Monday, August 31, 2009

Monday Movie Meme - The Great Outdoors


Today's Monday Movie Meme, brought to us by The Bumbles, is all about the Great Outdoors. Apparently, they were without power last night, which caused them a slight change of plans with regards to Internet access. Instead, it allowed them to wax fondly about their recent camping trip and come up with our latest topic.

The Nawrots are lovers of nature. We love to camp, hike, horseback ride, ride the rapids...anything outside. So why not movies about nature as well? I'm going to admit this up front - I have a couple of overlaps with The Bumbles, but this cannot be helped:

Into the Wild - when you have a movie about a guy that rejects society and survives on his own in the Alaskan wild, this must be included in the list, even if I am duplicating. I've mentioned this movie before...disturbing stuff.

Homeward Bound - you would think this was one of my favorite movies of all time by the number of times it makes the list. You can't help but love it, and it is, after all, about two dogs and a cat surviving in the wild.

Deliverance - it really is a great movie, but will never shake off its bad reputation!

Grizzly Man - the beauty of Alaska really takes a back seat to the twisted mind of Timothy Treadwell, a guy who thinks he is a bear, and would rather live with them than humans. I found this movie deeply disturbing.

Stand By Me - a great coming-of-age story brought to us by the great Stephen King. It has always reminded me of an adventure I had when I was in my early teens, including sleeping under the stars, trudging around in the woods, and the leeches. Just no dead bodies.

Princess Mononoke - always a huge fan of Miyazaki, I must mention this fascinating film. It is about a young man on a mission to a primeval forest to find a cure for his life-threatening disease. While he is there, he finds himself caught in the middle of a war between the forest spirits and the humans that want to destroy it. Miyazaki never fails to deliver visually stunning animation with a lesson.

Brokeback Mountain - another repeat from The Bumbles, but would be remiss if I didn't list it. A precious movie that I felt was not given its due at the Oscars.


Are you a nature fan? What have I missed?

18 comments:

Ana S. said...

I love Princess Mononoke too! I haven't watched many of the others, but I'm definitely an outdoors fan, so I'm thinking I should.

Melody said...

I haven't watched the others, except Brokeback Mountain, which I think was beautifully shot.

Susan said...

Into the Wild--mesmerizing, but so,so sad.

The Electric Horseman is one of my favorites. You can't go wrong with Jane Fonda in stiletto boots lugging a 30-lb. camera into the wilds of Nevada following a drunken cowboy wearing a lighted western get-up played by Robert Redford in his gorgeous heyday! It just doesn't get better than that!

Beth F said...

Some good ones this week! Jeremiah Johnson was good. If you haven't read Into the Wild, you should.

Literary Feline said...

I ended up having a couple of overlaps too. How could I not include Into the Wild and Brokeback Mountain. Such breathtaking movies!

Such a great list, Sandy! I remembe seeing Homeward Bound many many years ago. Stand By Me is another great movie.

caite said...

not to get into the whole movie vs. book subject but I have meant to read Into The Wild. Now I am thinking I might watch the movie, at least first.

kayerj said...

Oh yeah, the grizzly bear man. I watched that just out of curiousity. Alaska is a beautiful place.

Lori L. Clark Art said...

I loved Homeward Bound! And I'm glad to see that I wasn't the only one who posted Deliverance.

Sandy Nawrot said...

Nymeth - we have all his movies, and they are amazing. They aren't all outdoorsy, but are a visual trip!

Melody - Brokeback was an amazing movie. It irritated me that so many people got hung up on the gay thing.

Susan - It was mesmerizing. I just kept looking at that guy as some poor mother's son. Broke my heart. I've not seen Electric Horseman, but to hear it described like that, how can I refuse?

Beth - no I haven't read it, but I intend to. I keep thinking at some point someone will host a reading challenge of books that have been made into movies!

Wendy - I hate to copy, but in thise case, it just had to be that way!

Caite - I had put off seeing the movie for a long time, but when I did eventually watch it, I was blown away.

Kaye - I actually had nightmares about that movie.

Lorielle - it has a stigma, doesn't it?

Frances said...

And here we take separate paths. I visit national parks, enjoy the beauty all day, and then retreat to a hotel with fabulous amenities. But this is a great list of movies especially Brokeback Mountain and Princess Mononoke. Do you at least drink wine during the camping thing?

The Bumbles said...

Awww - Stand By Me! Perfect choice! But do tell about your own version some day - leeches eh? I hope there was no massive puke-fest like in the pie eating contest story ;0)

Iliana said...

Into the Wild is a great choice! I agree, disturbing wasn't it? I remember when we went to see it I didn't think much of it and wasn't really expecting to like much and I was just stunned with it. I thought it was one of the best films I watched that year.

Sandy Nawrot said...

Frances - oh you know it! We wouldn't dream of going camping without wine! Before we had kids, we would even bring the tequila sometimes, do snakebites, then terrorize the stupid racoons!

Bumbles - hee hee! No, no puke-fests! When I went on my adventure with my friends, we barely had enough food to keep us alive. But yes, leeches, we had those. I wasn't the one that got into them, though, it was my friend Erica.

Iliana - I would strongly second that. I had put off watching for a long time, but was disappointed in myself after the fact. What a great movie.

ds said...

Homeward Bound was a big favorite around here; so was Milo & Otis (do you know that one). I loved Stand by Me (another Stephen King--*slap*) I wanted to see Princess Mononoke so badly!!! Heard it was fabulous. Thanks for another great list!

Ronald L. Smith said...

I've got one!

Winged Migration.

Not a drama, per se, but a good documentary.

Also liked Jeremiah Johnson. Very old film.

Nice blog you have.

Anonymous said...

I have never considered Deliverance an outdoors movie, but I can totally see the connection.

I can't say I even know the plot of that movie. But I hear banjos any time someone mentions it.

Sandy Nawrot said...

ds - Oh yeah, love Milo and Otis. My grandma named one of her cats Milo based on the two billion times we all had to watch that movie!

Ron - I had to do a double take because that is my dad's name. I highly doubt you are dad because to my knowledge he doesn't go by Prince Balthazar! I'm chuckling! Anyway, thanks for coming by. Winged Migration is fabulous. I had totally forgotten that one!

Cardiogirl - funny how it is hard to remember plots of "those" movies that are haunted by one scene. There is a really cool scene where they jump off a cliff into a river!

Hazra said...

I've heard of most of them except Princess Mononoke. I loved the locales of Brokeback Mountain.