Grey Owl

This story tells the true tale of a boy called Archie, brought up in then-genteel Hasting on the South Coast of England. Always fascinated by Native Americans (aka Red Indians) --which made me wonder about karma-- he eventually set off for a life in the wild North of Canada, living as a hunter, trapper and guide. The film does not flinch from showing the callous and basically cowardly nature of some "sportsmen" who wished to "get" a bear or other beautiful animal with their high-powered rifles, a pathology made worse by the (somewhat later) outpourings of the fake hero, Ernest Hemingway. One of the shooters is a paper mill owner and publisher who gets Grey Owl, as Archie is no known, into print. At that time, Grey Owl meets and marries an Indian girl from a small town. She thinks he is a half-Indian for years. Finding two orphaned beaver, she adopts them and, after a grisly trapping of another beaver, Grey Owl understands the wickedness of trapping and hunting and writes about the need to conserve and protect wildlife. He becomes world famous, even meeting King George V; his lectures are packed, his books bestsellers. The Native American chiefs realize he is not one of them ethnically but they respect him and honour him. Eventually, one of those modern scavengers, a journalist, finds out the "truth" but after hearing a lecture, honourably agrees to leave the scandal until after Grey Owl's death (2 years later, in 1938, from cancer). Perhaps Grey Owl should have spoken out as the white man he was and not as a "fake", but here again, he was only a fake in obscuring his origins, the rest was authentic. And above all, he was one of the the fathers of the modern movement to protect and conserve animals, particularly in Canada and the United States. As the film attests at tis end, that legacy is worth so much more than the misleading parts of his early CV.

This film was famous only for being on the shelf for a couple of years. Then reviewers only laughed at the idea of Pierce Brosnan playing a Red Indian. Subsequently very few cinemas showed it.

I managed to catch an early morning performance months after release, sneaking in with an 'Oldies Club' audience. I was not holding my breath for them or me to be blown away by it... but straight away I was fascinated by its simplicity as a story and its wonderfully calm and relaxing effect. It was a perfect antidote to stressful examinations at school I was revising for!

The cinematography of the wilds of Canada and its inhabitants felt like a documentary and you almost expected the director's brother to narrate the proceedings. The pace is slow and methodical, something in Attenborough's films, that have made him a love-him or loathe-him artist.

Raw emotion is one of his excellent qualities and he makes the actors feel like they don't have to act to impress the audience, just to tell like it is. The cameos by Hollywood's well known Red Indians add to the cast list a depth, even if their roles are limited. Fenton's music is light and dreamy - and the usual Attenborough crew perform admirably conveying the story about Archie in his travels as entertainment.

The defining moment in the film for me however is when Archie returns to his house in Hastings, reunited with his Aunts. He makes his way to his old bedroom where his inspiration was born. It was wonderful for some reason, really emotional and satisfying.

Simplicity and calm has never been so engaging in a film. Obviously I am a fan, but I do think people should not expect something epic or ground breaking in every film they see. People should see this film if they want to be told a story, and who appreciate nature and its beauty as much as Grey Owl himself did.

Most seem to have missed the point of this film. Grey Owl was a young boy dissillusioned with British life and set out for Canada to live with the Native Indian peoples. The story is largely based on truth and the major fact that he was accepted and adopted by the Indian people themselves. This film further shows the truth behind much of todays conservation and national parks, as it was through the efforts of this man that Canada set up its first national park and protected species of plant and wildlife. I saw this film in the States at te time of release, then on the flight back, followed by a visit to a cinema near me to see it a third time. for me this film is a must for my collection covering the Americas and those who cared for the land. I would recommend this to any of my friends who have an interest in hunting for food, etc and not just for pleasure, interseted in presevation and or Native American Indian subjects.
As for another commentator saying that the film critics slanted this film and showings were rare owing to Brosnan playing an Indian, Grey Owl was born on the south coast of England so was a 'white man', may I suggest you watch the film and make up your own mind.