Hey Woofa’s,
I had a dear friend recently recommend I watch Alpha!
She knows me well enough to know that I’m very weary when it comes to watching so called ‘dog movies’!
As a dog lover it’s tough going when the movie heads towards the sad part, you know the part I mean, when the dog goes to rainbow bridge!!!!!
I can’t deal with it, and speaking with a lot of other dog lovers, they’re in the same boat as me.
We either watch said dog movies in private with a big box of tissues or we just don’t watch them at all. I mean it’s all fun and games……………….until it’s not!!!!!
So when she recommended Alpha, I questioned her at length about whether it was sad or not. She reassured me I’d love it, and I trust her completely so I took her on her word.
Dean, Billy and I watched it…………………and my friend was right, I did love it!!
I’ll admit I had deep intake of breath moments (and watery eyes) when I thought the movie was going to go one way…………….but thankfully it didn’t!!! Whew!!!
The movie is set 20,000 years ago and the scene opens with, Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee) bison hunting with his tribe.
Keda is the son of Tau (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), who is the “alpha” of his people. Naturally, Keda is expected to follow in his father’s footsteps and eventually take over as “alpha”. However, Keda is not like the others, he has issues with killing animals, he is seen as being soft.
During the bison hunt, Keda’s hesitation in killing sees him bested by the bison and we see him plummeting over a cliff. Believed to be dead, his heart broken father is forced to leave Keda behind for the best of the tribe.
However, after a while we find out that Keda is actually still alive and it seems unfathomable as to how he’s going to manage to remove himself off such a tiny ledge to safety. Believable or not, he manages to get off the ledge.
In his effort to get off the ledge, Keda suffers a rather harsh injury to his ankle, he splints it and manages to keep moving. You see he has to make it back to his tribe before the harsh weather sets in.
Because he is travelling alone and is injured (and he’s in the middle of nowhere) he becomes hunted by wolves. He is seen as easy prey.
However while the wolf pack are trying to get to him, Keda manages to mildly injure the ‘alpha’ of the wolf pack! The rest of the pack leave the alpha behind because it is now injured and seen as weak.
Keda doesn’t seem to have a mean bone in his body, so instead of killing the animal, he slowly begins to befriend it and nurse it back to health.
Eventually he names the wolf ALPHA, of course. It’s slow going but we slowly watch the transformation from enemy to friend and the process of trust begins to form between the two of them.
Keda seems to show himself as a bit of an ‘alpha’, however it’s clear that they both play a part in saving each other.
The movie does flick back to the tribe a few times, who believe that Keda is dead and not coming back.
I don’t want to give too much away so I’m not going to say anymore about the actual story. I was surprised by two events and very happy that it went the way it did.
Watch it for yourself and find out what happens.
After the movie, I turned to Billy and said, ‘That’s what our ancestors went through to get us right here on this lounge together’!
Some people might argue that I’ve called this a ‘Dog Movie Review’, because it’s about a boy and a wolf.
However, it is believed that Dogs came from wolves all those years ago.
I wrote a blog post Where Does My Dog Come From, explaining the basics of where our dogs come from and flow on posts about how our dogs communicate, via what their instincts tell them from wolf pack behaviour.
In Australia, we have dingo’s that appear wolf like – click here to find out more!
We have thousands of years of breeding and domestication under our belts that bring us to today’s canines!
However, to me, Alpha is a bit of an insight into how the first domestication of wolf/dog came about.
Alpha is a great movie even for kids, however don’t rush out and buy a husky because it looks like a wolf.
Just enjoy the movie for what it is.
The bonus is, there will be no sad ugly crying tears!!!
IN THE COMMENTS BELOW – BILLY WOULD LIKE TO KNOW – IF YOU HAVE SEEN ALPHA AND WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF IT?
normanwilkes111 | 9th Oct 19
Aww, What a detail and informative review. I am seeking out some movies about dogs and finally I found it. Check it out! The Dog Hug
jma074@optusnet.com.au | 11th Oct 19
Thank you. Have you watched Alpha yet? I’d love to hear what you think of the movie. Let us know when you watch it, oh and don’t forget to watch it with your dog/s.