aroraborealis

Having just seen Real Genius for the first time, the conversation in my living room now is, what movies are required viewing?

I don't really have any that I think are required viewing for understanding my humor or some part of my psyche or things I refer to a lot, and I can't think of any that I think really must be seen just on principle. What about you?

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.