What a fantastic trip and wonderful story telling with only two main characters..I am very happy that I stumbled on this movie and had the opportunity to see it, albeit on DVD. That said the extra's are almost as good as the movie. I seem to be discovering more and more excellent movies that don't seem to make it into wide distribution, thank goodness for DVDs. I highly recommend this movie, especially to those interested in the whole survival thing..I really loved the transformation of Charlie as he traverses a land that modern gadgets can't help him in, surviving because of a young Inuit girl who has a thousand years of education behind her.
Amazing story you'll want to watch more than once
This is an amazing story of a man who struggles against harsh natural elements, and is rescued by native woman's knowledge of the land and her tradition. While the plot can be guessed pretty easily, the story is still quite compelling and real. The movie is chock-full of native Inuit actors. Ms. Piugattuck, who plays the lead Inuit woman, is sincere, beautiful and outstanding.
The making of the movie segment in the features is a must watch. It gives the details of what it was like to film on location in such unforgiving & remote areas. From mosquito bites to interviews with the actors to real polar bear attacks, the segment is interesting w/o being too detailed.
While there were a few words that some might find inappropriate for the under 13 crowd, I would still recommend watching this story with children. We were enraptured by the scenery - the main character in the movie - and talked at length about what it would be like to be stranded in a place like the tundra, what it would be like to hunt caribou and how we couldn't wait hours and hours to hunt an animal when we're used to driving to the store to buy prepackaged foods.
Forget "Survivor," this is the real thing . . .
Shot in the far northern regions of Canada, this well-done story of survival in the Arctic wilderness is also a fascinating 90-minute journey into the heart of Inuit culture. Covering only three months of time in 1953, the film follows the transformation of an arrogant and impulsive young pilot into a man of compassion, courage, and a native-inspired resourcefulness.
The story is simple: a white man and an ill Inuit woman he has agreed to fly to a hospital are stranded on the trackless tundra when his plane crashes. Hundreds of miles from the nearest settlement, they wait for rescue that never comes. The short Arctic summer ends and winter looms as they face their dilemma separately and then together.
The photography is stunning. It cries out to be seen on a big screen. The performances are wonderful, especially the 19-year-old Inuit actress, Annabella Piugattuk. Director Charles Martin Smith creates a movie experience that recalls his wonderful film, "Never Cry Wolf." The DVD has a high-spirited making-of-the-movie documentary which reveals much about the on-location logistics required to shoot a film under wilderness conditions, among polar bears (none of which appear in the film), and for part of the time under sub-zero conditions. A masterful achievement.
Carroll Ballard's 1983 adaptation of Farley Mowat's autobiographical novel turns his life-changing experience studying the wolves in Canada's inhospitable North into a moving drama of one man's courage and discovery of nature's majesty. Charles Martin Smith plays green biologist Tyler, sent by the Canadian government to "prove" that the wolves are depleting the caribou herds, but what he finds is a natural world in perfect harmony where he becomes a tolerated outsider. Dumped unprepared in the wilds by a hard drinking bush pilot (Brian Dennehy), Tyler learns survival skills from the aged Eskimo who saves his life and the rules of coexistence from a neighboring wolf (which results in a literal pissing contest as man and beast mark their respective territories). Tyler's journey culminates... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charles Martin Smith - Brian Dennehy Director(s): Carroll Ballard DVD Release Date: Released the 07 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2004, The Sea Inside is a life-affirming film about a man who wishes to die. That may seem like a massive contradiction, but in the hands of director Alejandro Amenábar (Open Your Eyes, The Others) and actor Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls), this fact-based Spanish drama concerns the final days of Ramón Sampedro, the quadriplegic poet who waged a controversial campaign for his right to die. He was denied this right for 30 years, and ultimately arranged for his own assisted suicide, but this remarkable film--and Bardem's keenly intelligent performance--examines the hotly-debated issue of assisted suicide with admirable depth and humanity, just as Sampedro did until his death in 1998. For... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Javier Bardem - Belén Rueda - Lola Dueñas Director(s): Alejandro Amenábar DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The chameleon-like actor Kevin Spacey is best known for playing pyschopaths (in Seven and The Usual Suspects) and capturing a creepy mid-life crisis in American Beauty--but surprisingly, playing crooner Bobby Darin, Spacey does some snappy dancing and top-notch singing. Beyond the Sea puts Darin's life through a bit of a kaleidoscope: While singing Darin's most memorable hit, "Mack the Knife," Darin suddenly stops the show, revealing that he's not at a nightclub, but in the middle of a shooting a scene about his life as a nightclub performer. Why has he stopped? Because he's just seen himself as a young boy, peering from behind a curtain. Such self-conscious narrative twists recur throughout the movie, turning Darin's fight for fame and respect into a love... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kevin Spacey - Kate Bosworth - John Goodman Director(s): Kevin Spacey DVD Release Date: Released the 07 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Kevin Bacon gives one of the best, most nuanced performances of his career in The Woodsman, a daring and thought-provoking drama he co-produced with his wife, Kyra Sedgwick. In portraying a convicted pedophile named Walter, recently released from prison and struggling to rebuild his life, Bacon and writer-director Nicole Kassell (making her feature-film debut) do a remarkable job of exploring all facets of this troubling yet very human character, from his continuing criminal impulses to the despair he feels over having to conceal his horrible past. Sedgwick costars as the one woman who appears willing to accept Walter, secrets and all, and while The Woodsman takes a few regrettable shortcuts in illustrating Walter's quest for the good man he can be, the film deserves to be... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kevin Bacon - Kyra Sedgwick - Mos Def Director(s): Nicole Kassell DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The sight of two lost souls finding something unavoidably necessary in each other carries The Upside of Anger through it pleasant episodic drift. When Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) realizes that her husband won't be coming home again, she hits the skids and the bottle, leaving her four thunderstruck daughters (Alicia Witt, Keri Russell, Erika Christensen, and Evan Rachel Wood) to fend for themselves while she fends off the attentions of concerned neighbor Denny Davies (Kevin Costner). Writer/director Mike Binder (who has a good bit as Costner's sleazy producer) juggles too many subplots in this comedy/drama--his charming young actresses are all but wasted--then tosses in a wrongheaded climactic twist and terrible explanatory narration from young Wood. But the two leads do... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Joan Allen - Kevin Costner - Erika Christensen - Keri Russell - Alicia Witt Director(s): Mike Binder DVD Release Date: Released the 26 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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