Hi,
Have you seen the Canadian movie "The Snow Walker"? (I just rented and watched it) What do you think of it? Do you find it realistic for a movie about survival?
François

I haven't seen it, but now that you've brought it up I will probably rent it and watch it.

I saw Charles Martin Smith's adaptation of another Farley Mowat work, "Never Cry Wolf", and it seemed fairly authentic. He seemed to be more interested in "getting it right" than in turning the story into yet another Hollywood cookie-cutter movie.

Another good movie, if you haven't seen it, is "Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner". This was filmed with Inuit (Eskimo) actors in Inuktitut with English (or French) subtitles. They made a point of trying to portray pre-Columbian Inuit life as accurately as possible. (In the "Behind the scenes" extra on the DVD, the director was very critical of some white directors who have sacrificed realism for the "good shot"; one example he cited was a movie in which two Inuit were shown lighting a ridiculously oversized Kudlik, or seal-oil stove, on the bed between them, inside an igloo.)

Thank you, I'll try to rent the movies you cited. Have you seen The Snow Walker yet? In the movie the woman inuit lights a fire with sparks from flint stones. Is it possible and easy to find those stones like pyrite, marcasite and punk (a fungi that when dry makes tinder) in Canadian boreal forests?
Thanks
François

François;

I bought the DVD but haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Maybe tonight.

In answer to your question - I haven't used or found any of these materials, although you can buy chunks of iron pyrites ("fool's gold") in many jewellery and science stores, and I have a small piece of it somewhere at home.

According to my reading, I know that the - um - pre-Columbian inhabitants of North America did use iron pyrites and flint to make sparks; their most prized tinder was the true tinder fungus, found on dying birch trees. Supposedly, this would catch a spark and hold it, so it could be transferred to the kindling. Their next most prized was the false tinder fungus, which was more common and would also provide excellent tinder, but needed to be prepared first by boiling it and doing some other stuff to it.

I'm pretty sure that anyone who was trained in native bushcraft skills would be much better able to spot these items than I would, and at least two of the three would have been readily available. (I suspect fool's gold was something they would have prized and carried with them, possibly trading for it if there was none to be found locally; but the other two are readily available.)

For more information on bushcraft skills in the Northern Boreal Forest, try Mors Kochanksi's "Northern Bushcraft" (the second edition which is the one currently in stores was titled simply "Bushcraft" by the publishers, a decision Mors wasn't too happy about apparently.)

I just watched this movie on DVD and I thought it was AWESOME! (Ok, sorry about the caps and the exclamation mark, but it was.)

The only thing I found unrealistic about it was the plane crash (I don't think I'm giving anything away, the minute you find out the lead character is a pilot, you just know there's going to be a plane crash in the movie, right?) An oil leak/partial engine failure is not going to render the aircraft uncontrollable. They could have achieved the same result in a much more realistic fashion without the histrionics of the pilot screaming "aaarrrrgghhh!" as he desperately tries to pull up the nose of the "stricken" airplane.

Whether the director read Laurence Gonzales's book ("Deep Survival") or not, there was a lot in the movie that could have been using it as a reference. Charlie's relative lack of preparedness for the arctic conditions, his brash overconfidence (e.g. his assumption that he could walk two or three hundred miles across the tundra to civilisation as if it was the same as, say, hitchhiking from Montreal to Ottawa). His transformation from "ignorant city slicker" to "snow walker" reminded me of Gonzales's description of Ken Killip, who got lost in Rocky Mountain National Park in 1998.

I didn't find the way the Inuit woman, Kanaalaq, was portrayed to be in any way unrealistic; there was none of the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" balderdash about her being able to defy the laws of physics, that one often finds in movies that try to glamorise other cultures. Everything she did was simply something that, when you think about it, must have been second nature to anyone who was raised in that environment. (The scene where she started a fire using a flint and steel with only two sharp blows may have been slightly exaggerated - but then again, maybe not.)

If anyone gets a chance to rent this movie on DVD, I highly recommend it. It would be a great movie to educate youth groups on why studying survival skills is important (it's rated PG, meaning it should be suitable for all ages). There might be some controversy with the PETA supporters as it does show the two lead characters hunting animals for food; I guess that's the price you pay for realism. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

OK - now I have to rent it - thanks for the review... It sounds like a good one to show the Scouts.

Took them backpacking this weekend - first time for all of them - only 6 miles (trail winds through deep and wooded ravines, up and down), but they all had an epiphany - I think we just killed the car-camping paradigm. They're pumped up for more... except they want at least a 3 day trip next time. Hmmm...

Tom

>>but they all had an epiphany - I think we just killed the car-camping paradigm.<<

That's pretty much the way it happened for me. Once I started, it was decades before I got back to car camping again... and that was just for the beach, or to introduce people to camping.

Funny how that works for people- newbies, by and large, feel secure sleeping in campgounds, and are afraid of being out in real wilderness at night. I feel just the opposite, much more vulnerable in a campground (with it's assorted yahoos), and much safer out where nobody knows where I am.

I couldn't agree more.

I've never felt insecure out in the wilderness, and I've done a canoe trip into the BWCAW nearly every year since I was about 15, up until a couple years ago. I don't like campgrounds because of the lack of solitude. But I just don't have the energy to do that anymore. Fortunately, I've found a campground on the edge of the BWCAW, that has widely separated campsites on the water. They are the most beautiful campsites I've ever seen that I didn't have to paddle to. The ones that aren't designed for trailers/campers are separated from the access road a bit. I can car camp, and be comfortable, and still have a sufficient amount of solitude.

Another point is that it's not only an adventure story, it's a bit of a tear-jerker as well, so even those who aren't really "into" survival will likely enjoy it. (I'm trying not to be sexist here, so I'm not going to refer to it as a "chick flick"; but it is a beautiful love story - a love story, moreover, where the two lovers don't get nekkid, hot and sweaty.) The caribou hunt is filmed realistically but it's not gory or gross.

For those who are interested in action and adventure I think there's enough to keep all but a devoted Steven Seagal fan from dozing off. It's not Rambo, but otoh, it has a plot and good acting <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

And if all else fails, it's worth watching for the scenery alone.

Just my $.02 worth <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />