La forêt interdite

Taken in the context of the 'feather' craze that almost decimated the birds of the Everglades at the turn of the 20th Century, this movie -almost- presaged Rachel Carson and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. A moving depiction of the River Of Grass, those who lived WITH it and those who tried to DESTROY it. Christopher Plummer and Burl Ives gave this movie a depth that seemed effortless It deserved a wider release and I can only hope it will be issued as a DVD. It was based upon a true story of a federal wildlife ranger. The Manchineal trees have been displaced by Malelucas, what a pity, I would rope all the inhabitants of South Florida to the formers caustic trunks and enjoy he howls of pain

I love this movie and the important message to brings!

I first saw this film as a youngster, and it had a huge impression on me. As this movie showed on TV semi regularly back then I watched it many times. I was blown away the first time and every other time I saw it. With each re-watching I always picked up on new things I'd missed or didn't understand before, I was a kid after all.

Wind Across the Everglades invokes raw power, beauty, commitment, wilderness, redemption, morality, Human Nature, Nature.

This movie really needs to be re-released on DVD. I haven't seen it in maybe 36 years or more, but still consider it a major "Classic" that has everything going for it..great acting, great story, a non-partisan moral.

I remember seeing this film in 1961 at a local drive in theater.As a native Floridian I enjoyed it very much,especially since it was filmed nearby in Naples, Florida.To me it was an accurate depiction of how life was back then. Poaching was common,wildlife officers and environmentalists were fighting a losing battle against it. It showed Florida as it was at the turn of the century,when it was young and wild. This movie is truly a treasure of history in this area. I have been hoping it would be re-released for many years but to no avail. It is a shame that it cannot be viewed by our children.I would greatly appreciate owning a copy of this great film. Skip Kent,Bonita Springs, Fl.

And so the environmentalist shall lie down with the swamp rat under the shelter of Protest. Such, at least, is my takeaway from the best scene in this flawed but interesting 1958 Nicholas Ray film where the Man From The Audubon Society and the King Of The Crackers are drunkenly united in their dislike of modern, urban civilization and, in so doing, anticipate the 1960s counter culture by at least eight years.

It's fashionable in film circles to disparage this Ray work and cast as the villain producer/writer Budd Schulberg who fired his Genius Director toward the end of shooting and took his place behind the camera. I somewhat subscribe to this view although with the fairly large caveat that The Genius was injesting heroin at the time, a rather significant detail the auteurists tend to omit. Whoever is to blame, there is no getting around the fact that large swaths of the film involving the early settlement of Miami and the love affair between Christopher Plummer and Chana Eden are as dull as a Marlins double header and that Burl Ives' performance is over the top pretty much throughout rather than in just certain parts of the film that Schulberg may have helmed. So let's give it a generous B minus for the Great Protest as well as other good red neck stuff like the elemental fight for sleeping quarters and the Everglades floozies who Ives so admires.

PS...I notice that Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter, who did the music, did not get a credit. Anti Schulberg Protest?

PSS...An early Peter Falk performance does not make a strong impression. Gypsy Rose Lee, however, does, especially from the neck down.