Game Warden

It's an RKO-Pathe Sportscope. Bryan Burgin lives in Margaretville, New York. He's a game warden. He checks on the fishermen's fishing licenses. He guides out-of-towners to the appropriate fishing spots. There is a conflict between a beaver and the local road. He traps the beaver humanly, but he also finds illegal traps. He catches a poaching suspect. There is pollution. He's teaching gun safety. Finally, he and his partner confront another poaching suspect.

This is more informative than most of these shorts. There is no good acting here. As a documentary, these are very stiff 'real' people. This may not be great cinema, but it is a good informational short.

"Game Warden" is a relatively dull short film. However, for folks who hunt or fish, it might be a bit more interesting. The film shows the many jobs of a local game warden (apparently in upstate New York) and I was actually a bit surprised how many different tasks they had. It included checking on fishing and hunting licenses, trapping nuisance animals, investigating and arresting poachers, conservation as well as gun safety.

So why do I say it was dull? Well, the style and narration are the problem. Instead of coming off as a crowd pleaser, it comes off more like a dull film they'd show kids in school. The narration is pretty limp and is almost as bad as Ben Stein playing the teacher on "The Wonder Years". All in all, this could have been a lot better.

Game Warden (1955)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another entry in RKO's Sportscope series with this one taking a look at game warden Brian Bergen of upstate New York. We see Bergen heading out in the morning to do his job, which is to protect nature's creatures from folks who might not have their best interest in mind. We see Bergen as he makes sure fishermen have their license, beavers don't build up dams that could cause the water to ruin roads and finally illegal poachers are caught. As with many Sportscope shorts, this one here has a few interesting moments but there are also some pretty bad ones. While the actual film is silent with just the narrator telling us what's going on, the acting going on during the film is pretty bad and there are countless sequences where you'll want to reach out and slap the actors because their facial gestures are so bad that you can't help but have bad feelings towards them. The overall tone of the film is a tad bit too patriotic and they try to make this game warden appear to be some sort of hero coming back from WW2. The over sentimental aspect of the film wasn't needed but there are some good moments including seeing some of the damage done by a beaver, which is eventually caught. Another mildly entertaining sequence is when the warden tries to track down the poacher. There's nothing here that would make for a good feature film but if you have eight-minutes to kill then you might want to check this out.

Interesting RKO Sports short showing the work of a New York State game warden, protecting the roads from dam-building beavers, beavers from poachers and rivers from pollution. Apparently they do more than sit in towers and watch for forest fires!

Game Warden is a beautiful movie in the style of Andy Warhols greatest epics ever: Empire would crumble compared to the solitary busyness of the game warden and sleep would call its winter. Yes, we need more short films such as this which still dates to show us what a good living is still about taking a gum and shooting the crap out of an innocent little deer is beautiful to see and the lake floating violinist midol it's watchers going broke in between betta fish in the birds and the deer and the rain Everything is beautiful about this movie go and see it now you can