A Whale for the Killing

Whale chased into shallow cove needs the help of Peter Strauss to survive. Dialogue and dynamics are weak but the ending fooled me. Good for animal film fans.

It's sad that only two movies have been made from the works of Farley Mowat, Canbda's master storyteller. Never Cry Wolf is much better. This movie whitewashes a rather complex situation. Good outsider v. evil locals. The truth is that Mowat comes across as a bit of a jerk in the book. Many of the locals resent the attention he brought to their small coastal Newfoundland town. And I can't say I blame them. Was the way the locals treated the whale wrong? Admittedly, yes, but the impression I had was that Mowat turned the locals into proxies for the entire wasteful and somewjhat criminal whaling industry. The Newfoundland locals didn't hunt whales and, for the most part, lived somewhat in harmony with nature. They didn't overfish and lived fairly simple lives. They shouldn't have shot at the whale, but whales getting caught in coves was pretty rare. Mowatt himself admitted that. And there was a pretty good chance the trapped whale would have starved to death anyway. The locals behaved horribly to the whale, but in the grand scheme of things they proved over and over again that they were not the bad guys. Skip the movie. Read the book.

Barely remember this and uncertain if it is exactly the movie I am thinking of. There is a humpback whale stuck in a bay because of current low tides but there was high tides when the whale went into the bay. When discovered by locals in small, harbor town, some of the gun nuts or hunters want to go shoot it as it would be pretty awesome to say you shot a whale in the bay near your town. Think of THAT head on your mantle!! Some non-locals who happen to be there for some reason....I think it was they were ship wrecked, step in, reluctantly, to stop them from shooting the whale and try to get the whale back into the ocean. I don't remember how it ended or what happened but there is some good drama btw the redneck hunters and the visiting "whale savers".

I was a young kid when I saw this and later got a high fever up to 105-106 F from some virus or hot summer heat. I started hallucinating and starting picturing this movie happening in the window of my bedroom and was freaked out about how we could fit all the fish and whale in my bedroom. My mother was very worried about me and thought I was possessed by the devil because once during this illness i apparently turned and told her "Mom, I hate God!" Well, a few days later on the way to the doctor and sitting in front of an air conditioner, my fever broke and I was fine. I only remember the hallucinations about the fish and this movie. It took me forever to remember what the name of the movie was and thanks to IMDb.com I believe this is it.

I am a hunter and enjoy guns, but am not a fan of killing endangered species and don't condone shooting humpback whales in your local harbor just because you can. My earlier comments were satirical and tongue-in-cheek. It is possible to enjoy guns without being ridiculous about it...but then you don't get to be on TV or the NRA because they only accept crazies and those good for TV ratings. Common sense and reason aren't good for TV ratings.

Anyhow, wish I could find a copy of this movie so I could watch it again.