Rent Grey Owl (1999)
3.2 of 5 from 73 ratings
1h 53min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
In the 1930s, the Ojibwa Indian, Archie Grey Owl (Pierce Brosnan), takes to the Canadian wilderness. A trapper and adventurer, keen to exploit the wilderness for his own profit, Grey Owl uses everything in his power in cold-blooded rape of the forests. But then Grey Owl comes across a native Mohawk-Indian, Pony (Annie Galipeau) and falls in love. Slowly, through her, he comes to a new awareness of life - a decision which has far-reaching consequences. Instead of just trapping and hunting, he begins to understand the fragile balance of their habitat. He now finds that he has a mission and begins to write books and give lectures, predicting the destruction of the natural world. He visits the great cities of North America and England - creating a sensation among the public. Nothing can stop the "wild nobleman", until a reporter discovers a dark secret of Grey's past... - Actors:
- Pierce Brosnan, Stewart Bick, Vlasta Vrana, Annie Galipeau, Neil Kroetsch, Serge Houde, Nathaniel Arcand, Jacques Lussier, Chip Chuipka, Jimmy Herman, Graham Greene
- Directors:
- Richard Attenborough
- Producers:
- Jake Eberts, Richard Attenborough
- Writers:
- William Nicholson
- Studio:
- 20th Century Fox
- Genres:
- Drama
- Collections:
- Richard Attenborough: A Centenary Special Instant Expert's Guide, Top 10 Films of 1999
- Countries:
- Canada
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Reviews (2) of Grey Owl
Heart warming - Grey Owl review by JD
A moving true tale and with a strong moral message of the perils of 20th and 21st century living almost Marxist in its outlook. I thought Brosnan gave an emotional performance of a man who was so clearly secretive. A good family film.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Dull and badly acted. - Grey Owl review by CP Customer
Compared to other classic Attenborough directed biopics like ‘Ghandi’ and ‘Chaplin’, ‘Grey Owl’ is a pretty dull affair mainly down to two major faults. The first is there really isn’t enough of a story to make a nearly two hour long film, and to make matters worse huge chunks of Archie’s life story are omitted from the film, from his emigrating to Canada aged 18, to fighting in the First World War as under the guise of an native Canadian-Indian sniper and his subsequent injury which ended his military career which resulted in a military disability pension which allowed him to live the life of a woodland trapper. The second fault is the terrible choice of casting Pierce Brosnan as Archie Grey Owl, he gives a dull one dimensional performance, and even claiming mixed race doesn’t remotely look like a native Indian, and his accent is throughout the film is appallingly bad, straying from rural Canadian to American, to native Indian to his normal Irish, the accent alone completely distracts from what’s happening on screen as you’re constantly anticipating what kind of sound is going to come out his mouth next. The ironic thing is that I first heard of Archie Grey Owl through an episode of Ray Mears Bushcraft, in which Ray Mears did a small 10 minute segment about Grey Owl, his story and despite being a fake native Indian he very much was a conservationist before his time, and that 10 minute segment was far more informative and enjoyable that this entire 113 minute film.
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