I happened to stumble upon this movie very recently, almost by accident. I am reading a book "The Illustrated History of Canada", and have read many pages of accounts of earlier life in Canada, including the life of fishermen, of trappers and fur traders, of lumbermen. Having just taken a trip to Canada, and generally always having loved and had a fascination for it, I happened to search for Canadian movies on Youtube, and came across this movie, among quite a few others. It piqued my curiosity just by the title alone, and so I started watching, not knowing what to expect. It did not take long for me to realize that I would not be disappointed.
This is a different kind of a movie. If you are only into huge blockbusters, the latest nonstop action with tons of car chases and explosions, or some tearjerker romance or rom/com featuring some of the best known actors that regularly grace the tabloids and are perennial candidates for sexiest man or woman of the year, than this film, simply put, is not for you.
If, on the other hand, you appreciate movies that can provide a very different kind of a message, movies that give you a glimpse into another lifestyle, another way of thinking, than you very well might appreciate this one!
There is incredible scenery in this movie, as it takes place in very rural Canada, the northern parts that few people live in, let alone go to for visits. I have been to Canada many times myself, but the closest that I have been to "the true north" was maybe a couple of hours north of Québec, by the city of Saguenay. It is a small city, entirely surrounded by the nature that, you get the feeling, dominates it. Not far from there is the Saguenay Fjord, the only navigable fjord in Canada, and on the drive there, you are in what feels like very remote and rural north woods. It was the way that I pictured Scandinavia might be, although since I have yet to visit a Scandinavian nation, I cannot say for sure. But it is the wilderness, dominated by pine trees and foothills, with more than occasional lakes and rivers and streams and, of course, fjords. There are few homes, but they are there, and the roads are paved. In this movie, the wilderness is virtually untouched by humankind, and it documents a lifestyle that, unfortunately, seems to be vanishing, and is near extinction.
As the title implies, the movie follows "The Last Trapper". Surely not literally the last one, although there cannot be millions of them out there anymore.
It is a rugged lifestyle, and these are not "actors" in a movie, in the conventional sense. They are "acting", but they are not so much playing a role, as trying to provide a glimpse of the difficult, yet rewarding and meaningful, lifestyle that they endure in the harshness of the northern Canadian wilderness. Almost every aspect of their life they have to take care of for themselves, from finding and preparing food, to building their own shelter. It is an existence far removed from our own present lifestyle. In fact, it could hardly be further from our lifestyle than it is.
Chances are, I would not do any justice in describing just how difficult their existence can be, and what their responsibilities are, what they have to do, what they have to endure, and the dangers that they face in the process. You just have to watch the movie for yourself. I can tell you a little bit about what you will see and, most likely, learn: building a bona fide log cabin, facing real dangers, from surviving rushing waters of mountain streams, to a standoff with a bear. But this is not like "The Edge", which is one of my personal favorite movies. Here, this is a more accurate portrayal of everyday life for human beings living in such wilderness as a lifestyle, rather than a Hollywood drama where fictional men find themselves in the rural mountains quite by accident, and have to find a way to survive and find their way out. When you watch this movie, you wonder why anyone would want to "escape" from this wilderness to begin with!
I go hiking in the woods regularly, and have read several books on Native American philosophy and spirituality, as well as related works, such as the writings of Henry David Thoreau. So, I can relate to the message of the movie on several levels, although I obviously have never lived this kind of a rugged lifestyle, truly in the deep of the woods, and relaying entirely on my own hands and ingenuity to keep me going.
Still, watching this movie inspired that part of me that yearns to "escape" the trappings of our modern world of paved roads and endless traffic jams, of working menial jobs for mediocre pay, to afford buying crap that you don't need. It is a world dominated by money, glimpses in headlines reporting the doings of politicians and corporations, where one hand feeds the other in a mutually beneficial relationship. We see that wasteful consumer society in our daily lives in shopping malls, in private, gated communities, in expensive cars and SUV's cutting us off as we wait patiently on line like everyone else, because they are too good to wait, and the rules do not apply to them. We see our true value in this society in the paychecks that we get, and the credit card bills that have become the only real mail that any of us can count on getting, although even that is going away, as credit card companies at least try and urge customers to go the paperless route.
Obviously, I am not painting a very flattering picture of our modern life, and there is a good reason for that. It is a world of excesses, and world where we are encouraged to satisfy our every desire, as soon as we get that desire. In the process, you lose sight of what matters, of what is importance. You lose your sense of connection with the larger world, what too many of us refer to as the "outside world" (as if we somehow could be outside of it).
We need reminders of things more meaningful every now and then. I try to read as much as possible, and have found refuge in many writings, and writers, that take a very different perspective, and challenge the reader to view things through different eyes. We find more and more, that the philosophical take that Native Americans had, as well as the rather dire prognostications that had for the culture that took over in the Americas (and elsewhere), have proven far more true, valuable, and necessary in this world than we ever expected it to be before. For a very long time, in fact, our culture did not even recognize Native American philosophy and spirituality as such, because how can "savages" have anything of value? In time, our culture has come to question these long held dismissals, and the misplaced belief in productivity and the unchecked growth of human dominance of this world at every corner. Only now, are we beginning to question our own assumptions about this sense of entitlement that our culture, which has essentially become the dominant global culture, had back then (and still largely has today). We need things to wake us up, to get us back into contact with our more primitive (and I do not mean that in a dismissive way) selves. As Thoreau said, "Simplify, simplify, simplify."
This movie helps us to do that, through modern technology. You feel almost like you are there, when you see the scenery and hear the sounds of animals and wind, of running water, and of snow crunching under foot. There is narration that gives opinion, but not in a preachy way.
So, give it a chance. Go on Youtube, and see it for free! Perhaps it is even on Netflix! But watch this movie, and see if you, too, do not find it rewarding and eye-opening, in a very meaningful way. Again, I did not want to actually describe the glimpses of everyday lifestyle that you will se, because quite frankly, it is not a lifestyle that I have ever lived, which makes me unqualified to speak of it. Just watch the movie for yourself, and see what you get out of it. And please feel free to share your thoughts with me about it!
Enjoy!
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