Why We Will Boycott The Grey

Liam Neeson’s latest movie, The Grey, arrives in theatres everywhere today. No, this isn’t a film preview, review, or other free advertising for the flick. In fact, our goal is to have you not watch it. And if you care about protecting and respecting the long-mistreated canid, the grey wolf, maybe you’ll take our proscription to heart.

The film’s set-up is simple enough. A group of men are stranded in the Alaskan wilderness following a plane crash. They must use their wits to survive until they are either rescued, or able to find their way back to civilization. However, they soon find themselves in trouble, as a pack of wolves is apparently stalking them. Here’s a preview of the film:

There are a number of reasons we’ve organized a boycott of The Grey (which you can sign here). It’s not just because Liam Neeson and cast members dined on wolf meat as a bizarre sort of method acting. Or that real dead wolves were used as props in the film itself. Though we feel for the four dead wolves who served as either props or the main course of an adventurous eating club, the danger posed to our four-footed friends by this film is more widespread than that.

The Grey has the potential to act as a $35 million propaganda campaign against wolves, at the very same time that they have just been removed from the Endangered Species lists of several western states. Hunting wolves just became legal again, and it was the propagation of horror stories and myths (along with some tempting bounties) that caused the near eradication of the grey wolf in North America in the first place.

Wolf extermination (it went beyond normal hunting) began in earnest in the early 1800s, and by 1926, wolves were completely extirpated from Yellowstone National Park. By the 1970s, less than a thousand wolves remained in the lower 48 of the United States. All along, as the animals became more rare, people had less and less actual experience to contradict the false rumors they were hearing. A “shoot first, ask questions never” policy prevailed.

The reality is that wolves generally avoid both humans and human settlements, and play an important role in parkland ecosystems. Though they’ve been caricatured throughout history as cunning, yellow-eyed monsters out to steal children, we know better now. Thus it’s all the more perplexing that a 2012 movie would portray them so dishonestly if it expects to be taken seriously.

The wolves of The Grey more closely resemble werewolves or demons than any kind of living creature in nature. One character opines that they’re not trying to kill the men out of hunger, but because “we don’t belong here.” Ascribing such human motives to wolves is laughable, at best.

If I can switch gears, and put on my film critic hat for a moment, there’s at least one more reason not to watch this movie. There’s such a thing as artistic license when it comes to some of the smaller details in a narrative. But there needs to be an emotional truth that the story holds to.

I believe that art, ethics and truth are all closely related. It frankly doesn’t matter how carefully a stark atmosphere is created, how cleverly the barren wastes mirror a broken man’s soul, if your core premise rings false. Wolves are beautiful, ultimately cautious creatures. They aren’t supernatural, evil or a metaphor for any human concept. They aren’t the hand-that-strikes of a pantheistic conception of nature. Whatever they are, the creatures depicted in this film are not wolves.

Give this one a pass, and tell your friends to avoid it as well.

Conservation Groups Challenge Courts to Protect Wolves

Should Auld Species Be Forgot?

Photo credit: Gunnar Ries Amphibol

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

madeleine w.

5:26PM PST on Feb 20, 2012

Oliver, I was not critical of either of you. I am just tired of hearing about it so I tried to encourage both of you to find somewhere where the impact might be an immediate save for a particular, living , breathing animal. That’s all. May the Force be with you. Okay?

send a green star

Anne C.

3:31PM PST on Feb 20, 2012

Just a no-profile troll, DO NOT FEED IT!

Nimue P.

3:19PM PST on Feb 20, 2012

It's a troll, don't acknowledge it and maybe it will go away.

Annmari L.

3:11PM PST on Feb 20, 2012

Jenna K.: You need to get a better vocabulary. That kind of language won't get you a career other than "Want fries with that" or possibly as a bouncer, although you're not large enough. Better still, why don't you try and get educated in civil manners?

Oliver S.

2:34PM PST on Feb 20, 2012

Madeline W. Not sure what points of Jenna's you can possibly agree with. The movie inaccurately portrays wolves in a light that is inaccurate and has a high probability of damaging recovery efforts and the promulgation of inaccurate information to a public that has already been negatively influenced by mythology and anti-wolf rhetoric spread by people with an interest in seeing them hunted (trophy hunters) or those that aren't capable of decent livestock management exacerbates this issue considerably. And yes I know what I'm talking about here - in addition to more than 30 years working with and studying wolves, my family used to run one of the largest cattle operations in the eastern part of Colorado.

Further, the actions of the cast and crew of The Grey are indefensible.

Finally how you can see the point of someone that is simply out to get attention for herself by trolling a forum like this is unfortunate.

As an aside, I have looked at the page you referenced and am happy to support the cause, but I'd like to suggest that before being critical of someone you should also do a little more research. I spend a huge amount of time working for and on behalf of all sorts of animals and my facebook page, my twitter stream and my posts all over the Internet attest to this fact.

5:55AM PST on Feb 20, 2012

And just for the record to both of you. I see both sides and find points both of you have made to agree with. I’ve already said my piece over a month ago..

Personally I have not seen it, am not going to, I don’t like or approve of people shooting wolves. I like them and am not going to change my mind so don’t need letters. On the other hand this is a movie. I won’t go see (or watch on tv) any Mel Gibson movies either. As to Liam Neeson, I am disappointed in him. We deserve better from him. Eating wolf, dog, cat, horse, pets is unnecessary and disgusting to me. We have many other options. I think it’s very un-evolved. You, however may eat whatever you wish or not.

5:46AM PST on Feb 20, 2012

No comment at this point, but are y’all aware that this article is more than a month old? People are working for animal rights on other issues now? This link would put you to somewhere that really needs our help. Please consider it:
https://www.facebook.com/Hand4Paws

5:23PM PST on Feb 19, 2012

So, Jenna, you're not only ignorant, your also immature, foul-mouthed, uneducated, crass and a fine example to others. Congratulations! May we all be so fortunate as to be as completely stone-cold stupid as you are. I'm sure your parents must be so very proud. Why are you on Care2 anyway? Can't you see this is a community of people that in general care about nature, the environment and their fellow humans?

And as far as computers I'm pretty sure I started programming them before you were even an unfortunate glint in some poor impending parent's eye.

It's sad that Darwinian selection no longer genuinely occurs in humans because if it did I'm sure that genetically defective people like you would most certainly have been selected against. Oh, and if you have no clue what Darwinian selection actually is, I suggest another visit to google. Let me spell it for you so you can get it down: G O O G L E (don't forget to add the .com after as I'm sure navigating the net proves challenging for people like you).

Best of Luck (your going to need it if you're to survive where intelligence actually is a factor)

5:00PM PST on Feb 19, 2012

Jenna, why don't you spend 30 seconds on Google before you open your mouth and prove that the one that's completely ignorant is YOU?

They did harm wolves making this movie. Four of them to be specific. Two wolf carcasses were used as props, and two were cooked into a stew and eaten by the cast and crew as an obscene and incorrect attempt at "method acting".

Had you taken the time to simply do a quick search you've have easily learned that not only has this been well documented by the media, but that Liam Neeson himself, Joe Carnahan, the director, other members of the cast and crew and even the person that trapped and killed the wolves they used, a BC resident named Dick McDiarmid have all spoken with the press and admitted these facts.

Here's the results of my 10 seconds on Google to give you some pretty compelling proof: https://www.google.com/search?q=liam+neeson+at+wolf+meat

Beyond this, the reason people are upset about the content of the film is that there are a lot of people that are already uneducated about wolves and wolf behavior and there are plenty of people that will use this movie to further these inaccurate beliefs in an effort to increase the killing of wolves across the country. If you doubt this take a look at what's happening in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana where wolves are just beginning to make a come back.

Finally, the movie Jaws, with its ridiculous animatronic shark resulted in a tremendous increase in fear and hatred of sharks, as a r

Jenna K.

2:39PM PST on Feb 19, 2012

oh MY GOD shut the hell up. it's a freaking movie you idiots. the wolves were more than LIKELY animated NOT REAL. they didn't hurt or kill real wolves in the movie. it doesn't make wolves look scary at all. if you paid attention to the movie or even watched it you would know, how it mentions wolves are territorial. hence the whole reason why they went after the men in the first place. you're telling me that if you were in this situation you wouldn't do what they would to try and save yourself? i love animals, but if i had a pack of wolves chasing after me i would do what i could to save myself. bunch of ignorant peta freaks.