Bold Native

I saw this movie in Portland, as part of the Let Live festival. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I honestly didn't have high hopes. I was very pleasantly surprised. It's content is serious and thought provoking, while also being witty and fun. The acting and film quality were really great. I think I expected it to have the air of a fictional documentary, which it did not, and I was glad.

I think this is a movie for everyone, not just animal rights activists.

I did not have any problem following the movie in the time line it was presented, as another reader pointed out. I really loved every bit of it. Yay Bold Native!

Great movie without being preachy and very thought provoking. Great story, good plot, the actors they picked for the characters were a perfect match.

I bought this DVD since it's not showing in my area. This movie should get awards!!!! You also need to watch the "extras" at the end - from the documentaries on animal treatment to the happy stories from animal sanctuaries to the cast comments and interviews. I didn't know any of the actors with the exception of Randolph Mantooth (from the 70's Emergency TV fame) so it was fun to hear the actors comments. I loved the characters of Nicole (Ursula Whittaker) and I Rock (Tonya Kay) and her interaction with Richard Cranehill (Randy Mantooth).

Bold Native is not an animal rights documentary. This is a groundbreaking, scripted film that portrays the complicated issues facing today's animal rights activists. The movie is a first of it's kind in the sense that it deals with the many controversial aspects, different strategies and the wide variety of advocacy positions that exist side by side in the modern animal welfare/rights/liberation movement. No other film has engaged itself with these topics using fiction, hypothetical situations, character development and a suspenseful storyline. This movie also exposes an important fact... that we all exist in a time where corporations, in alliance with our government, are cowardly using the fears of the masses regarding terrorism, to silence the free speech of those humans standing up for the non human animal individuals being tortured, mutilated and brutally killed by the same corporations.

No other scripted film has dealt with the despicable and little known federal law called the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act which was set up by the corporations (industries who profit from killing animals) by paying off elected politicians. No other film has concerned itself with the emotional, psychological, compassionate and political motivations of so many human beings who risk their own freedom to fight for and liberate the nearly billions of non humans who are oppressed and killed every day. It's nearly impossible to create anything new in the world of film that hasn't been done before. Hollywood has been going out of its way to make sure that everything that it churns out.... has been made two or three times before and 'focused grouped' to never ending insanity. Yet, Bold Native stands out as original among everything else recently released by the big machine that creates the same movies over and over. This is bold filmmaking to say the least.

The films logo of the HOPE piglet is a wonderful metaphor for the future of a possible state of the world. A state of the world where liberating the other animals from oppression and fighting for their rights will one day be seen as rational, sane and just. But the logo might also represent hope for a new more meaningful filmmaking that will hopefully start to include themes about the injustice and prejudices which the other species of the world must endure under human chauvinism. Bold Native is the essence/definition of great revolutionary filmmaking and real HOPE.

Come on Hollywood....get on board!

The film is a brilliant mesh of dramatic stay-on-the-edge-of-your-seat storyline with important documentary footage about the horrors suffered by animals of factory farms. The film is so high quality -- artful direction, skillful acting, compelling plot, beautiful cinematography and critical and pointed delivery of the message on behalf of the deplorable state of farm animals. I hope it reaches wide delivery.

The movie is so realistic that for the first several minutes I thought it was a documentary until I recognized the intense actor who plays the father. The dynamic of conflict between the son and the father is at the core of the story. However, the true heart of the movie is the plight of farm animals and the risks that activists take when they fight to improve the lives of those animals. The documentary footage is painful to watch, but it brings home the moral fiber of the message.

Highest recommendation!

As the devoted father of a budding animal rights activist who is soon leaving for college, I am spending a few days at an animal rights conference to enjoy a few days with her before she goes to college and dyes her hair blue.

On the first night of the conference, I saw this movie surrounded by "the choir" I expected this movie to be "preaching" to. I didn't expect much from the movie itself. I was prepared to sit through a "labor of love" that was going to club me senseless with a heavy-handed agenda.

What I got instead was a well-written, well-acted, dramatic and surprising movie that often moved me to tears. The characters were all believable, and I didn't notice any of the distracting low-budget gaffes that plague so many movies like this one.

If I have any complaint, it was the non-linear sequence of the movie. I didn't figure out why he was orchestrating the climax until the movie itself pointed out the timeline and his motivation. I found myself confused, at times, about past and present.

I was already sympathetic to the message, but this movie has pushed me closer to accepting the challenge of living a vegan lifestyle. I think this movie has the power to change people in ways that horrifying documentary footage can't, because you are drawn into the struggle, instead of just being repelled by the reality of animal cruelty.

I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who loves animals, regardless of how their lifestyle or ideology.

Oh, and that pig was cute!