Word: mowat
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...story of Never Cry Wolf, from Farley Mowat's best-selling autobiographical account, seems to beg for such treatment. A young biologist (Charles Marin Smith) dispatched by the Canadian government to the wilds of Alaska to monitor the depletion of Caribou herds at the fangs of wolves, finds that these predators don't conform at all to the fearsome image of snarling savagery--they're actually peace-loving, good-natured animals...
...from being the principal actors, the wolves are only part of the larger tapestry of nature, and Never Cry Wolf becomes a chronicle of self rather than scientific discovery. Mowat's point, that wolves provide a necessary service by killing off the old, weak and diseased members of the caribou herds, is anchored in an intense awareness of the interrelatedness of all things in nature--a perception from which man has unfortunately separated himself from many superimposed layers of civilization...
...OPENING has Mowat sitting in the middle of a glacial field, attempting to ward off an enveloping blizzard with the comical and futile bureaucratic gesture of typing a work report. By the end of the film he is running stark naked in the midst of a stampeding herd of caribou. Neither scenes are models of scientific investigation--let alone verisimilitude--but they serve admirable to frame Mowat's journey into awareness through the medium of Ballard's slightly surreal vision. If at times the meshing of beguiling photography with the Tangerine Dream-like score begins dangerously to suggest Jean-Jacques...
Even the moments of Disney-esque nature whimsy have a more adult flavor than usual. The film's wry humor rises to considerable heights when Mowat, attempting to gain the trust and respect of the wolves, marks his territory with many teapots and several hours worth or urination--a process which takes the head or alpha-wolf George only two brief minutes...
...only be thankful that George and his pack are allowed to maintain their autonomy of lupine identity--they're not vested with comforting little anthropomorphic traits that would make them seem at home mowing our neighbors' lawn. In fact, it is Mowat who consistently tries to come closer to the wolves' style of life, as his attempt to approximate their diet (mice) and territory-marking habits illustrate. These two comical and slightly disgusting episodes grow out of the film's deeply serious message, that it is not for us to quantify and tame nature, but simply to live...