Review of Never Cry Wolf (1983) by David H — 21 May 2010

This one's truly something else. Supposedly made primarily without a script, it's pretty amazing that something this coherent and beautiful ended up being the result. The nature photography alone (especially the stampede) is worth the rental.

There's something about this film, a feeling, that's incredibly hard to pinpoint. Even a word like ethereal doesn't seem to apply. The story takes us from one incredible sequence to another, all that contribute wonderfully to the protagonist's (and our) growing education of the natural world around him (and us).

Ballard's stunning direction, along with Hiro Narita's jaw-dropping widescreen cinematography, place us so perfectly in this (at first) alien world that at times one can almost smell the surroundings.

Performances are perfect all-around, with Dennehy especially creating a wonderfully off-beat character whose sense of adventure is suppressed when he ultimately becomes a true capitalist. I should note that unlike a lot of films like this which portray nature as something beautiful rather than chaotic, Never Cry Wolf never loses sight of the incredible danger within nature.

Special mention goes to Mark Isham terrific score, which is synthesized. This is, perhaps, an odd choice given that Never Cry Wolf takes place in a world almost completely devoid of elements of human "civilization," like buildings and the like.

One would think that an instrumental score would have been the way to go. However, Isham manages to create a musical score that perfectly reflects this "new" world that Tyler is being dropped into.

Thus, even though the story's setting may be "natural," for Tyler and indeed for much of the audience, it is an alien world; a synthesized, somewhat alien-sounding score makes perfect sense.

Give Never Cry Wolf a watch. Let it work its magic.