When Reality Further Ruins a Movie - “Eight Below”
My wife and I are movie-aholics. Our DVD library numbers in the many hundreds, and whenever we get stateside, we typically will park ourselves at a cineplex and watch every movie we haven’t seen yet. This may be partially attributed to the fact that the only movie theatre on Bonaire is a single screen theatre with ever increasingly uncomfortable seats and two 3-4 month old movies showing each night.
So, on our recent vacation to the U.S. we came across the Martis Village Theatre in Truckee, California, showing Eight Below, a Disney movie starring Paul Walker and eight huskies (dogs), among others.
The premise of the movie is that Paul Walker’s character is a professional musher on assignment in Antarctica at an American research center. One thing leads to another, and he ends up having to leave the dogs behind during the Antarctic winter. Faithful to his dogs, he strives for months to find a way back to Antarctica, during which time we are treated to images of the dogs breaking out of their collars and chains, foraging for food, alpha dog jockeying, and more.
And here’s the thing that really, really, bothered me - all the “lost” dog footage, as well as the “dogs are being rescued “ scenes - and we’re talking the midst of the Antarctic winter here - is in bright sunlight!
I can understand some creative license, but folks, it’s dark - just about pitch dark - at the south pole during their winter (which is summer here in the Northern Hemisphere), not bright sunlight all day long!
The sun goes down for the season in March and doesn’t come back until sometime in late September, as I understand it. During the Antarctic summer it’s like a sunny midafternoon up north during our summer, but 24 hours a day.
And, adding to that lack of reality, is that it appears that the International Antarctic Treaty bans non-indigenous animals in the first place. So the dogs would have never been brought there in the first place, and if they had, they would not have been left behind because of the Treaty’s strict requirement that no refuse be left on Antarctica (and yes, dog-sicles would certainly be on the list of banned refuse).
Disney touts that Eight Below was based on a true story. So were James Frey’s “memoirs”.
Eight Below gets a 2.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale (in addition to the aforementioned blatant flaws, it was a pretty poor movie too).
For some insights from a person who has lived at the South Pole, take a look at http://www.spotsylvania.k12.va.us/nspt/question/chrisfaq.htm
