My seven-year-old picked this out at the library today. When we got it home he said he had picked it out for me. He often does this with food and with Netflix instant watch. He does a lot of strangely sophisticated things and then goes back to picking his nose and playing video games. But you don't come here to read about my kid; suffice to say it is strange that he would pick at random a 70s nature documentary not even knowing of my love for such films.
At first I thought this was going to be a Frankenmovie, one of those movies cobbled together out of unfinished films and stock footage. But it turned out to be pretty decent for a cheap nature movie, even though the second part is more of a docudrama. The only problem I have with The Legend of Cougar Canyon is that a reviewer on IMDB claims the eagle eaten by the cougar at the beginning of the movie was held down by the filmmaker with a rope. I am not sure, and I can't find any documentation; I hope it's not true.
The first half of the the movie follows a hungry cougar trying to eat. He catches an eagle, then unsuccessfully chases a badger (I knew badgers were nasty but I didn't know they were BAAAD), fights over some food with a black bear, tries to catch and eat a boar, and finally has a rabbit for dinner. All the time the narration by Rex Allen is very fair to both the cougar and the other animals, stressing that the cougar is hungry and getting desperate, life is hard for predators, this is nature's way, etc.
Halfway through the film, we start seeing Navajo Indians going about their business and hearing a bit about their customs intercut with the cougar footage. Then we meet Steve (Steven Benally Jr.), a Navajo of about twelve, and his white friend Walter (Holger Kasper). They have a campout on the reservation and tell ghost stories. In the morning the boys aren't watching Steve's family's goats as well as they should and one gets away from them only to be stalked by the cougar. The rest of the film is spent on the race between the boys and the cougar to see who will get the goat.
Now, what elevates this above the usual crappy tearjerker animal story is that by the time we meet the boys we already feel sympathetic towards the cougar. Then, the boys' portion of the movie is narrated by Allen just like the cougar's, making man seem like a normal part of nature too. When the two sides are competing for the goat, you understand that Steve will get in trouble with his mother if the goat is eaten, but you also understand that the cougar has to eat. It's miles better than an entire movie about a Mary Sue of a little boy and a mean, evil cougar.
The Legend of Cougar Canyon was directed by indie filmmaker James T. Flocker, who only made six films. One of them turns out to be something I had seen a weird trailer for while watching 70s horror trailers on YouTube, called Ghosts Who Still Walk. So I've decided that tonight will be a Flocker double feature. Coming up next: Ghosts Who Still Walk. I understand there's a scene involving strangely moving rocks that was nightmare fodder for many folks in the 70s; we shall see.
