NEVER CRY WOLF - DVD review

Here's a film you don't have to think about much to enjoy: Two eyes and a pair of ears are enough. Adapted from Farley Mowat's best-selling autobiographical book, "Never Cry Wolf" is a beautifully photographed, beautifully crafted nature study, with perhaps just a tad more moralizing at the end than necessary. Since its release to theaters in 1983, only its appearance on DVD has done justice to its picture and sound.

Charles Martin Smith has the prize role of his career as the young biologist, Tyler, assigned by the Canadian Wildlife Service to study wolves in the northern Barrens. His charge is to gather evidence that wolves are depleting the caribou herds, enough evidence against the wolves to justify the government eradicating them.

What he discovers, needless to say, is just the opposite. Wolves and caribou live in perfect balance, as they have for thousands of years; the wolves feed only on the sickest and weakest of the herds, making the caribou stronger all around. It is Man who is decimating the caribou, largely for sport, and now Man needs a scapegoat.

In his film interpretation of the book, director Carroll Ballard misses some of Mowat's wry humor but makes up for it in the majesty of the scenery and the beauty of the wildlife. Sweeping vistas of Arctic wilderness are set against human and animal drama in Ballard's realization of the saga, the wolves, ironically, taking on a dimension of humanity sorely missing in most of the story's peripheral characters.

Besides Tyler the other actors in this sparsely populated film are Brian Dennehy as Rosie, a pilot whose ambitions are entirely geared to personal profit; Samson Jorah as Mike, an Inuit who befriends Tyler and loans him the use of his cabin; and Zachary Illimangnaq as Ootek, an Inuit shaman who knows more about wolves than most wolves.

The film is hard to resist if you like nature, nature photography, and the nature of wolves.

Video:
Oddly, this Disney feature was brought out on DVD by Anchor Bay instead of Buena Vista, and they provide two editions of the film on flip sides of the disc. On side one is a 1.85:1 ratio, non-anamorphic widescreen version, and on side two is a full-frame rendering. The widescreen version offers slightly more to see on the sides but loses a little something on the top and bottom. Overall, though, I found the widescreen alternative the better bet. Picture quality is OK but not outstanding. I noticed some minor age deterioration in the form of occasional flecks and scratches, and the image delineation is only average. Colors, however, are natural and sometimes quite bright, which is the main point in a nature film.

Audio:
Dolby Surround audio is more than adequate for the job, sometimes opening up the back channels to the sounds of raindrops, hoof beats, and wind. Otherwise, it's fairly ordinary sound.

Extras:
English is the only spoken language, and there are no subtitles, but there are twenty chapter stops. Yes, I was expecting more, too.

Parting Thoughts:
As a young man, Mowat put in two stints in the Canadian northland studying wolves, and his 1963 book is a colorful narrative of those times. It was one of the first accounts of actual wolf behavior in the wild, although because of Mowat's sometimes fanciful wit it was not always taken seriously by the scientific community.

Ballard's film starts with the author's basic story, visually highlights its sense of wonder at the harmony of nature, and concludes with the postulate that Man is insensitive to anything but himself. The result is a beautiful motion picture.