Never Cry Wolf

[aroraborealis]

When I was a kid, my parents took me to see this movie, one of our rare theater outings. I remember having a hard time remembering the title: "What's the mvoie called again? Never Cry Fox?" Obviously, I didn't make the connection to the boy who cried wolf. I also remember liking the movie, and some of the story elements, but not much more than that. It came out in 1983, so I would have been 6 or 7 when I saw it.

It did make enough of an impression, though, that I've thought about it off and on since then. And when I signed up for Netflix in the fall, it went on my queue. I've had it for about a week, waiting for the right mood to strike me, and that was finally tonight.

I think this may be the best movie I've seen in the last couple of years. The beautiful setting doesn't hurt, but the story is fantastic, and the character development is fabulously convincing.

The setup is that Farley Mowat, a government researcher, is sent to the north to find proof that wolves are depleting the caribou population and should, therefore, be eradicated. The story, needless to say, is of a plan that goes awry.

I don't often recommend movies, but this is a beautiful movie, touching, and thought-provoking. I highly recommend it. It's also a good bet for kids, though it has a bit of scary stuff, which obviously made an impression on me when I watched it as a kid, because that's some of what I remembered most clearly about it. I remembered a lot of the funny stuff, too, though, and I greatly enjoyed linking up my memories of it with my re-experiencing it now.

Comments

[agaran.livejournal.com]

My aunt, the retired small-game endocrinologist who's been a resident of Fairbanks for about 40 years, sent the book on which the movie is based to me when I was about 13 and it made a huge impression. I loved the movie when it came out, too. Thanks for bringing it back to mind.