ramonmercado
CyberPunk
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2003
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- Eblana
Perhaps not really SF but it is an imagining of the Past and the domestication of wolves. The SF writer Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a novel, Shaman, on this very topic.
Alpha: This not just the story of a boy and his dog; it goes far beyond that, dealing with the lore and lives of Hunter-Gatherer Tribes in Ice Age Europe, 20,000 years ago. The boys are being tested, only those who can knap a proper spearhead blade are allowed to go on their first hunt. The men of the tribe and one huntress make their way to the hunting ground, meeting up with another band at the first trail marker. When they stampede the bison one bull turns and carries Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee), the Chief's son, over a cliff. The tribe presume he is dead and his grieving father returns home.
But Keda has survived, clashing with dire wolves he wounds one but then tends it's wounds. A modus vivendi develops between the boy and the wolf (who he mames Alpha) as they trek along the path to Keda's home. Keda is thinking of domestication at all times though and gradually Alpha and he hunt as a team and the proto-dog defends him from attack.
The Shaman performs ceremonies before the tribe sets off on their hunt, his staff and adornments are reproduced in great detail and is a testament to the research which went into the making of the film. A sabre-tooth tiger attacks their trail camp at night, straight through them carrying off a hunter, As they approach the bison they smear themselves with dung so that the animals won't scent. They move across steppe, through woods, marsh and over ice. The fauna of Upper Paleolithic Europe comes to life as we see mammoths and wooly rhinoceroses pass by.
Directed by Albert Hughes and written by Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt, from a story by Hughes, Alpha portrays a credible vision of the travails of an Ice Age Tribe and the early domestication of wolves. Exceptional acting by Kodia and by Chucky as Alpha. 8.5/10.
Alpha: This not just the story of a boy and his dog; it goes far beyond that, dealing with the lore and lives of Hunter-Gatherer Tribes in Ice Age Europe, 20,000 years ago. The boys are being tested, only those who can knap a proper spearhead blade are allowed to go on their first hunt. The men of the tribe and one huntress make their way to the hunting ground, meeting up with another band at the first trail marker. When they stampede the bison one bull turns and carries Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee), the Chief's son, over a cliff. The tribe presume he is dead and his grieving father returns home.
But Keda has survived, clashing with dire wolves he wounds one but then tends it's wounds. A modus vivendi develops between the boy and the wolf (who he mames Alpha) as they trek along the path to Keda's home. Keda is thinking of domestication at all times though and gradually Alpha and he hunt as a team and the proto-dog defends him from attack.
The Shaman performs ceremonies before the tribe sets off on their hunt, his staff and adornments are reproduced in great detail and is a testament to the research which went into the making of the film. A sabre-tooth tiger attacks their trail camp at night, straight through them carrying off a hunter, As they approach the bison they smear themselves with dung so that the animals won't scent. They move across steppe, through woods, marsh and over ice. The fauna of Upper Paleolithic Europe comes to life as we see mammoths and wooly rhinoceroses pass by.
Directed by Albert Hughes and written by Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt, from a story by Hughes, Alpha portrays a credible vision of the travails of an Ice Age Tribe and the early domestication of wolves. Exceptional acting by Kodia and by Chucky as Alpha. 8.5/10.
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