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Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Snowy, Icy Stuff
"Who
is that other who walks beside you?"
WHO. Well, I'm backward, I guess. I just found out about Christmas in July this week. But I can make up for it. Here are some ice-cold entertainments that are guaranteed to last you till December.
First up, starting on a reasonably light anti-Vick note, is a movie about the relationship between tough dogs and tough men (and one tough woman). It's called Eight Below. Based on fact, according to the background info. Antarctic researchers act desperately to save one of their number who is injured. In the process, they leave behind the team of sled dogs who rescued the stricken man from immediate death. The man whose team it was tries to get back to save his dogs from the fatal Antarctic winter but no one will help. The movie cuts back and forth between the world of dogs and the world of men. They're a lot alike as it turns out. Did I say the movie was light? Sorry. There's some sadness here. The star is the young husky with the deep eyes. We think he's going places. Not that he hasn't already been places. The Antarctic. It's a season in hell. Hopefully, he won't buy a Bentley and start squiring Paris Hilton around. No, he wouldn't do that. We're sure he wouldn't.
Next, the Snow Walker. A handsome bush pilot is hired to ferry a sick but young and beautiful Inuit (i.e., Eskimo) woman to a place where they have hospitals and some sort of treatment for tuberculosis. But they crash enroute. Think you know the rest? Think again, kiddo. This movie's a keeper. There's nothing cheap about how it gets to you. You'll know that because it keeps resonating long after the credits are done. In the same way that it took Return to Paradise to make us appreciate Vince Vaughn, this one made us appreciate Barry Pepper. And that heartbreaking Inuit girl.
We haven't seen it yet, to be honest, but we're waiting for Netflix to deliver the two-part production of Shackleton, starring Kenneth Branagh. How could it fail? It's the true adventure story to end all adventure stories -- how one man recklessly sailed his crew into the waters of the Antarctic in 1913, and then, just as recklessly, moved heaven and earth to save them from certain death. The great news is that it's still possible to buy a copy of Endurance, the masterfully written account of the expedition by Alfred Lansing. We recommend buying and reading the book, then watching the DVD. If you're anything like us, winter won't seem so cold to you this year -- or ever again.
If you can buy one book, you can buy two. Here's the other one you have to get if you haven't already read it. Alone by Admiral Richard Byrd. Yeah, it sounds like it might be dry, superior, and philosophical. It isn't. The explorer made a huge mistake and put himself in life-and-death peril. His account is so vivid that you'll feel the freezing cold in your bones days after you finish the book. Come to think of it, maybe you should read this one before you go the Shackleton route. Otherwise, you might wind up sitting on the couch with a shawl wrapped around you for the next ten years or so.
Phew. Just made it. Christmas in July. Enjoy.
