Never Cry Wolf (1983) is an American drama film adaption of Farley Mowat's autobiography of the same name. The film, directed by Carroll Ballard, features Charles Martin Smith, Brian Dennehy, and Zachary Ittimangnaq.[1]
The drama was made during the 1980s when Walt Disney Productions, under the guidance of Walt Disney's son-in-law Ron W. Miller, was experimenting with more mature plot material in its films. The following year Miller would start the Touchstone Pictures label.
The premise of the film is that the Arctic's caribou population is rapidly dwindling, and wolves are being blamed, yet no one has seen a wolf kill a caribou. The authorities send Tyler (Charles Martin Smith) - a biologist and a survival expert - into the wilderness to study the wolves.
Plot
Starring Charles Martin Smith as a young government biologist, Tyler, who is assigned to travel to the isolated Arctic wilderness of Northern Canada to study the area's savage population of wolves. His orders are to gather proof of the wolves' ongoing destruction of caribou herds.
Contact with his quarry comes quickly, as he discovers not a den of marauding killers, but a courageous family of skillful providers and devoted protectors of their young. As Tyler learns more and more about the wolf world, he comes to fear, along with them, the onslaught of hunters (Brian Dennehy) out to kill the wolves for their pelts and exploit the wilderness. He must now make a choice - should he return to the life he once knew or should he take a stand - defending this breathtaking new world?
Background
The film's fundamental premise is that life in the Arctic seems to be about dying: not only are the caribou and the wolves dying, but the indigenous Inuit people as well. The animals are losing their habitat and the Inuit are losing their land and their resources while their youth are being seduced by modernity. They are trading what is real, true, and their time-honored traditions for the perceived comforts of the modern world.
Never Cry Wolf blends the documentary film style with the narrative elements of drama, resulting in a type of docudrama. It was originally written for the screen by Sam Hamm but the screenplay was altered over time and Hamm ended up sharing credit with Curtis Hanson and Richard Kletter.[2]
The picture is also noteworthy for being the first Walt Disney film to show naked adult buttocks. The buttocks shown are those of actor Charles Martin Smith.[3]
Smith devoted almost three years to Never Cry Wolf. Smith wrote, "I was much more closely involved in that picture than I had been in any other film. Not only acting, but writing and the whole creative process." He also found the process difficult. "During much of the two-year shooting schedule in Canada's Yukon and in Nome, Alaska, I was the only actor present. It was the loneliest film I've ever worked on," Smith said.[4]
L. David Mech, an internationally recognized wolf expert who has researched wolves since 1958 in places such as Minnesota, Canada, Italy, Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, and on Isle Royale, criticized the work, stating that Mowat is no scientist and that in all his studies, he had never encountered a wolf pack which regularly subsisted on small prey as shown in Mowat's book or the film adaptation.[5]
Filming locations
The film locations included Nome, Alaska, the Yukon Territory, and British Columbia, Canada.[6]
Cast
- Charles Martin Smith as Tyler, a biologist without any survival skills, yet brave enough to study wolves in their environment.
- Brian Dennehy as Rosie, the bush-pilot, a care-free type who exploits the region for money.
- Zachary Ittimangnaq as Ootek, an Inuit who helps Tyler survive the wilderness.
- Samson Jorah as Mike
- Hugh Webster as Drunk
- Martha Ittimangnaq as Woman
- Tom Dahlgren as Hunter #1
- Walker Stuart as Hunter #2
Critical reception
When the film was released, a review in the Los Angeles Times called the film, "...subtle, complex and hypnotic...triumphant filmmaking!"[7]
On the television program Siskel & Ebert At the Movies, Gene Siskel felt the film was "absolutely terrific" and Roger Ebert said "this is one of the best films I've ever seen about Man's relationship with the other animals on this planet", both gave the film "Thumbs Up".
Brendon Hanley of Allmovie also liked the film, especially Smith's performance, and wrote, "Wolf's protagonist, wonderfully played by the reliable character actor Charles Martin Smith...The result is a quirky, deceptively simple meditation on life."[8]
Ronald Holloway, film critic of Variety magazine, gave the film a mostly positive review, and wrote "For the masses out there who love nature films, and even those who don't, Carroll Ballard's more than fits the commercial bill and should score well too with critical suds on several counts."[9]
Some critics found the premise of the film a bit hard to believe. Vincent Canby, film critic for The New York Times, wrote, "I find it difficult to accept the fact that the biologist, just after an airplane has left him in the middle of an icy wilderness, in a snowstorm, would promptly get out his typewriter and, wearing woolen gloves, attempt to type up his initial reactions.[10] Canby added, the film was "a perfectly decent if unexceptional screen adaptation of Farley Mowat's best-selling book about the author's life among Arctic wolves."
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 100% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on eleven reviews.[11]
Distribution
The film opened in limited release October 7, 1983 and went into wide circulation January 20, 1984.
The film was in theaters for 192 days (27 weeks) and the total US gross sales were $27,668,764. In its widest release the film appeared in 540 theaters (2/17/84).[12]
Comparisons to book
There are several differences in the film when compared to Mowat's book. In the book, Ootek and Mike's roles are reversed, Mike is actually Ootek's older brother (Ootek is a teenager) and Ootek speaks fluent English and communicates openly with Mowat while Mike is more reserved.
The film adds a more spiritual element to the story while the book was a straight-forward story. The film also isolates the characters while in the book, Mowat meets several people from different areas of the Arctic.
Also in the book, the wolves are not killed and neither did the bush pilot bring in investors to build a resort.[13]
Awards
Wins
- Boston Society of Film Critics Awards: 4th BSFC Award; Best Cinematography, Hiro Narita; 1984.
- Hawaii International Film Festival: Excellence in Cinematography Award, Hiro Narita; 1984.
- Motion Picture Sound Editors: Golden Reel Award; Best Sound Editing - Sound Effects; 1984.
- National Society of Film Critics Awards: NSFC Award Best Cinematography, Hiro Narita; 1984.
- Western Heritage Awards: Bronze Wrangler; Theatrical Motion Picture, Carroll Ballard; 1984.
Nominations
- Academy Awards: Best Sound; Alan Splet, Todd Boekelheide, Randy Thom, and David Parker; 1984.
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Uber-sly teen slasher flick!
CRY WOLF was a pleasant surprise for me. I'm a sucker for teen slasher
hnt_dnl from United States - 23 November 2008flicks, even bad ones, but thankfully, this one ain't bad at all! It's
actually very good and involving. It starts off w/ a local prep girl
getting murdered in the woods late at night. Then cut to our hero Owen
(well played by Julian Morris), a slightly troubled teen whose rich
daddy got him transferred to the same school of the murdered girl. As
soon as he arrives, the entire campus is in the auditorium, save one
student sitting outside on the steps smoking. Her name is Dodger
(played by the hot, redheaded Lindy Booth in a dynamic, sexy
performance). Wow, this girl exudes sensuality and power just by
looking at you! It's easy to see why Owen quickly falls for her.This is where CRY WOLF succeeds where so many other flicks like this
fail: it actually has 3-dimensional lead characters! Not to mention a
damn good supporting cast (Jared Padalecki as Tom, Jesse Janzen as
Randall, and none other than Jon Bon Jovi in a totally convincing
performance as an English teacher!).So, what's the hook of CRY WOLF? These students, led by Dodger and
Owen, decide to play a game where they create a fake killer named 'The
Wolf' by floating random emails via the internet. Then they proceed to
scare and fool the Bejesus out of each other during the 'game'. Owen is
our guide through this entertaining whodunit and of course he thinks
there's more than meets the eye. This is what makes CRY WOLF similar to
URBAN LEGEND: a central character who believes killings are going on
but no one believes him (or her). But this flick is even better than
URBAN LEGEND. It has more confidence and focus and seems more complete.
And the ending is more of a shocker than URBAN LEGEND's was. Darn good
flick!
This is Not a Thriller
I will admit that as a teenager, I was a fan of the classic teen
Mila - 11 October 2008slasher/thriller flicks like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer,
Urban Legend, and The Faculty. When I saw the previews for Cry Wolf, I
thought that this was exactly what I was going to get: a thriller/
slasher film with a mysterious killer that kills people throughout the
movie and has the audience trying to guess who is behind all the
mayhem. I was so bored with this movie that I fell asleep temporarily
near the beginning of it and woke up to the same thing: boredom. I was
checking the running time on the DVD player and still after 50 minutes
I was bored and was asking myself "why am I still watching this
movie?". I thought that the party at the end of the movie was going to
be the highlight of the movie with a lot of thrills and kills (similar
to the first Scream) but instead it was a predictable play-by-play
sequence that made me frustrated that an hour of the film had gone by
with no climax, no additional killings since the girl at the beginning
of the movie, and little screen time of the "killer". Near the end when
a few "killings" had occurred, I had a feeling that this was all a hoax
that was part of the game. When this became truth, it got me wondering
what the heck was the point of this movie? Although the ending was
completely shocking, it was not satisfying considering that I had
already wasted about 90 minutes watching this disappointing "thriller".
If you're looking for a good mystery with a twisting plot, watch this
one. However, if you looking for a thriller with a lot of kills and
blood, this movie isn't for you.
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