The UK Babe Channels Forum

Never Cry Wolf
Carroll Ballard - 1983



"Research scientist Tyler (Charles Martin Smith) is sent to the desolate Canadian tundra to find out whether the local wolf population is responsible for decimating Canada's caribou herds. Helped by Ootek (Zachary Ittimangnaq), a local Inuit native, Farley manages to establish an observation post and, while braving the harsh climate, begins to study a family of wolves, as well as the caribou. He eventually determines that the greatest danger to the caribou doesn't move on four legs." (from Google)

The film is loosely based on a memoir of the same name which itself is generally regarded as more a work of fiction than fact. The political prejudices of Hollywood are reflected in the depiction of white men as bad and natives as good with the wolves as budding little ecologists themselves. The film seems to imply that the the wolves prey on weak animals to help the caribou beacuse they slow the migrating herd. The reality is that they pick out the ones which are easiest to kill.

On the plus side the Canadian scenery is stunning and although some people complained about the synthesised music I thought it suited the eerie landscape very well.

Assembly
Feng Xiaogang - 2007



"With a bold opening salvo, Chinese director Feng Xiaogang hurls us straight into the gritty midst of a chaotic urban battle in the winter of 1948, during the civil war in China between the Nationalists and Communists. Shot in jerky, desaturated Private Ryan-style and brazenly plunging us in before we even know who we're supposed to be rooting for, it's arresting stuff.
It's a shame, then, that Xiaogang's big-budget war pic so quickly loses its impetus as it ultimately follows Gu Zidi (Zhang Hanyu), captain of the Communist PLA's 9th company in his quest to correctly honour the 47 men who valiantly perish under his command during the second, and last, big battle scene at the film's midpoint.
What starts as a thrilling sprint gradually decelerates to a tedious trudge during the second half as we suffer scene after scene of the bitter, semi-blinded Gu raging for justice. And given that this was a movie made with the Chinese regime's full approval, the outcome is hardly a surprise." (from Empire)

The opening battle scenes are well done but the film drags a bit later . I found it hard to follow in places and I had to fill in some of the gaps on the internet afterwards. The entire film hangs on the fact that the authorities have no record that the protagonist's army unit even existed which I found incredible.

There's not much in the way of overt Communist party propaganda with the apparatchiks sometimes being depicted as "computer says no" beureaucrats although you can'r help thinking that any soldier captured wearing an enemy uniform and claiming to be the commander of a friendly unit of which there is no record and has no other survivors, might have been treated more harshly than having a smaller pension allocation.

Zhang Hanyu puts in a good shift as the wronged Colonel Gu and he won several awards for his performance.