OF DOGS AND MEN

EIGHT BELOW
Directed by Frank Marshall; written by David DiGilio; director of photography, Don Burgess; edited by Christopher Rouse; music by Mark Isham
With: Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood, Moon Bloodgood, and Jason Biggs
Rated PG. Running time: 120 minutes



Reviewed by Laurie Meunier Graves

Before I even start this review, it is only fair to come clean and admit that I am an unabashed, unrepentant lover of dogs and all things canid. In short, I am predisposed to like movies about dogs, which means that I went to Eight Below with every expectation that I would be charmed by the dogs and would eagerly root for them as they faced their many trials. And this is exactly what happened.

Eight Below, a Disney movie, is about eight sled dogs at a research station in Antarctica. I fell in love with the dogs—Maya, Max, Shadow, Buck, Dewey, Truman, Shorty, and Old Jack—and cheered for them all the way. Yes, there were more than a few cheesy “Disney Moments,” which didn’t bother me at all. After all, I wasn’t expecting Scorsese or Tarantino; instead I was expecting a heartwarming film about dogs.

Eight Below is indeed heartwarming, but, to my surprise, it also has a quality that all good children’s stories possess. That is, a strong undercurrent of subversiveness. On the face of it, Eight Below is the story of how eight dogs survive in the wilderness and of one man’s devotion to those dogs. After a series of calamities, Jerry Shepard, a guide, is forced to abandon the research station along with the rest of the crew. This means he must leave his beloved dogs alone, but Shepard is reassured by the “powers that be” that within hours the next team will be flying to the station. So not only are the dogs left alone, but they are chained and unable to run free. Fate, in the form of bad weather, makes it impossible to return to the station. In fact, the weather has become so bad that the next team won’t be going there at all, and the station will be deserted for at least six months. No one will take Jerry to the station to rescue the dogs, and it isn’t long before he bitterly realizes that he has almost certainly condemned the dogs to a slow, agonizing death.

As a result, Shepard becomes estranged from his friends, including a potential love interest. Nearly frozen with grief over what he has done, Shepard, played with lovely restraint by Paul Walker, knows that he is as guilty as “the powers that be.” Three different times, he said “yes” when he should have said “no,” bowing to the judgement of older men who just happened to be wrong.

Before the evacuation, Davis McLaren (Bruce Greenwood), a scientist, had come to the research station in search of chunks of a meteor that had crashed nearby. Shepard was told where McLaren wanted to go and had charted the journey. Except McLaren, in a fit of paranoia, lied about the route and instead wanted to go in the opposite direction, one that Shepard hadn’t charted and felt wasn’t safe. Shepard voiced his objections but was overruled by his boss, and, in the end, did what he was told. Then, when out looking for the chunks, Shepard and McLaren received word that a huge storm was coming their way and were ordered to return to the station. However, McLaren, not having found his chunk of meteor, convinced Shepard, again against his better judgement, to stay a few hours longer. The extra time allowed them to find a piece of the meteor, but they also found that the route was as treacherous as Shepard feared, and McLaren was nearly killed. Need I mention who rescued the hapless and reckless McLaren? And, at risk to their own lives? The dogs, of course. Finally, after a harrowing trip to the station with McLaren and the dogs through the predicted storm, Shepard, who had a terrible case of frostbite, was convinced to evacuate with everyone else, even though he knew he should stay with the dogs.

Now, it is common for young men (and women) to think that they are right and that their elders are wrong, and Eight Below, like Harry Potter, confirms this point of view. Shepard proves to be right every single time but doesn’t have the strength to follow his convictions. The last straw comes when Shepard, back in the United States, is repeatedly told to forget about the dogs and get on with his life. After a bit of wise counseling from the one elder who does seem to get it right, Shepard knows he has to return to the station so that he can come to terms with what he has done. This being a Disney movie means he not only gets to the station but also reconciles with his friends as well as McLaren, who comes through in a big way in the end.

In between Shepard’s anguish and soul searching, which I found to be very moving, are scenes of the dogs breaking free from their chains and surviving the harsh climate. While these dogs are definitely smarter than average dogs, the movie somehow always manages to capture their essential dog nature so that we never for one moment think that the dogs are anything other than what they really are. As an added bonus, the cinematography is breathtaking, and only spoilsports will grumble that there was far too much daylight for winter in Antarctica.

Having grown up on a steady diet of Disney movies, I can state with some authority that Eight Below is more than the usual Disney fare. Shepard is the quintessential hero who must learn through hard experience to trust his own judgement rather than the judgement of older men, who, while not malicious, nonetheless make wrong, disastrous decisions. An interesting point of view for a movie made in the United States, especially when you consider what course the older men in charge of this country have charted for many of the younger men.   

 

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