Never Cry Wolf Essay, Research Paper

In this essay I will cover main differences between the book and the movie

giving my opinion of why these changes were necessary in the making of this

film. I will discuss the purpose of Mowat writing this book and explain how the

movie gets the point across.

Mowat?s feelings and my own on the movie verses the book will be shared at

the end of the document.

In the beginning of the movie we don?t know where Tyler is coming from, who

he is, and why he is going to this place. The film doesn?t get as specific

with the studies that he did. The radio that Mowat is given reaches a music

station not a Spanish man in Peru. Also, he doesn?t do as much with his

studies; he takes pictures of plants with a camera instead of using the

Raunkiaers Circle. This is because if the movie got to into great detail the

viewers would lose interest; other changes were made to make the story more

interesting and eventful.

In the film Tyler falls into the an Arctic lake not knowing that it wasn?t

completely frozen solid. Afterwards he warms himself and dries his clothes by

the fire. This accident shows how he went into this barren place with

unawareness of what he was getting into. It also adds action and adventure to

the film.

In the movie Mike tells Mowat how he kills the wolves for money. In the book

the Inuits respect and admire the wolves they even share the main food source

and listen to the wolves for the location of the caribou. I think that this is

because the movie is sending a different message and this is part of showing how

man doesn?t respect and understand the importance of the wolves.

In the end of the movie the parents of Tyler?s wolf family, George and

Angeline, are slaughtered by the pilot. Tyler gets furious and shoots at the

airplane after seeing that the tail was hanging from the plane and seeing the

pups alone in the den. After watching the pups for a while the pack came for

them as there are no orphans among the wolves. This was put into the movie to

add a dramatic ending and leaving the viewer to be influenced by the film and

greatly disturbed by this event. As they are disturbed they will remember what

happened and go away with the feeling that man had no place there and should not

kill these animals.

The message Mowat tries to communicate with the reader is that of how man has

stereotyped wolves into this great horrible creature that has no mercy, kills

for the taste of blood, and is taking down the population of the deer. This of

course we know to be untrue because of this book. We find that we the humans

have hunted the caribou to a point of scarcity. By our lack of knowledge we have

taken our few encounters with the wolves and based our whole perception of them

on our few engagements with rabies infected wolves.

I think that the book, Never Cry Wolf, was better than the movie. This is

because the book had more detail and I could use my imagination to create a

mental picture and understanding of what Mowat was trying to communicate to the

reader. Also, I learned more facts about the wolves and their environment. The

book had more character development due to this I was able to enjoy the story

and was interested in what happened to them.

I think that this movie gets the point across fairly well, yet has a

different twist to it focusing more on the ignorance of man and how we just go

killing things we know nothing about due to our selfish desires. In the book

Mowat proves to us that we stereotype wolves into being some horrible creature

and that this in not so. Mowat hear many rumors of how this creature is

monstrous, yet he interacts with them takes time to learn what they are like by

forcing himself to forget what he?s heard and see them for what they truly

are.

Mowat was most likely grateful that there was a movie to educate many people

of his observations, yet he my have not liked that there were so many

adaptations made changing the general picture of what happened. The themes were

slightly different, yet I believe that they were both significant.

I feel that the book, Never Cry Wolf, was better than the movie. This is

because the book had more detail and I could use my imagination to create a

mental picture and understanding of what Mowat was trying to communicate to the

reader. Also, I learned more facts about the wolves and their environment. The

book had more character development due to this I was able to enjoy the story

and was interested in what happened to them.

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