Cinema Cycle - White Wolf

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 05/15/2014

TITLE: White Wolf

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 55 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 12.2 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 188 miles

SYNOPSIS: Two naturalists track a pack of arctic wolves in the wilds of Canada in 1988.  

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Nature is beautiful and true peace and beauty lie where the wild things are.

PROS AND CONS: I am a documentary junkie.  A significant part of my LaserDisc collection is documentaries of one sort or another.  My collection contains over a dozen National Geographic videos.  I recall watching these on network television when I was growing up and they always enthralled me.  This was years before PBS’s “Nature” series or the “Wilderness Channel”.  

While this work is well done and very scenic, it also shows how dated the work is since its release 26 years ago.  Looking back at this from the digital age, it is amazing to see these two naturalists lugging around huge film cameras on the arctic tundra.  You realize that they must have shot hours of film and never knew if it turned out until they got back to civilization to have it developed.  

By modern standards, this is somewhat of an idealized documentary with a loose story-line developed to give the lives of the wolves a narrative that the viewer can identify with.  Since the wolves in question lived in such a remote area, they had never had contact with humans and therefore had no fear of the camera crew.  This lead to close contact between the crew and the wolves, to the point where they were actually feeding the wolves like pets and playing with their cubs.  Something that would be considered a big ‘No-No’ by modern standards.

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. [not available for this title] 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.