Movie Thoughts: Druid Peak (2014)

• Released: 28 March 2014
• Directed by: Marni Zelnick
• Running time: 1 h 51 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

A troubled teen is sent to Yellowstone to live with his father, where he learns to cope with his problems by studying with the wolves there.

My Thoughts

I wanted to watch this since I first saw it announced on Facebook in 2014, and I did so a year ago. However, memories fade, and I wanted to do a review of it, so here I am, re-watching it!

This is overall a really strong movie. It has a strong plot with well-written characters, particularly Owen, our protagonist. He's far from perfect and he does so some really bad stuff in this movie, but you never give up on him because the movie shows that he's worthy of redemption. I also found it very relatable how he coped with his troubles by becoming obsessed with wolves, something I did in my teenage years. 

The movie also does a good job of portraying the conflict between cattle owners and wolf scientists. Is it a bit biased towards the side of the wolves? Yeah, but I still appreciated that it took the time to address the fact that wolves aren't harmless and do in fact kill cattle from time to time. 

The wolves in this were played by (from what I could tell) a mix between real wolves and wolfdogs. I was very glad to see that the actor-wolf interactions were being kept to a minimum. Usually they wouldn't even be in the same shot, but in case they were, there was always a respectable distance between the animal and the actor.

If you like wolves or nature in general, I definitely recommend this film. It has some beautiful wildlife shots and a good arc for our main character.