Grey Wolf Film

[Wesley Godinez]

Butanimal rights activists, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), have called for a boycott of the movie, saying the portrayal is misguided and couldn't come at a worst time: when packs of wolves, reintroduced by federal wildlife biologists, are desperately trying to regain footholds across some of America's northern reaches. The movie's premiere comes as a radio-collared wild wolf known as OR-7 has drawn the attention of many fans as wildlife officials track it from Idaho through Oregon and into northern California.

For their part, the filmmakers say they meant to build drama, not animosity towards wild canines that once roamed nearly all corners of the globe, but have dwindled dramatically in numbers as they've been hunted and squeezed into restricted territories

While thousands of Europeans were killed by wolves between the 1500s and 1800s, the number dwindled to 21 reported fatal wolf attacks since 2000. Most have been in rural Russia, but recent attacks also include one wolf-related death in Saskatchewan, Canada, and one in Alaska -- the 2010 mauling death of teacher Candice Berner, who was out jogging near Chignik Lake, Alaska.

Historically, North American wolves are more reluctant to approach humans than in Europe. The likely reason is that American settlers were usually armed, so wolves, as a group, learned to avoid them. In Europe, usually only the elites had guns, meaning wolves had less to fear.

Today, territorial threats and starvation are likely the two chief reasons for wolf attacks, but some researchers posit that wild wolves can, in fact, begin to explore humans as prey under certain other conditions.

Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations.

Dermot Mulrony (glasses) and Liam Neeson (to his right) are two of the oil-riggers trying to survive Alaskan wilderness and a pack of wolves after a plane crash in The Grey. Courtesy Rotten Tomatoes staff

This is ultimately a story of men enduring hardship together and becoming more human for it, especially as they struggle to survive their fear, and often horribly forbidding weather, not to mention the wolves.

I buy this, even though I believe also that wolf attacks are very rare. So the real problem is not a film like this, if you watch it all the way through and acknowledge its philosophical aspects and its human story. The problem is reactionary politicians trying to undermine a long-sought re-population of wolves. For the first time ever, Congress may legislatively remove protections for an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, reports the Center for Biological Diversity. Several bills have been introduced removing protections for wolves.

Wolves have seen tremendous recovery in the northern Rocky Mountains and Great Lakes. But the job of recovery is not yet complete. With removal of protections, Wyoming would allow wolves to be shot on sight across most of the state and both Montana and Idaho would dramatically reduce wolf numbers.

This threat brings me back to another aspect of The Grey, the wolf howls. Their cries are uncannily powerful, strangely musical and poignant. And they are an acoustic force of nature. Wolf howls can under certain conditions be heard from distances of up to 50 square miles.

The soul-bracing wolf cry can penetrate the grey shield of human indifference. It would be a travesty to begin a regressive killing of such intelligent, highly social creatures with their wondrously profound call of the wild.

No family, no friends, nothing waiting for him, just the memory of a brighter past. Why would a man who got stripped down till he had nothing left, a man seriously contemplating suicide, end up fighting for his own survival? The question left me thinking of this philosophically heavy film all year. People walked into the movie expecting a plane crash and Liam Neeson fist fighting wolves and got a much deeper art film.

This scene is a testament to the power and importance of sound. Another impressive scene that makes good use of sound takes part much later in the film. After the plane crashes in the middle of nowhere they set out to the distant woods to avoid any more wolf attacks.

The number of survivor starts declining and surprisingly most characters die from the very things I mentioned. The most memorable death to me has to be that of Diaz. The one character we thought would never give up finally gives in accepting the fact that we all die one day.

I think you make some very valid point. I think the decision of going to the woods was a mistake but as far as he knew, it was a better place to protect himself. he seemed to have struggled with decision as it was definitely risky to leave the crash site.

Generally, Hollywood does a great disservice to the wolf. It is not the savage man-eating predator we see in most wolf-slasher horror films. They are a natural part of the food chain in the wilderness; they help maintain a healthy balance between herds of deer and other wildlife. They tend to run away from humans, rather than attack them. The only balanced and correct cinematic depiction of the nature of wolves that I know of was the 1983 movie Never Cry Wolf. Highly recommended.

Posted in Adventure Tourism, British Columbia, British Columbia Tourism, Canada Tourism, Movie Industry, Movie Locations, Movie Stunts, Movie Trivia, Vancouver British Columbia Tags: British Columbia, Bulkley Valley, grey wolves, Liam Neeson, Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter, Smithers, The Grey, Wolves

Actually, I am surprised by the number of films shot in Vancouver. Your article inspired me to find out more about this topic. I did not know that pieces such as Twilight, or Butterfly Effect were filmed in Vancouver. Nice to hear that so many filmmakers decide to shoot here!

Well, actually, a portion of The Grey was filmed in Edmonton; which is not in British Columbia. Edmonton is in Alberta, so while still in Canada, it is not accurate to say that the entire movie was filmed in British Columbia.

BTW, there are wolves in that area. I worked in a hunting camp there and a pack of 8 wolves surrounded the hunters. The wolves got withing 15-20 of each person there and they ended up killing 6 of the wolves ton

A lot of foreign animation companies don't bother exporting their films into the North American market because it's expensive, although Netflix and other streaming services are rapidly changing that. Sometimes it's a case of whether foreign audiences will be able to relate to the content. Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf feels very Russian, culturally. I get the impression it's poking fun at a lot of fairy tales, and I have no idea what they are. Still, it was an ok watch.

The character named "Ivan Tsarevich" is a recurring Russian hero who turns up in several folktales. For example, Ivan (and a wolf) can be found in the story of The Firebird, although that's not what this film is based on. And in that story and in this film, the wolf is a good guy! That makes me so happy! The film also throws in common Russian antagonists Baba Yaga, Koschei, and a three-headed version of the dragon Zmei Gorynych.

The whole thing has a light comedic tone, no toilet humor, and doesn't take itself at all seriously. From the very beginning it's addressing the viewer directly and dropping a mermaid out of a tree. It takes place in the kingdom of Far Far Away, ruled by a king who's basically good but also kind of a jerk.

His scheming prime minister is in cahoots with some kind of... shadow-demon? (never explained) in a quest for power - the demon wants a key that the king wears around his neck, and the prime minister wants to marry princess Vasilisa. This is when Ivan shows up, kicked out of a neighboring kingdom. He's clever and a quick thinker, if a bit nave. The king sends him on a quest before he can marry his daughter. She's the smartest person around, but of course it's her marital status that matters the most.

Gray, the wolf, starts out as the film's narrator and establishes the setting. He's part of the royal household, has a little house of his own, and a supply of raw steaks. He's smart and sassy! Alas, after Ivan turns up, Gray becomes more of a secondary character. He accompanies Ivan on his quest and gets a couple of moments, and they're not a bad team, but the focus is still biased towards Ivan. Later in the film, the wolf also gets more cowardly, in stark contrast to his earlier self-confident attitude, so this was a bit of a let-down. Still, I liked his personality and his voice actor.

Gray sports a gold earring in one ear, and he switches freely between being bipedal and quadrupedal. Even though his waist is cartoonishly thin in comparison to his broad chest, it works. (Which is odd, because I found the same triangular design rather distracting in the 3D film Sheep and Wolves.) Other than him, there's not much anthropomorphism in the rest of the film, aside from a talking cat and Gorynych the dragon, who was a fun character although I didn't like the design of his lower jaw(s).

Basically it's a pretty standard kid's comedy. The middle of the film dragged a bit; it felt like the quest was put in to stretch things out. Most of the jokes are pretty average, with an occasional absurd touch to events. If you're interested in watching something a little exotic, I'd say go ahead and check it out, but I wouldn't blame you if you skipped ahead. Not much in there for adults, or at least for English adults unfamiliar with Russian culture. To my surprise though, the demon's powers close to the end suddenly became much more dangerous, veering into "Crap, how do we fight this??" territory.

Where can you find this? On YouTube! Except the English closed captions are pretty bad. However, if you download the video, here's another set of subtitles for it - give it the same name as the video file but with the extension ".srt", put both files in the same folder together, and VLC should do the rest. These subtitles are... marginally better, enough to get by. (Mostly. "Threw the old man a turnip in the sea. Haul-pull, cannot get it out"?)

3a8082e126