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Where the Wild Things Are: The Best Man vs. Nature Movies
Tom Hanks in Cast Away (2000)
It’s like a bad nightmare: Being stranded in the wild with scant resources and no guarantee of survival, your very existence hanging in the balance. What can you eat? How do you make it out alive? And—once all your social and cultural guideposts are stripped away—how do you manage to hang on to your humanity? This harrowing scenario has provided grist for the imaginations of many moviemakers over the years.
In The Grey, the latest man vs. nature movie to hit theaters, Liam Neeson stars as the leader of an oil drilling team that must struggle for survival after a plane crash leaves them stranded in the harsh and wintry Alaskan wilderness. Not helping matters is the nearby pack of hungry wolves, which views the humans as both intruders and the main course on their dinner menu.
With The Grey coming to theaters today, we thought it’d be a perfect time to take a look back at some of the most thrilling man vs. nature movies from the past 40 years.
Walkabout (1971)
directed by Nicolas Roeg
This odd, beautifully shot film, loosely based on the novel of the same name by James Vance Marshall, takes place in the Australian outback. In it, a teenage girl (Jenny Agutter) and her younger brother (Luc Roeg, son of the director) are forced to fend for themselves in the desert after their father kills himself on a picnic outing. After several days, the weakened siblings encounter a young Aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil) on a “walkabout” (a ritualistic separation from his tribe), who teaches them how to survive in the wild. With its slow pacing and minimalist dialogue, the arty Walkabout is definitely an acquired taste, but its lush setting and beautiful visuals (Roeg, who also shot the film, was previously a cinematographer) make it an unforgettable tale of isolation, survival and friendship.
Deliverance (1972)
directed by John Boorman
In John Boorman’s masterful Deliverance, the human threat proves just as dangerous as nature. Based on James Dickey’s acclaimed novel (which Dickey adapted himself), the film follows four Atlanta businessmen (played by Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox) on a white water rafting trip in the remote Georgia wilderness. Suffice it to say, things don’t go according to plan, as a pair of backwoods hillbillies proceed to turn the city boys’ weekend getaway into the trip from hell. The movie suggests that, in the untamed wilderness, any of us is capable of becoming a beast. Featuring excellent performances from the four leads, dynamic camerawork (much of the movie was shot on the Chattooga River), an incessantly catchy theme song (“Dueling Banjos”) and one of the most disturbing rape sequences ever filmed (“Squeal like a pig!”), Deliverance is a true American classic.
Never Cry Wolf (1983)
directed by Carroll Ballard
Never Cry Wolf dramatizes the true story of a government biologist, Farley Mowat (Charles Martin Smith), who is sent to the Canadian tundra to collect evidence that vicious wolves are causing harm to the dwindling caribou population. During his time in the uncompromising, isolated Arctic wilderness, Farley (who possesses no survival skills to speak of) comes to realize that the old wolf rumors are mostly untrue; in fact, the wolves are not malicious killers, but rather skillful providers, devoted protectors of their young and beneficial to the environment. Essentially, the story is the antithesis of The Grey, in which the wolves are portrayed as big, cold-hearted baddies. Smith, the only actor onscreen for most of the film, gives a passionate performance as he comes to realize that it is the humans who pose the greatest threat to the land… and to the wolves. Filmed entirely on location, Never Cry Wolf is the story of one man’s determination to get to the truth as he struggles to survive in alien territory.
Alive (1993)
directed by Frank Marshall
Talk about a horrible situation… Alive details the true story of an Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the Andes after a plane crash. After two months of being trapped in the freezing cold, their meager rations having already run out, the remaining survivors must resort to desperate measures in order to stay alive: Eating the flesh of those who died in the crash, many of whom were their close friends and family members. Luckily, the story does have a hopeful ending, as two of the passengers are able to escape the mountains and alert the authorities after a 12-day trek. Ultimately, 16 people survived the crash, while 29 died. Though the subject matter could have become a lurid, unbearably bleak film, Alive approaches events from a more hopeful perspective, focusing on the unwavering bravery of the survivors and their gritty determination to survive against incredible odds.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by aboutpaydayloans on 2/02/12 at 11:56 am
I saw Into the Wild at the London Film Festival a few years ago and was truely moved, a great story and a great piece of cinematography.
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