I can't think of any good movies that portray survival skills in a positive light, and in the new movie, "The Hunted", the survival skills are once again used to support a campaign of murder and mayhem. Nonetheless, I found the visual portrayal of (primitive) survival skills to be clear and accurate. The story is of course, way over the top and then climbs into the silly stratosphere by the end, but the appropriately hammy acting by Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro makes the whole thing a exciting good time. It is way better than the similarly themed Anthony Hopkins movie, "Instinct", and I heartily recommend it as a must see for participants in this forum!


{Note: No Altoids boxes were harmed in the filming of this movie.}

Yes this movie is next on my list. But you did make an interesting point about how survival is being shown in the media. Term survival is used very loosely now and usually carries a negative meaning (kidnaper of E. Smart was surviving in the teepee in the mountains). Even our host’s site “Equipped to Survive” may strike a negative cord if you didn’t know any better. Equipped to survive? Survive what? Equipped how? Say it to somebody on the street and they will picture you in the camo outfit with m16 and anti gov’t feelings. But than again if you try to explain it, all of the sudden it becomes cool and ok to be equipped to survive. The question that is asked the most is: why do you need all those survival skills if you live in the US which is relatively civilized country and you are not a soldier going on a special mission (another movie cliché). Movies in general portray ex Special Forces guys as experts in survival but that usually goes hand to hand with some kind of violent or equally retarded plot. Remember Rambo? Well he was a good guy and clever as hell but still body count was pretty high there. Like a Pavlov’s dog public in general associates survival with violence. And also there is good type of violence and there is bad type of violence. In good type of violence character actually uses his survival skills to get bad guys. In bad type of violence character uses his skill to kill good people. But at the end violence is still violence no matter what caused it. Now because of the twisted image that survival has (thanks to Hollywood) if you know how to start a fire with one match and can use your knife for more than spreading mayo on your bread you are potentially dangerous. On this board there were already remarks how PSK should be called PAK (Personal Adventure Kit) just to avoid raised eyebrows. So in conclusion I’m waiting for MacGyver to come up on video so I can watch every episode and make notes.

Matt

I've put off seeing this movie precisely because it does look like another Rambo-like nutjob on the loose kind of flick. Movies that show survival skills in a postive light do indeed seem to be few and far between. The Edge with A. Hopkins & one of the Baldwin brothers did a fair job (even though a fashion executive did try to use the occassion to murder his boss & steal the supermodel away). The Earthling was another good survival flick. William Holden was excellent as the dying curmudgeon educating Ricky Schroeder in the skills of survival.

If I grow weary of watching the war news this weekend, I may go see The Hunted just to see if I can pick apart any technical details......but I refuse to enjoy the movie <img src="images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

P.S.: I forgot to add that Tom Brown Jr. is the tracking/survival consultant for this movie...

You might find what Tom Brown had to say about his role in the movie interesting at the Tracker school web site. I heard part of the story 19 years ago when he used it as an example of what happens when you become to focused on the track and don't have enough respect for the other persons skill. The case that the movie is "loosely" based on is supposed to be in his new book " Case files of the Tracker"

Thanx tracker1 -- there are indeed some interesting supplemental interviews and reviews at Tom Brown Jr.'s website.

For those interested here is a link to the trackerschool.com website.

I watched a movie recently that was supposed to be based on a true story, don't remember the name though, but it was on one of the big networks. Anyway a wife is getting abused by her husband and has a child. She finds one of those underground railroad places to gointo hiding when no one else will help. The husband tracks her down and attacks her in her house. Shes wearing some kind of bracelet that when she squeezes sprays pepper spray allowing her to escape. he chases in her car and she keeps saying "just a little farthur" and finally comes to a bridge that is closed and has a steel gate across the road that her car fits under but the husbands surburban it too tall and crashes into it. She drives to an abandond house and pulls a bug out bag out of the car trunk, changes clothes and gets in another car and leaves. In the end she takes a self defense course and confronts the husband, cuts the phone line and has a cell phone jammer so the husband has to fight her. Her skills allow her to win the fight and the husband dies. Some of the parts like the EDc of her defense bracelet, the bug out bag in the car, the planned escape route seemed pretty well thought out.

Your welcome, you might also find the link to Mike's site www.tacticalawareness.com interesting, he's one of the instructors for Scout Protector and a 23 year vet. of SEAL teams 3-6. One of the finest example of a warrior I've meet.

Personally, I think the Lord Of the Rings trilogy portrays survival skills splendidly. Samwise packs pots and pans, a splendid elfin rope and survival cake and utilised a practical pack pony ( who in all likelyhood would have stove in the rib cages of the Ringwraith's horses.) Tolkien related Sam was based on the common,yoeman soldiers of England he met in the trenches of W W 1.