engine in flight. Note that Rosie knows right where the problem is and is able to fix it in a few seconds. Also note that he only becomes nervous when Tyler, who is no pilot, nearly banks the plane in the wrong direction. And with that, they start the plane up and get back underway. This part could easily have been cut from the film, but I think it’s vital to show just how far out of his territory (pun intended) Tyler is, and to show a bit of what kind of person Rosie is. Rosie will disappear for most of the film, but we do need to see his character here.
The plane comes down, landing on a frozen lake. Rosie starts chucking Tyler’s equipment out, wanting to get the job done and get out as quickly as possible. (Note that one of the crates has “DO NOT FREEZE” stamped prominently on its side. More on that in a moment.) Tyler unhooks a canoe from the plane’s underbelly, revealing that he smuggled his supply of beer in the canoe. It’s interesting to note that Tyler didn’t think of throwing off the beer when lightening the plane’s load. Rosie laughs at this, then gets ready to take off. Tyler tries to put off Rosie’s departure for as long as possible, but this backfires; Tyler learns that Rosie doesn’t even know where they are, and he’s gonna have to guess the best way back to civilization.
And with that, Rosie takes off, leaving Tyler alone.
Tyler tries to get his bearings, lighting his pipe and asking himself what he needs to do first. The narration becomes a ramble, then he breaks off and tells himself to get a grip.
He starts to open up the crates. Uh oh. It’s possible that Tyler threw off something vital before taking off, but it’s not likely. The prep work on this mission was horrible. Tyler narrates the official mission guidelines with increasing sarcasm, as we see him open crate after crate, seeing the useless crap he’s been saddled with, his disgust growing each time. Again, it’s both funny and scary. I’ve worked in gubmint long enough to be able to say “Ain’t it the truth?” to this. Also, with the stuff he has, Tyler could be in serious trouble up here. The radio he brought won’t transmit... but it does pick up a Russian station broadcasting a folk dance, and Tyler ends up dancing along. Hey, what else can he do?
Tyler bunks down and keeps warm as best he can, then wakes up early the next morning. Perhaps to keep his mind off what a fix he’s in, he starts typing up his first report, the tone of which is, “What genius planned out this dumb-ass project anyway?!” He breaks off when he hears a distant — then not-so-distant — howling. Uh oh. Then he sees (he thinks) a pack of wolves heading this way. He panics, grabs the first thing he can find to use as a weapon, then turns the canoe over and tries to hide under it. He hears the “wolves” begin to gather outside, as he looks to see what his “weapon” is: part of his bassoon (the only real luxury item he brought). Fat lot of good that will do. (You know, on viewing this film again, I realize that I had forgotten just how funny it is at times, even during tense moments.) Then Tyler hears a pair of boots crunching around in the snow and ice nearby, and the “wolves” retreat. The canoe is overturned, and Tyler stares up at a heavily-coated man, whose face is hidden by his hood. Those “wolves” were actually this guy’s sled dogs. The man gives a follow-me motion with his hand and returns to his sled. Tyler, who still reeling from what he thought would be a life-threatening situation, asks for help in moving his stuff. But the guy gets on his sled, and the dogs start runnin’. Tyler starts chasing after him; the shot of the two disappearing into the snow is honestly eerie.
We don’t see how far they go, but Tyler finally collapses from exhaustion. The man on the sled turns around and picks him up, giving him a ride to.... somewhere.
Fade up. The sled man is building a small fire, and we can now see that he is an elderly Inuit. Tyler wakes up, and the man introduces himself as Ootek (Zachary Ittimangnaq).
When Tyler wakes up again, Ootek has disappeared. It’s apparently the following day. Tyler realizes that Ootek dropped him off in a crude shelter surrounded by caribou antlers (probably a hunting camp). Also, Ootek apparently believes in being a good neighbor: he brought Tyler’s gear in and stacked it up neatly outside. Tyler decides to hunker down here for a couple of days until he can get his head straightened out.
The next scene shows Tyler running through the woods, pursued by a pack of wolves. It’s not too hard to figure out he’s having a nightmare here. The wolves overtake him and pounce, tearing him apart. This isn’t graphic, but there’s no mistaking what’s happening. Pretty tough stuff, and that’s not even considering that this was a studio that had never gotten out of G rated territory until four years before.
Tyler wakes up from the dream (and it’s realistic: he wakes suddenly, but not screaming or hollering, and he only takes a second or two to collect himself). He shifts his position, then sees that there’s a small nest of baby mice nearby. This is a hint of things to come.
After spending a few days collecting himself, Tyler decides it’s time to, you know, get something accomplished. He re-reads his mission objective, which suggests the best way to find out what the wolves are eating is to find a wolf (obviously), shoot it, then open it up. In other words, the same thing that Hooper did to the tiger shark, only one can assume Tyler isn’t looking for that little Kintner boy. Tyler’s face shows his discomfort with this violent modus operandi, but he’s gotta start somewhere.
Tyler goes out on a foray, carrying his rifle, and hiking out over a frozen lake. Much of this sequence is shown from the perpective of a small rabbit at the edge of the lake, a nice way of reminding the viewer that Tyler is the intruder here. Tyler makes his way carefully, pausing to listen every few seconds. And then.... Oops. Tyler makes a bad step and plunges right through the ice.
His pack weights him down and he goes to the bottom, probably twenty feet down. He kicks off the pack and tries to make it back to the hole where he fell through, but it’s already starting to freeze over. We see a few shots of Tyler, nearing panic, and then....
Cut back to the rabbit watching the lake. We hold on the lake for a few shots, the suspense builds, and.... BAM! Tyler’s rifle busts through the ice, then Tyler climbs out, gagging and coughing. Again, we see the rabbit, which seems to be thinking, “What in the world?!
The next shot is a long pan over a campfire, with Tyler’s clothes hanging out to dry. The pan ends on Tyler trying to rub his bare ass dry.
This sequence might seem out of place, and the nudity may look gratuitous, but in truth, I think a lot got done here. First off, we’re, um, gonna see a whole lot more of Tyler in the late innings, and the ass shot was an efficient way of warning audiences that yes, we’re gonna see Charles Martin Smith in his birthday suit.
Second, we know that Tyler is a city boy. Argyle sweater, pipe, glasses. Certainly, he’s not cut out for surviving way the hell up here, let alone carrying out a scientific mission. Or is he? When he fell through the ice, he didn’t panic for long. No, he had the physical strength — and the mental toughness — to swim down twenty feet, retrieve his rifle, and use it to break through the ice. He may be going bass-ackward here, but our Tyler may have what it takes to stick it out up here after all. |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 10/28/2008 : 10:35:46 PM
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We go to a few weeks later. The ice has melted, and we’re out of the forest, in a grassy, hilly area. Tyler pitches a small tent, then gives it a once-over, satisfied with his work. In a moment, we’ll learn that he has spotted wolf tracks and droppings. Here Be Wolves; this may be the place to set up housekeeping. Note that Tyler is starting a full beard by this time (the continuity in this film is pretty impressive, showing Tyler’s appearance get a little more wild each time we see him). The narration notes that Tyler has gotten much more comfortable with his surroundings, and his fears are all but gone now. At this point, Tyler hears several distant howls. Yep, he’s in the right place.
The next scene has Tyler on the hunt, as his narration informs us of his growing frustration. Despite all the evidence that there are wolves nearby, he hasn’t seen one. At this point, Tyler puts his gun down and tries to take a pee break as quickly as possible. Wouldn’t ya know it, this is where he sees a big white wolf standing a hundred feet away, watching him. Yep, he literally got caught with his pants down.
Tyler quickly collects himself and follows the wolf at a distance, seeing it as it enters its lair. Okay, he’s found a wolf’s den. Now what?
Tyler tries to do some discrete recon. I’m ashamed to admit that I have no idea what the device he uses is called, but I’ll call it the periscope binoculars, since that’s basically what it is. Mission rules state: get downwind and observe the wolf without it knowing you’re even there. Tyler doesn’t see his quarry, and he steps back and looks around... to find the wolf hanging around about fifty feet behind him, looking like he might wave and say, “Hi, guy.” Well, that approach didn’t set the world on fire, did it. Time to get creative.
Tyler gets as much of his gear as he can on his back and comes up and puts on a show, marching back and forth, making as much noise as possible. He reasons that if he goes in and gives a bit “Here I am!” announcement, he’ll show the wolf that he’s not trying to hunt him down. It’s genuinely funny watching Tyler waddle around with this big pack on his back, clattering and clanking, then tripping and falling on his ass. Let’s get one thing out of the way: whoever trained the wolves for this film did a great job; the wolves’ performances are excellent. This scene is a good example. You can all but see the thought balloon over the wolf’s head: “The hell?!”
Tyler gets back to his tent and waits. He notes that he was well into the wolf’s territory, so he hopes his action wasn’t interpreted as a fighting stance. Uh oh, he’s got company. The wolf comes in, starts sniffing around the tent, pokes his head in to see Tyler there.
And then the wolf saunters over to a small crate outside, raises his leg and does a number-one on the side of the crate, then bounds away. Tyler’s narration is nicely droll here: “I didn’t take it personally.” Well, since title attorneys are in short supply out here, these two are gonna have to solve their dispute the old-fashioned way. With a pissing contest.
Tyler prepares for this by drinking tea. Lots and lots of tea. He then goes out marking a two-acre area, including part of the wolf’s territory. Again, I forgot how funny this movie could be. I found myself chuckling at Tyler waddling to the next, uh, marking spot, trying to keep his mind off his full bladder by singing “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General.”
The wolf comes in and pees on each spot. Tyler notes that the wolf, due to more experience, is far better at this primitive form of surveying than he himself is. Also, the wolf’s gesture is clear: stay in these lines and don’t make any trouble, and you’re welcome on my turf.
Tyler’s wolf-watching activities don’t produce a lot of results, at least at first. The wolf, whom Tyler begins to refer to as “George,” does little but stand outside his lair, watching Tyler intently. Before long, George’s mate, “Angeline,” is joining him in the staring match. The narration and music carry this sequence, and quite well, too. Before long, Tyler learns why George has been playing let’s-who-blinks-first: he and Angie have three pups. Awwwwwwwwww! (Kidding aside, those pups are extremely cute.) One could wonder if Carroll Ballard went for the most photogenic wolves he could find. Still, it’s not hard to believe George and Angie would look this good. First off, wolves are usually beautiful animals to begin with. Second, George and Angie are the alpha pair of their pack, and it’s not hard to believe they’d look like lupine runway models.
George goes off on his rounds every night. Angie, who has to stay home and care for the pups, often goes out and gives a howl out to George. I don’t know if this was due to Ballard’s direction (which is assured throughout), or to the fact that female wolves are like this anyway, but these scenes with Angie howling for George are quite nice. Angie’s stance and howl are distinctly feminine.
Tyler comes across a problem in his research. He’s supposed to find out how wolves hunt caribou. There’s just one teensy problem: no caribou. In fact, no large animals of any kind. Then Tyler makes a connection: Angie has been eating mice. Lots of mice. The rodent picken’s is plenty good around here. I’ve read that the book drew a lot of criticism for this part. A lot of wolf experts stated that wolves do not feed on mice alone; there primary source of food is indeed large animals, such as caribou. Farley Mowat’s defense was shoddy at best. I’ll give the movie a mulligan here, since it is a fictionalization (several events in the film, especially those in the late innings, were invented for the movie, and the film lets us know we’re not sticking to the facts by changing the protagonist’s name from Farley Mowat to Tyler). In any case, I’ll be willing to buy that Tyler is simply concluding that wolves can live off small animals for a time, when larger prey isn’t on hand.
Now, remember, Tyler found a nest of baby mice in that shelter he was in earlier. Well, there are plenty of the little vermin around here, too, crawling all over the place. Tyler realizes that the idea that a large animal can live off mice for any length of time will be laughed at... unless he can find a way to prove it. You can probably take this out to its logical conclusion. In addition to Tyler’s expected squeamishness at this idea, one senses that he might feel guilty about killing these little guys and havin’ them for dinner. But that all changes when he realizes, hey, these little bastards are pests! There’s a funny moment where the mice get underfoot to the point where Tyler finally snaps, screaming and hollering, banging around his tent, throwing anything he can lay his hands on at the mice, as they scurry out. We get a shot of George and Angie looking on, and one wouldn’t be surprised if George turned to his mate and said, “Oh, look, dear, our weird neighbor is being crazy again.” (And again, this was meant to remind the viewer that Tyler is the outsider here.)
Well, so much for sentiment. Welcome, monsieur and madame, to Chez Tyler. Tonight’s special: Mice In Gravy.
You heard it right. Day one of Tyler’s mice-eating experiment is shown in all its glory, with Tyler having his first meal of mice back at his hut. It’s hard to get how funny this scene is into words. Seriously, you just have to see it. Everything, from the queasy sound effects, to the oh-so-dainty piano music, to Charles Martin Smith’s priceless expressions at his, uh, main course, works beautifully. And of course, one can’t help but wonder if Carroll Ballard had a wicked grin on his face when shooting this sequence: Our Hero is eating mice.... in a Disney film.
Anyway, long story short, Tyler is, well, um, a little reluctant to sample this new delicacy. But any misgivings he has disappear quickly when he sees the still-living mice around the hut, staring and cowering in terror. He’s had about enough of these varmints, and he starts cramming mouse after mouse into his face, making mwa-ha-ha-ha noises, causing the critters to scurry around in panic.
We go to a montage showing that both human and wolves are able to live, at least for a while, on mice. And the theory that the wolves are killing more and more caribou may have gotten a big hole punched in it.
George’s pack comes in, and a couple of the wolves try to challenge George’s alpha-male position. Angie gets into the act, making sure these upstarts are kept in line. It doesn’t get fierce enough to draw any blood, but Angie makes her point. George, meanwhile, stands by, probably saying, “Uh huh, that’s right, you don’t mess with MY lady.” (I was reminded of one of the few scenes in Lethal Weapon 3 I still remember, when Rene Russo takes on three guys, and Mel Gibson watches approvingly, enjoying the show. Angie’s good-looking and an ass-kicker, so she’s Never Cry Wolf’s version of Rene Russo.)
Tyler notices a young brown wolf who’s popular with the pups; Tyler starts calling him Uncle Albert. Since Uncle Albert is around to play baby sitter for the kiddies, Angie can now join George on the pack’s rounds. And life is good at the lupine homestead.
What follows next is probably my favorite scene in the film. We learn almost nothing of Tyler’s life before he came up here; it’s never even revealed if Tyler is his first or last name. But here he gives a glimpse into his past, and it’s fairly sad. With his research apparently slowing down a bit, Tyler has had some time to take a look at himself.... and he doesn’t really like what he sees. He has always been a watcher, not a doer. Other people live their lives while he watches from afar.
In that respect, he hasn’t changed. He’s still doing nothing but watching. And now, he’s worried what his watching will do. He frets that when he returns and lets the world know that wolves are not the vicious killers of lore, man’s baser nature may take over and declare open season on them. Tyler then reveals that he has noticed a strange dark wolf following the pack at a distance. He believes this wolf is part of the pack (probably its omega), but it never gets close to them. This wolf may be a watcher, too, and Tyler believes they are, in a way, kindred spirits. Call me a softie, or just call me weird: I have no idea why I start choking up when I see that black wolf, but I do.
We’re a little past the halfway mark here, and the film is about to turn in a new direction. For about two-thirds of the film so far, Tyler has been the only human on camera. That’s about to change. This is a good time to take a break, but let me make a few observations first.
On the off chance you haven’t notice by now, Never Cry Wolf has a very loose structure, partly because Carroll Ballard filmed it documentary style, without a lot of storyboarding or scripting. The book this movie was based on didn’t have much of a plot either, since it was written as a non fiction account of one man’s observations of Arctic wolves. Unlike the film, the book had several instances in which the protagonist, Farley Mowat himself, came into contact with Inuit villagers who lived nearby. Eventually, he realized that it was overhunting (both by white men and Inuit), not wolves, that was killing off the caribou. The book ended with Mowat realizing, to his chagrin, that he could never be a part of the wolves’ world. The movie changes the ending quite a lot. One could accuse Ballard of going for a Hollywood ending, where conflict and plot took over. But even here, the film has some surprises which put it above a conventional action flick.
One other thing. I am no environmentalist. I have never seen An Inconvenient Truth, Happy Feet, Ferngully, or any of the Craptain Planet cartoons. Nor do I wish to. If someone started preaching to me, yelling at me to go green, I would be tempted to find a big piece of bituminous coal and light it up in front of that person, sheerly out of spite. But while Never Cry Wolf could be counted as an ecological message film, it handles its subject matter with a lot more subtlety and grace than many other similarly themed pics. And the characters we’re about to meet will give layers and depth to Never Cry Wolf that Captain Planet’s makers never dreamed about (or probably didn’t want).
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 10/28/2008 : 10:36:37 PM
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Back to the film.
Tyler is engaged in his one other leisure activity here (close-up photography of plants and flowers), not realizing that someone or something is approaching. We get what might be a monster-cam shot, creeping up on him.... Then Tyler is startled by a boot crunching down in the ground. He jumps back, falls down, and looks around, disoriented. Then he spots a young Inuit approaching, waving. The guy waves to Tyler and says, “Ootek thought you might like some company.” Tyler looks back over his shoulder to see Ootek waving hello.
They go back to Tyler’s hut, and we have an intro scene. We’ll learn through narration in a moment that the young Inuit is Mike, Ootek’s adopted son (played by Samson Jorah). Tyler shows them around, points out his research equipment. He tells them about his meeces-on-the-menu experiment, then tells them about another part of his research that makes his, um, diet look downright appetizing. Ootek gives different responses to both of these bits, but Mike tells Tyler both times that Ootek said, “Good idea.” I like the “Oh yeah, right” grin Tyler gave after the second one.
Much of what follows looks like it was mostly unscripted, captured shots that were edited down. It works very well, mainly because each little bit we see will have a payoff in the final fifteen minutes of the film.
Tyler, Ootek, and Mike climb up to a ledge overlooking the camp, and Tyler shows the two Inuit a little trick he’s learned. By playing certain notes on his basson, he can simulate a wolf’s howl. George and Angie howl back, as do members of their pack. Before long, there are wolf howls all over the place. This is a nice set-up, showing that Tyler has a way of actually calling for the wolves. It will pay off in a quietly powerful moment at the end.
The two settle in and set up housekeeping. Tyler doesn’t mind, as he’s glad to have a couple of human voices to talk to, even if he needs Mike to translate between him and Ootek. Tyler notes that Mike is more of a city boy, as we see Mike trying to play Tyler’s bassoon — badly.
It’s revealed that Mike has lost most of his teeth. He tells Tyler an anecdote of how that caused him some embarrassment once, adding, “That’s what happens when a meat-eater becomes a sugar-eater.” Samson Jorah really has lost most of his teeth, and I thought it was pretty gutsy of him to allow himself to appear that way on film.
Tyler notices that Ootek, in particular, has enjoyed joining in on the research. Tyler suspects there’s more to Ootek than meets the eye. Unfortunately, this isn’t really explored; it’s more or less dropped. This may be one of the few real flaws in the film; it’s possible that we learned more about Ootek in Ballard’s three-hour rough cut, but it had to go for pacing.
Tyler and Mike help Ootek construct a sort of ceremonial drumhead which Ootek shows some skill at playing (there’s a nicely eerie resonance to the drumhead, so I don’t mind Ballard throwing in an extra shot of Ootek playing the thing from time to time).
In a scene where the film threatens to stumble, Ootek (through Mike) tells Tyler of a dream he had in which he was following a wolf, and the wolf turned around, came and ate out Ootek’s heart. Ootek says that the wolf “became his helping spirit” at this point. Tyler flashes back to his own nightmare of being attacked by a pack. The scene hews dangerously close to the cliché of the vision quest (which Ken Begg rightly trounced in his review of The Snooze— uh, The Trial of Billy Jack). It manages to keep from going off that cliff by simply telling us of it, not showing it. Related through dialogue, this “vision quest” (and Tyler’s nightmare) can be taken to be a pair of similar dreams had by two men who had doubts about their abilities at the time. Another thing that keeps the film from tripping up is the fact that this scene is immediately followed by a fairly startling moment, something you don’t expect in a movie like this.
A few days later, Tyler gets into an idle conversation with Mike, and Mike casually reveals what he does for a living: he hunts wolves. He notes that, to him, wolves mean hard cash. Mike has a family to feed, and a few wolf pelts can bring in enough money to keep them living in relative comfort for several months. Tyler asks if Mike plans to shoot George and Angie. Mike says he doesn’t plan to: “You’d get mad, and your gun is bigger than mine. I’d like to, though.” Tyler, disturbed by this, still is able to give an understanding nod. And this is what I meant by Never Cry Wolf having a lot more maturity to it than most environmental screeds. Rather than being the stereotypical Noble Savage, Mike is a guy who’s trying to make a living, and the way he makes his living is something Tyler’s not comfortable with. But rather than show horror, or disgust or contempt, Tyler is able to accept this. He doesn’t like it, but he understands that Mike’s gotta feed his family.
There’s another facet to this scene, I think. At this point, Tyler makes a small, but crucial mistake. This is just conjecture on my part; I’ll get back to it later on.
We really don’t see Tyler doing a lot of research in this film, though we get some great shots of the wolves going around their den. I imagine that the rough cut of the film had more of this sort of business, but Ballard was clearly more interested in how this project was affecting Tyler personally. And while Tyler has been frustrated in his attempt to observe wolves hunting caribou, he has, at least, been able to show to himself that he is indeed the new man he fancied himself at the beginning. In a nice bit of narration, he reveals that he’s nearing his deadline and will have to leave in a few weeks. But now, he doesn’t fear this place, and he looks at it more with a sense of wonder. It’s a nice moment, knowing that, come what may, Tyler has gotten something out of this study that he didn’t expect.
Ootek’s family is on their way north, and they stop by for the evening. Ootek relates a bit of Inuit lore. The short version is that the gods gave man the caribou to hunt and use for food, clothing, etc., and then the gods provided man with the wolves, who would hunt and weed out the sickest and weakest caribou. Ootek’s wife (played by Zachary Ittimangnaq’s real life wife) wonders if maybe Tyler had the same spirit-changing experience as Ootek had. Thankfully, this is the second — and last — overt bit of this sort of mystical talk in the whole film. Then comes the kicker: caribou are migrating south. Tyler has a good chance of seeing a hunt close-up, if he can get in the right place.
It’s showtime.
The three part ways. Mike goes south, while Ootek leads Tyler on a three day hike into the tundra. They set up a small outpost where the caribou will probably cross, and settle in for the evening; we have a long shot of Ootek playing his drumhead again.
The next day, Tyler goes for an early-morning swim in a nearby pond. If you’ve ever actually wanted to see Charles Martin Smith’s manongalolo, here’s your chance. I imagine, though, you’ll have a much more difficult time of it after he hits that cold water. (And that was Smith himself jumping in. I think I’ve said this before, but he’s a tougher guy than I am.)
After the dip, Tyler finds a spot to collapse and take a nap. And as he’s sleeping, the caribou start to come through. Ballard milks this, giving us a series of shots of the landscape, of Tyler sleeping, of the caribou trickling in... and of some distant wolves watching them. This sequence lasts a full minute, then....
I’ll do my best to describe the next sequence, but it’s best to just watch it; it’s one of the best-filmed action scenes I can think of.
Tyler wakes up to see a full heard of caribou gathered a few yards away from him. In the distance, several wolves are coming in, full speed. Tyler’s face says it all: Holy sh!t! The caribou start a stampede, and the soundtrack starts pounding out a group of tribal drums (this was in 1983, when tribal drums in an action sequence wasn’t a cliché).
Tyler starts running through the herd, trying to get in the best spot to observe, and at the same time trying to make sure he doesn’t get trampled. You can clearly see Charles Martin Smith’s face in this bit; he did most or all of his own stunts for this movie.* The drums grow in volume as the wolves descend, and the chase is on. The caribou roar past, with the wolves chasing after them.
*[I don’t know if Smith simply failed to capitalize on his performance in this film, or if Hollywood just showed its usual myopia. But Never Cry Wolf should have shattered his typecasting as a nerd or a nebbish. Anyone who’s willing to run full speed, al fresco, in 40-degree weather, going the wrong way through a stampeding herd of caribou, has a hell of a lot of steel in him.]
At this point, the sound empties out, and we have nothing but music (and a single line of narration at the end) for the rest of this sequence. The music is atonal and eerie; I wish Mark Isham had been put up for Best Score, one the strength of this one scene. The caribou and the wolves outrun Tyler, who runs like hell to try and catch up. The slowest dozen or so caribou fall behind and become isolated from the rest of the herd. Tyler tries to keep his attention on both the herd and the cut-off caribou, but he follows the isolated group when it becomes clear that the wolves are concentrating on chasing these guys down. At one point, Tyler goes over the edge, actually trying to join the hunt, jumping out and chasing the caribou himself.
The wolves lock on one caribou, which has a noticeable limp. They corner it, surround it, and go for the kill. Tyler rushes up to get a better view, and the wolves have already started feasting. The other caribou get moving while the wolves are busy eating. Tyler approaches, and the wolves shy away, though not too far: Tyler keeps in a non-threatening posture. Tyler bends over the caribou’s carcass, pulls a rib out, and breaks it, examining the marrow. The narration seals it: this caribou had bone disease. The Inuit lore wasn’t far off: the wolves appear to just be killing the sick and weak caribou off, leaving the strongest ones alone. It’s never stated in the film why the caribou have been dying off (I came to the conclusion, from the bone disease, that it was an epidemic). But Tyler has found what he’s looking for. He now has strong evidence that the wolves are off the hook.
Tyler gets back to the outpost and gets dressed. Ootek is nowhere to be seen (we get a shot of Ootek in the distance, walking away and singing to himself). Perhaps to give himself something to do, Tyler starts toying with Ootek’s drumhead, when he is startled to hear a distant gunshot. He goes to investigate.
He comes upon a small lake, where a seaplane is docked. Three men hang out, lounging around a beach umbrella, tossing a football. And one of them is none other than Rosie. This is the only part of the film that really lost me. Now, it’ll be explained, at least partly, how Rosie came to be in this area, in a little bit. But I find it an awfully steep coincidence that Rosie and his party just so happened to set up camp a couple of miles from Tyler’s outpost, on the very day that he completed his mission. Happily, this was the only moment in the film I could call a concrete flaw.
Rosie is surprised to see Tyler, and he almost doesn’t recognize him. He implies that he’s learned what Tyler’s real project was up here, and he says that a lot of people back in civilization have concluded that Tyler died up here months ago. Rosie reveals that he’s “hit the jackpot,” making a sale off a new hotel and buying two more planes, including the one out on the lake (which looks much more air-worthy than that tricycle-with wings-glued-on Rosie had at the beginning). Tyler asks if Rosie’s seen Ootek, and Rosie offends Tyler with a crass remark about Eskimos. One could note that Rosie has changed, and not for the better, but Rosie’s dialogue from earlier hinted that this is where he’s always wanted to be. Tyler and Rosie have — on the surface — switched places. Tyler has gone from lecture-hall professor to mountain man, and Rosie has gone from eccentric bush pilot to looking like a guy you’d see in an L. L. Bean catalog, a change that both men acknowledge. Rosie invites Tyler to join them for lunch. I liked the disoriented look on Tyler’s face as Rosie handed him that Nerf football; this sort of thing has become completely alien to him.
Tyler sits away from the others during lunch. We learn that the other two men are investors, and Rosie is pitching the idea of turning this land (which he now owns) into a resort. The investors are clearly sold on the idea, and Rosie talks of how he plans to exploit both the land and soak the tourists for every dollar he can get. Tyler’s disgust at this grows, and he can’t help but give himself a satisfied grin when a gust of wind knocks the beach umbrella over and blows it into the lake.
Rosie and his buddies start loading their stuff — including several wolf pelts and sets of caribou antlers — into the plane, and Rosie tells Tyler it’s time to go. Tyler backs away, and Rosie notes (perhaps rightly) that Tyler has “gone around the bend a little out here.” Tyler angrily swats him away, and Rosie drops a bomb on him: “I know where your camp is, Tyler. I’ll meet you there in a couple of days, and we’ll talk it over.” Uh oh.
Tyler’s narration, noting that Rosie could only know where the camp is if he’d been there, is too on-the-nose. But the film recovers immediately, by adding that Rosie can get to Tyler’s camp in less than an hour. Tyler needs to hike three days. He’s been gone for more than a week, and whatever has happened there, it may well be too late for Tyler to do anything about it.
When Tyler finally makes it back, the camp is very quiet. Fearing the worst, Tyler breaks a cardinal rule, going deep into George and Angie’s territory and crawling into their den.
The three pups cower there, terrified. Tyler wonders aloud what could have happened here, but already guessing at it. He hears Rosie’s plane in the distance, and he back out, trying to assure the pups, and himself, that things will be all right. But it’s pretty obvious at this point that things will not be all right.
Rosie comes down and lands on the lake. Tyler starts shouting at him, telling him to piss off. Rosie gives a wave from inside the cockpit, and we see that he has decorated the plane’s radio antenna with a wolf tail (note that the tail does not belong to George or Angie).
Tyler goes ballistic. He raises his rifle and starts shooting. One shot nicks Rosie’s plane. Rosie’s face says, “Screw this for a joke,” and he takes off, leaving Tyler behind, in a stance of (he thinks) righteous anger. Tyler’s about to get the rug pulled out from under him.
He trudges back to his hut, where he hears a radio playing inside. Mike is here, lounging, listening to the radio. When he sees Tyler, Mike gets very nervous and starts collecting his gear. He reveals he’s on his way back home, and he stopped off to rest before making the final push north. When Tyler asks about Ootek, Mike shrugs: “The old ones just have a way of disappearing... just like I’m about to do.” About this time, Tyler takes in Mike’s skittishness, and the fact that, in addition to the radio, Mike has small camera and a backpack loaded with stuff. Good acting on Smith’s part: we see the realization dawn on Tyler’s face as he puts together what probably really went down here. Hoping against hope, he asks about the wolves. Mike tries to dodge the question, but when Tyler presses, Mike cuts him off: “Stop worrying about [the wolves] and start worrying about yourself! This thing that’s happening is too big for you. It’s a question of how you survive it.” He smiles at Tyler, revealing a brand-new set of dentures. Mike gets the last word, uttering the last spoken line of dialogue in the film: “Survival of the fittest.” He leaves, and Tyler can do nothing but stand and watch in shock as Mike goes.
We go to a few days later. The summer is over, and the snow is falling again. Tyler’s project is over, and he’s going to have to suck it up and find a way back to the modern world. But there’s one bit of business to take care of first. He goes back up to the ledge and plays his bassoon, calling the wolf pack in. The wolves arrive, see the orphaned pups, and quickly take them in, absorbing them into the pack. The pups, at least, will live to fight another day.
Ootek has returned, and he watches this quietly. Tyler’s narration is tinged with regret. His first line is a bit too on-the-nose, stating that there were no clear heroes or villains here. But then he notes ruefully that he “had pointed the way for those who followed.” Tyler gives one last look at the pack, pups in tow, bounding away. He and Ootek quietly break camp and hike off into the wilderness. The final narration: “I believe the wolves went off to a wild and distant place somewhere, although I don’t really know... because I turned away, and didn’t watch them go.”
The final shots are surprisingly upbeat. Ootek leads Tyler, presumably helping him get back to civilization. An Inuit poem crawls up the screen as a cheerful tune plays on the soundtrack: “I think over again my small adventures, My Fears, Those small ones that seemed so big, For all I had to get and reach. And yet there is only one great thing, The only thing, To live to see the great day that dawns, And the light that fills the world.”
The final shots have Tyler and Ootek taking a break. From what I’ve read, Carroll Ballard happened to see Charles Martin Smith and Zachary Ittimangnaq clowning around between takes one day, got it on camera, and decided to end the film with the shot: Tyler attempts to teach Ootek how to juggle, and Ootek’s futile attempts leave both men laughing their heads off.
It’s left to the viewer to decide what will happen at this point. My conclusion was that Tyler will make his way back to civilization, Sadder But Wiser, and slowly rejoin the modern world. He’ll recover from this project slowly, and will honestly be a better man for his experiences.
The film has one small, subtle bit at the very end. During the final credits, the same melancholy, slightly menacing music we heard at the beginning plays again. If Tyler’s fears about man’s reactions to his findings prove correct, then the future for the wolves (and the caribou, for that matter) could be grim indeed. |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 10/28/2008 : 10:37:51 PM
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I read a glowing review of House of Sand and Fog (a movie I detested) by James Berardinelli, a critic whom I usually respect. Berardinelli stated that the movie showed “complex problems with no simple solutions.” I wonder if I should send him an e-mail, telling him that I’ve worked in a tax office, and I know enough about property tax laws to state, without a doubt, that the conflict in that film had a very simple solution, and that the movie was inexcuseably dishonest for saying otherwise.
The reason I bring this up is, you see critics sometimes fawning over a movie that’s often a political screed, saying that it offers “no simple solutions.” Yeah, right. Never Cry Wolf actually deserves that accolade. Though it can be viewed by older kids, it really is meant for grown-ups. The film gives few, if any, resolutions, and challenges the viewer to actually think. While we’ve seen plenty of films under Touchstone’s banner that could fit this description, Never Cry Wolf is one of two truly adult films made by Disney. (The other one, G rating notwithstanding, was The Straight Story.)
There is a lot of ambiguity in this film. We learn very little about the protagonist, and yet we have a good bead on his character by the end. Also, we don’t learn what really happened in the camp while Tyler was away (though I believe firmly that it was Mike, not Rosie, who shot the wolves). There are a lot of layers here, and it’s interesting to look at them.
If there is a flaw in this film, it’s the treatment of Ootek, placing him on a pedestal, giving him a sort of mystical glow. Of course, that could be Tyler’s own imperfect view of Ootek. And the man is so damned mercurial, coming and going without a word of warning.
But if Ootek’s character is a flaw, this problem is more than compensated for by the other Inuit character here, Mike. Mike, to my mind, is just as interesting and ambiguous character as is Tyler. Tyler depends on Mike to translate between him and Ootek, and certainly Tyler can relate to Mike more than he can the older Inuit. But then Mike reveals that his line of work is killing the animals that Tyler has grown to respect.... and then he turns around and kills the two wolves that Tyler has, in a way, adopted as pets. Even if Mike didn’t kill the wolves, he certainly led Rosie to the camp, and shared in the profits from kiling George and Angie.
Here, I think Tyler made that crucial mistake. After Mike revealed that he would have no problem shooting George and Angie, Tyler dropped the matter. He didn’t, say, get Mike to commit, giving his word that he wouldn’t do anything to harm the wolves, no matter what. Of course, Mike might still have broken his word, but Tyler didn’t even make a move to protect the wolves. It was a simple mistake, one that anyone could make, but it may have gotten the wolves killed.
From Mike’s perspective, there’s nothing wrong with what he did. As he tells Tyler, this is Darwin’s principle put into practice. Mike implies that modern man, with all his faults, may be “the fittest.” (How we deal with being “the fittest” is another matter. I never liked George Carlin, but when he nailed it, he nailed it. He once stated that anyone who said we need to “save the planet” deserved to get punched out. The planet will do just fine, with or without us. Anything we do to protect the environment, ultimately, is an effort to protect ourselves.) The thing is, the film does not state outright that Mike is wrong. There’s always the possiblity that Mike has simply made the pragmatic choice, going with the times, abandoning the old ways, seeing that those old ways are dying. Now, I’m not saying that’s the right point of view to take. The film doesn’t say that, either. But the fact that it puts the idea out there, and simply leaves it at that, tells me that the makers of Never Cry Wolf have a far better bead on things than the makers of other “statement” films.
Let me go off topic for just a second here and give a political rant. I hope for their sakes that the celebrities who endorse PETA are just naive dupes. As for the higher-ups at that organization, well, I have nothing but contempt for those clowns. I’m convinced that the leaders of PETA (and for that matter, other radical groups like Earth First) don’t give a damn about the well-being of animals, nor have they ever. They’re all about self-promotion, not altruism, and they don’t who they hurt to give themselves the spotlight. Several years ago, I read a quote from a high ranking member of PETA (sorry, I don’t remember the exact details or who it was, but the gist of it’s the same) who bemoaned the fact that “nature” had chosen to make a predator — man — the dominant species on Earth. The arrogance of this person was appalling. Believe me, there weren’t many ways to read his statement. For all intents and purposes, this man had stated that he was wiser than nature. (And if you throw religion into the mix to any degree, he was literally claiming to be wiser than God.) This is where Never Cry Wolf scores. It basically says that we’re now at the top of the food chain, and like I said above, how we deal with that is up to us. And it’s not shown as a good or bad thing, it’s just there.
Of course, it’s possible that Ballard and Company did indeed to make a sermon. Everything I said above could be completely wrong. It would be interesting to hear a commentary track on the DVD to get an idea of what Ballard had in mind when shooting this film. Alas, no go (more on that later). But there are little things that clue us in that, whatever Ballard’s beliefs, he was also willing to concede that we humans are members of a modern civiliation, and there’s nothing we can do to change that fact. Tyler may fancy himself as being part of the wolves’ world at times, but there’s one little thing that keeps him apart from them forever. We never see Tyler without his glasses. He even sleeps with them on. (There’s a nice touch here: you can see in several scenes that his glasses refract the image behind them; the lenses are practical. Either Charles Martin Smith really needed the glasses, or he endured some serious headaches for this film. Either way, kudos.) When Tyler does his streak, chasing after the wolves and caribou, he still has his hiking boots and his glasses. They’re a piece of modern civilization that Tyler can’t go without.
From everything I see in the film, it looks like the filmmakers were well aware of that dichotomy. This puts them head and shoulders above “respected” filmmakers like Oliver Stone, who have to get a dictionary to look up words like “ambiguity.” It’s things like that that make me a fan of Never Cry Wolf. (Also, it’s the idea of simply showing something and trusting the viewer to work things out for themselves that can get a staunch conservative like myself to champion a left-wing film like Koyaanisqatsi.) I wish I could say the following was sarcasm; unfortunately, in Hollywood, it usually isn’t. Let’s see. Shoot a film as best you can, just tell the story, don’t hit people over the head, get it out and let them put things together for themselves. Wow! What a concept!
Never Cry Wolf had some mild bumps along the way, so maybe it wasn’t an artistic grand slam for Disney. But it would be safe to say they knocked the ball out of the field with two men on base. It was the kind of movie they (and, for that matter, most other studios) hadn’t done before, and have rarely done since.
Well, that’s about it, as far as the film itself is concerned. I’m sure I’ll think of stuff I forgot and post it later on. But let’s go ahead and close out my (incredibly amateur and presumptuous) look at Ron Miller’s career at Disney.
Miller had gone up through the ranks at the studio, and he pretty much ran the place in the early eighties. That was probably the company’s most troubled time, and Miller got the blame for it. While a lot of it was deserved, I wonder if he hasn’t become a sort of fall guy for Disney’s troubles during this period. During the early eighties, he wanted to change Disney’s image, making more adult fare. There were a lot of false starts, but one could see things starting to gel. But there were a lot of takeover attempts on Miller’s watch, and Roy Disney and his partners kicked Miller out in 1984, bringing in Michael Eisner.
In one respect, the decision was right. Miller probably wasn’t cut out to be a CEO of a studio. But on the other hand....
Some of the decisions Miller made seemed like mistakes at the time, but they would go on to bring Disney a windfall (it’s happened again at least once at Disney; Lloyd Braun was fired from his job as TV production exec for giving the go-ahead for an expensive, risky new TV series: Lost). It was Miller who decided do create a new studio branch, Touchstone, to showcase Disney’s more adult films, while keeping the more family friendly work under the Disney logo. At the time, Miller was all for stepping slowly, not planning into R-rated territory, at least for a while. So, just as Miller was being handed his hat, what happened? Touchstone’s first release, Splash, made a killing, putting Disney right back in the pond (with the help of a fishified Daryl Hannah) with the rest of the big boys. Touchstone released another movie, a very good drama called Country, shortly thereafter. And it was Miller who got the ball rolling on a little fantasy-mystery called Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
And then Michael Eisner’s watch really took hold.
Eisner is credited with turning Disney into a cash cow, one of the biggest players in the industry. But one wonders what the cost was. For the next few years, Touchstone’s output wasn’t very impressive, mostly goofy comedies that came and went pretty fast. I think Touchstone first started to make waves with Down and Out In Beverly Hills, Disney’s first R rated film. And with that, any innocence Disney had was lost. They’d traded their image as a “safe” studio to take the family to in exchange for mainstream cred. And maybe they needed to. Certainly, up until around this point, Disney hadn’t been a director’s studio. But now they were wooing Martin Scorsese and Barry Levinson. Still, it’s strange to think that the studio that gave us Old Yeller and Lady and the Tramp was also the distributor of Pulp Fiction.
Of course, we all know how Disney roared back (hey, it’s the Mouse That Roared! Ha! I kill me!) with its animation department, becoming a juggernaut in the early nineties. It had its ups and downs, but The Mouse had come out on top. But Disney’s reputation has suffered from it; I remember how the studio became known for commercializing its stuff to an extreme degree, putting out hastily-made sequels to its hits on DVD. Eisner was largely responsible for this. And it’s interesting to note that Roy Disney kicked Eisner out on his ass a few years ago, in the same manner he’d done to Miller twenty years before. (I’ve read that Ron Miller has openly criticized Disney’s management, and he may have a good point.)
Now, okay. Ron Miller wasn’t cut out to be a CEO of a film studio. I still believe he had a place in Disney. The irony was, after so many years of false starts, he was shown the doorjust as he was latching onto what worked. We’ll never know. It would be interesting to read (or write) a book on Miller’s tenure at Disney, showing his highs and lows.
Now, maybe I’m giving the guy a free ride. It’s possible he was another version of Jon Peters: a fast-talking jack-ass who got lucky a few times and ran a studio into the ground. And it’s also possible that Miller has a good head for business, just not in film. This may be the most likely scenario; he seems to be doing very well with his winery now.
The thing that gives this the lie, though, is Disney’s own treatment of its Miller-era stuff. That treatment has been shameful. The one film from this period that has gotten a proper DVD release is Tron.
The others?
Disney sold them to Anchor Bay. Anchor Bay ended up giving them decent releases, considering that it’s not a big studio. Disney ended up buying back all its movies a few years ago, but I suspect it may have been to avoid further embarrassment. Anchor Bay had put out a very good release of The Watcher in the Woods (much better than that film deserved), and the supplemental material was highly critical of Disney. So, they bought their stuff back and released it themselves. And their DVD releases leave a hell of a lot to be desired. They don’t seem to want to admit that they actually had some good movies during this time.
Okay, it’s doubtful we’ll see a lot of people clamoring for a Special Edition of Herbie Goes Bananas. And they had more than their share of crappy movies. But here’s a listing of some of the movies Disney put out during this time, all of them worthy viewing:
Never Cry Wolf
Tex
Night Crossing
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Amy
Tron
The Black Hole (yes, I’m counting this one; indulge me)
Tron got a good release, with commentary, a very well-done making of feature (in which Ron Miller was never even mentioned), deleted scenes, the works.
The Black Hole and Something Wicked got good transfers, but skimped on the extras.
Never Cry Wolf and Tex had DVD transfers that were barely (and I do mean barely acceptable. No extras. No commentary, no trailers, no interviews or retrospectives, nothing.
Same thing with Night Crossing, which could have done with, say, a featurette about the actual families whose story it depicted. The DVD mastering job on Crossing? Horrible. Pan-and-scan only, with a soft, grainy print. Ugh!
Amy? Never on DVD.
Disney seems to want to sweep these films under the rug. Hopefully someone will wise up and at least give out a restored print on DVD. But I’m not holding my breath. Their treatment of these movies is an absolute shame. |
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Nlneff
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
USA
84 Posts |
Posted - 10/30/2008 : 08:43:41 AM
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Great review to a mostly forgotten movie. I had forgotten how funny it was at times.
Apparently the idea of Wolves subsisting on mice has as much validity as Lemmings deliberately jumping off sea cliffs to die (Now that’s a real irony, considering the Rat (Disney) is almost totally responsible for that myth.) But if you just take the movie as a fictional account, it works very well. And its nowhere near as heavy handed as you might expect.
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2008 : 4:30:26 PM
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Just finished watching it. Can't believe I'd never seen it before, not even heard about it. Now and then, looking for other info, I'd be recalled there was this movie featuring wolves and Charles Martin Smith, but never got the urge to check it out.
Now I'm glad I did. It's a terrific film, and so daring that it would be completely impossible to make today. I've also read one of the links that Brad here has provided about its making. These days not a single studio would trust a director to spend three years in the wilderness to make a film which barely has any dialogue, and much less allow him the time to shoot all this amazing wildlife footage, when CGI is available.
Sadly, I'm afraid nobody will ever do something like this again, unless their surnames are Annaud or Herzog and they can find nutjobs to pay for it. |
Edited by - Neville on 11/05/2008 4:38:32 PM |
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Never Cry Wolf (films I like) — Disney flicks 5
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