Movie Thoughts: Wolf Walk (2019)

• Released: 15 January 2019
  
• Directed by: Jean-Michel Bertrand
  
• Running time: 1 h 28 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

The movie's director treks through the French Alps, trailing a young dispersal male wolf as it makes its journey.

My Thoughts

Okay so remember how I originally had a rule that I don't review documentaries on here? Yeah I'm kinda going to be breaking that going forward. I probably won't review every documentary I watch as I don't always have things to say about them (unlike with movies), but I think I may do an MT on one every now and then. Staring with this one: Wolf Walk, also known as Marcher avec les loups.

This was honestly a pretty solid documentary. While I didn't learn a lot of new things (me being a wolf nerd already), I still had a good time watching it and following Bertrand's journey across the Alps. I also like the premise of the documentary. Rather than focusing on a single pack which most documentaries on this subject I've seen so far, this one just takes a single individual and follows it. We get to see Bertrand apply his tracking skills to the extreme as he tries to keep up with the young dispersal male (on foot, mind you). He also camps sometimes and just shows his knowledge of the outdoors and wildlife. 

I will say that, if you came looking for beautiful and detailed shots of wolves in this documentary, you'll be disappointed. Since we're tracking this wolf on foot, pretty much all camera shots in this movie are shot from either trail cams or a camera crew very far away. So there aren't that many impressive or closeup shots of wolves in here. The largest part of the documentary is just showing Bertrand tracking the male, interspersed with trail cam footage of the wolf and the occasional camera crew shot they manage to get at a distance. So this isn't a documentary for those who want to see impressive animal shots and spend most of their viewing time with the animal rather than the director.

I do like how this documentary follows European wolves, though. Most wolf documentaries I've seen so far have all focused on American packs (usually the Yellowstone wolves), but this makes for a nice breath of fresh air. European wolves are subtly different from American timber wolves, not just in looks but also in certain pack behaviors, the size of their territory, the prey they hunt, etc. So it's nice to see them get the spotlight for once.

Overall a decent documentary, but it doesn't have a lot of content with the wolf itself in it. It's more so the director narrating the wolf's journey with some footage interspersed.