Wolf Awarness Week - Day 2

Wolfen

1981

D: Michael Wadleigh

**********

Pros: Direction, Characters, First Act

Cons: Story, Fatuous Moral, Disappointing Payoff

     It’s unfortunate when a bad movie tricks you into thinking it’s good, but that’s what Wolfen does.  It starts out solidly, but eventually the shit rears its ugly head, leaving you cold, empty and alone.  It begins with a mysterious killing of a wealthy man and his wife in New York.  The attack is seen from the point of view of a wolf, which is done through an in-camera effect similar to the one that would later be used in Predator.  James Horner, a composer infamous for recycling his own themes, gives the theme a motif that sounds familiar to those heard in Star Trek II and Aliens.  Overall, the scene is very well-done.  It helps establish some thrills and has some decently-executed violence, but it doesn’t reveal too much.

     Investigating the crime is NYPD Detective Dewey Wilson (Albert Finney) with the help of police coroner Wittington (Gregory Hines) and criminal psychologist Rebecca Neff (Diane Venora).  At the crime scene it is mentioned that the victims’ bodyguard has voodoo connections, but this is one of the many red herrings in the movie that go absolutely nowhere.  The movie starts out quite well.  The protagonists don’t have much in the way of interesting backstories, but they are likable enough, and I enjoy their chemistry.  I like how a horror movie combines itself with a police procedural, a refreshing departure from the typical situation involving fools stumbling into abandoned cottages.  While the wolf prey off homeless people, our heroes encounter an insane amount of red herrings, most of which are more interesting than the movie’s final payoff.

     Most of the police force believes that a terrorist group called “Gotterdammerung” is responsible for the slayings.   Wilson has his doubts, and it’s already obvious to the audience that this group is not to blame.  He and Wittington also encounter a creepy zoologist named Ferguson (Tom Noonan) who seems oddly sympathetic to wolves.  He goes on so much about how corrupt man is and how put-upon the wolves are that one can’t help but think he’s a werewolf.  He even watches footage of wolf-hunting just to use as empathy porn.  This subplot doesn’t last long, however, since the he is mauled to death by the movie’s lupine antagonists. 

      The story’s primary suspects are a group of radical Native Americans led by Eddie Holt (Edward James Olmos, who is Hispanic).  Not only are they depicted as annoyingly smug fanatics, Holt is revealed to no qualms about killing other Native Americans who “sell out.”  They talk to Wilson about wolf spirits called the Wolfen, which are supposedly more intelligent than humans.  They talk about that how much more blameless they are than the humans who took their land (gee, it’s almost like an allegory).   I must say the movies interpretation of the Noble Savage fallacy is one of the more insulting I’ve seen, since it defines “noble savage” as “smug, arrogant murder who venerates wolf spirits.”  After the movie heavily implies that at least some of these Native Americans are werewolves, Wilson tails one of them at night.  The man ritualistically disrobes and….pretends to turn into a wolf.  No, really.  He just gets on all fours and starts acting like a g--dam wolf.  You know what’s more annoying than a movie’s pretending that something a man turns into is a werewolf?  A movie about a man pretending to turn into a werewolf.  With this incredibly anticlimactic twist, the movie confirms that it is not, in fact a werewolf movie, despite teasing the audience with imagery of full moons during the mauling scenes and even on the movie poster.

This movie is not worthy of such awesome posters.

      The movie truly hits rock bottom when Wilson and Wittington go looking for the wolves in some abandoned buildings at night.  Seeing how it’s probably not standard police procedure for a detective and a police coroner to take some M-16’s out on an urban hunting trip, it’s sadly predictable what happens next.  The black guy dies.  The movie spent its first act building suspense effectively and fooling me into thinking it wasn’t a typical horror movie, but this scene brought Wolfen down to the level of the worst horror films.  This is even more frustrating when you consider that Gregory Hines’ charisma, combined with the humor and intelligence of his character, made Wittington the most entertaining and likable character in the movie.  This character was too cool and to come off as tokenism; he actually came off as a co-protagonist to Wilson.  Wittington was actually a stronger character than Wilson, and if the latter had been killed in the scene, it would have been truly unexpected.  Hell, if Wittington had ended up being the hero, it would have at least partially actually compensated for all the movie’s crap.  At least he does a hilarious double-take right before the wolf jumps him.

             

       It’s eventually revealed that the Wolfen are simply a subspecies of wolf that seems to be cleverer than the usual variety.  They have spent years living in New York City under the shadow of humans, killing the occasional homeless person for food.  When rich people tried to develop the slums that they were living in, they started to strike back at the land developers.  Wilson eventually confronts the pack in one of the skyscrapers of the developers, but finds himself unable to resist them by force.  He realizes their motivations, and symbolically smashes the housing development plan models in front of them.  For some reason, this is good enough to convince the Wolfen that he’s on their side now (rather than just trying to pander to them to save his skin).  And yet the repay Tom Noonan’s genuine sympathy by killing him.  That makes sense.  The fact that the wolves decide to spare Wilson for this seems to confirm that they are sapient beings with a code of conduct rather that unusually clever predatory animals.  As such, this actually makes them fair game for being judged like people.

     Despite this movie’s brazen attempts to romanticize these wolf beings as honorable hunters, they’re actually a bunch hypocritical, cowardly assholes.  Even with some concessions given toward different value systems, it’s hard to imagine any honor-based code of conduct which allows one to do what these wolves do.  Their land is taken from them by humans, and they’re obviously upset about it.  So what do they do about it?  Do they try to fight?  Do they leave?  No, they just lay low and prey on the weakest, most defenseless members of the society that conquered them.  The movie suggests that they have an arrogant disdain for the humans as lesser beings, despite our cultural and technological accomplishments shaming theirs.  And that’s what this movie has to offer us after all those ridiculous red herrings that are resolved far too soon: wolves that are assholes with a pathetic inferiority complex.  Almost anything would have been better than that.  If this is supposed to work as an allegory for Native Americans, it’s heavily insulting.  This would be the movie’s poster if it were more honest:    

           

     The movie still has the chutzpah to preach to the audience about how awesome the Wolfen are.  It ends with the most trite closing narration you could imagine: “We humans don’t know what we’re doing when we hurt the environment.  We don’t understand nature, so we just let wolf people murder the homeless.”  So the wolves get away with what they do, and the frustrating thing is that the movie refuses to acknowledge this is a bad thing or hold them responsible for their actions.

        Wolfen is Michael Wadleigh’s only film besides two documentaries.  This is a shame because he actually does a good job directing.  The cinematography is great, New York landmarks are used well to create symbolism and suspense in the movie, and the story is well-paced. .  As I mentioned before, he uses some tricks that would help benefit more famous movies later.   James Horner’s score does a good job of helping establish the atmosphere, despite his trademark recycling.  The movie started out with a lot of promise and good execution, but nothing really salvages such an anticlimactic and fatuous story.  At least with Balto II: Wolf Quest, you could see it coming.    

MEMORABLE QUOTES

WITTINGTON: Now ain’t this a shame?  Bizarre, man.  Almost severed her head.

WILSON: Was instantaneous?

WITTINGTON: Instantaneous?  You see a chicken run around with its head cut off?  Nobody ever thinks about the head.  During the French Revolution, when they chopped the heads off they quick’ picked them by the basket and looked them in the face.  Now, most went out right away in shock.  Every fifth head or so was alive, wide awake, eyes blinking, mouth trying to say something.

WILSON: Yeah, sure.

WITTINGTON: The brain can live without oxygen for more than a minute.  That’s a long time, buddy boy.  How’d you like to see your own body and know you’re dead?

WILSON: Give me a nice death in bed, preferably with a partner.

WITTINGTON: You can take her away now.  Hey, careful with her…

[offscreen plop]

COP 1: Aw shit.

WITTINGTON: ….head.

COP 2: You pick it up.

COP 1: I’m not picking it up. 

WITTINGTON: Getting a little excited, dude?  Pants getting wet yet? [is immediately attacked by a wolf]