I have loved this movie since the first time I saw it over 15 years ago. But as I have read through numerous reviews, I find them missing a few elements that make this movie so wonderful.
There are two subtle elements of wilderness, that unless you have experienced them, you will probably miss in the movie, silence and melancholy.
When one experience solitude and wilderness as Tyler does, the first thing you notice is the silence that surrounds you. The only noises that can be heard are the ones you make, and simple actions like scratching your hand, striking a match, or the rustle of your nylon parka as you simply move all become a symphony of noises you never noticed before.
The director, Carroll Ballard, takes great pains to illustrate this in the beginning of the movie( knowing all the while most viewers will miss these subtleties) as Tyler is left on the a frozen lake with all his gear strewn about. Rosie guns the engine to his plane for the third time and finally gets to takes off. The sound of that single engine plane is deafening and overpowers everything within 25 miles, but the silence Tyler is left with as the last throb of the plane's engine disappears in the distance is even more so. All of Tyler's actions at this point center around the noise they make. Notice this when you watch.
The next element of wilderness and solitude the director so painstakingly portrays is melancholy. There is no better way to describe it. Melancholy is an intangible, an emotion, yet for any who have experienced wilderness on the level that Tyler does knows how overwhelmingly real it is. It is palpable. The melancholy not only comes from within but comes from all around. It is an element of wilderness that is there even if man is not.
The scene that best depicts this melancholy is when Tyler is out sitting on the rock, alone, with only creatures of the tundra to keep him company. It is twilight. His hair and glasses are wet from an earlier snow, and he sits and plays his oboe. Not a song but a phrase, an echoing phrase that sings out his loneliness to the empty expanse. And off in the distance is a kindred reply, the howl of a lone wolf, a cry that says I know, I understand.
Never Cry Wolf is a tremendous film and is equally underrated. In one sense it is a master piece, one that will never receive mass appeal or recognition. It speaks to us on multiple levels and with subtle intensity, but unfortunately most of us aren't able to hear the message.
