The Tonic of Wildness - Five Movies where Nature is the Star
The natural world is often in the headlines for all the wrong reasons - so switch off the news and dive into these stunning films instead. Not your typical “environmental” flicks, these stories all take the viewer deep into nature, capturing that megastar Mother Nature at her glamorous best.
good.film
2 years ago
Share
“We need the tonic of wildness. In wildness is the preservation of the world.”
-Henry David Thoreau
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (which is also under a glacier, which is in a ravine), you’ve probably spotted that we humans have caused a bit of a ruckus when it comes to the natural environment in the last coupla centuries or so. Fire, flooding, smog and sea pollution… if Earth was a share-house, we definitely wouldn’t be getting our bond back.
Fortunately for the current residents (all 8 billion of us), we haven’t totally wrecked the joint yet. Despite our best (worst) efforts, Planet Earth still looks wondrous in all the right places, and when the lighting’s just right, there’s no place better at filling our souls with awe. With her jaw-dropping landscapes and various craggy mountainous shapes proving inspirational to poets, painters, writers and photographers over centuries, it’s no wonder that Mother Nature has also snuck in front of the movie camera for her diva close-up over the years - and wow has she blown us away.
It got us thinking about those movies that just couldn’t have been shot on a studio lot. Films where the environment isn’t just a pretty background: it’s the leading lady. Stunningly beautiful, terrifyingly complex, and ready to turn on us puny humans at barely a moment’s notice - hmmm, remind you of a Hollywood character or two?
Here are five films where Mother Nature takes the starring role - reinforcing just how freakin’ glorious our little blue-green rock really is.
1. Beasts of the Southern Wild
Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) is a smart, effervescent six-year-old girl who humanises the world she lives in by engaging with every element: from dirt to fire to sea to sky. To Hushpuppy, the isolated island in the Louisiana bayou that she calls home has a value and a beauty that is best seen from within. Once you are inside, what you thought was a tiny, worn-out environment is revealed to be a vibrant, colourful world that provides a mental safe haven for its inhabitants, despite the physical challenges they face. Director Benh Zeitlin described the setting in Beasts of the Southern Wild as a “dangerous utopia.”
Zeitlin spreads more than just visual wonder across the screen, he boldly makes an environmental statement: we’re inherently connected to nature. When Hushpuppy’s father has a heart attack, we see and hear the world “react”. Glaciers crack and crash. A dangerous storm rolls in. And then, if we really listen, we hear something else within this chaotic soundscape: a beating heart. Her father is her world - so, her father becomes her literal world.
Realising that the message - our connection to nature - is easier to hear with a sense of child-like hope, Zeitlin chose camera angles that made sure we’d be seeing the world through the young protagonist’s eyes. As Hushpuppy muses: "The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right.”
2. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Okay, maybe it’s a sneaky cheat to include the whole trilogy - but let’s face it, the three parts of the New Zealand-shot story blend so perfectly that they really are one seamless ride.
In Māori mythology the land is considered to be a female deity. And we can imagine when LOTR’s location scouts were cruising around looking for their new film’s settings, that deity shot up her hand, announced her immense credentials, and immediately won the role. Peter Jackson and his crew ended up shooting in over 150 different locations across the country - we’re talking an immersive landscape, moulded and coloured over thousands of years by volcanic and geothermal forces. Just one example: Tongariro National Park, with its stretches of desolate land and jagged volcanic rock formations, was cast as the base of Dark Lord Sauron’s evil operations.
Since “starring” in Rings, NZ became HQ for films including The Chronicles of Narnia trilogy, Mission Impossible 6: Fallout and the Avatar sequels (director James Cameron loved the natural beauty of the “Land of the Long White Cloud” so much that he bought himself a large estate on the north island!).
From the lush, rolling hills of Matamata playing Hobbiton to the dramatic wilderness of the South Island where Strider and the Hobbits ran from the Black Riders, the fantasy took on an authenticity because nature played her role so masterfully. One shooting location was so gorgeous that actor Viggo Mortensen convinced the entire crew to camp out overnight after a day’s shoot rather than go back to their hotels. Clearly, the landscape made an impression on audiences as well, as the strong spiritual essence embedded within NZ’s natural environment helped bring Tolkien’s fantasy world to life.
3. The Revenant
The seductive cinematography of 2016 film The Revenant won Emmanuel Lubezki his third consecutive Academy Award for his work behind the camera (after Gravity and Birdman), and for good reason: the entire film was captured in rural Canada using only natural light. It meant that the environment hit the screen in all its naked glory; you could say Mother Nature skipped the costume department and stepped straight onto set in her “birthday suit”. That visual honesty is one of the factors that helps pull the audience into this violent, mud-caked world of two centuries past. Though using only natural light made continuity a real bear (get it?), Lubezki declared that it was all worth it: “While natural light is very complex because it’s constantly changing, it’s so beautiful… and that constant transformation of nature is a theme of the movie.”
He’s not wrong. The character arc that audiences witness from our hero, Hugh Glass (played to Oscar-winning glory by Leonardo DiCaprio) is intimately aligned with nature’s own arc: one of immense struggle and rebirth. Abandoned by his comrades and left for dead, Glass is forced to rely on his knowledge of the wilderness to survive: to navigate treacherous terrain, hunt for food, and protect himself from the elements. As he slogs through the bitter landscape, Glass becomes increasingly attuned to the rhythms of the natural world around him.
Luckily for Glass, he had a head start: his relationship with his First Nations son is a key factor in his connection to the land. Glass already has a deep understanding of the culture of the Indigenous peoples through his son; the importance of respecting the natural world and living in harmony with its rhythms. And hopefully, the occasional very grizzly bear.
Through his journey, Glass develops a profound appreciation for the beauty and power of nature and his connection to the land. Of course, that means we the audience do too - inspiring us to think about (and hopefully improve) our relationship with the natural world.
4. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
We can sit at home and imagine a life well-lived, or we can get outside and actually live a life well. That’s the general theme of Mitty, which was largely filmed in the bold environmental wonderland that is Iceland - AKA “The Land of Fire and Ice” (dramatic!)
With its volcanic formations, geysers and fjords, the attractiveness of Iceland as a filming location is a no-brainer - heaps of other big films have made the trip to call on its natural beauty. Thor: The Dark World, Batman Begins, Captain America: Civil War… it’s kinda appropriate that the Nordic island has played host to a few superhero films, considering the heroic role that its natural environment plays.
Walter (Ben Stiller) was once an energetic, edgy kid who, when his father passed away, settled into a dull, risk averse job - his only excitement found within his vivid imagination. When the magazine he works for announces they’re closing down, Walter takes himself on a journey to track down a “once in a lifetime” photo to grace the final front cover.
Enter stage left: Mother Nature. Walter ventures out of his office and with trepidation, journeys to Greenland, the Himalayas and Afghanistan (thanks to its diverse landscape, Iceland stood in for all three). Watching Walter as he journeys through the timeless, stunning beauty of Iceland is a revitalising experience that excites the senses.
On his journey, Walter experiences the full spectrum of nature’s personality - and so will you. Breathe deep and take in the broad, bright, open skies… then feel your muscles tighten as that same sky is swallowed by a dark and brutal rolling storm. Feel the thrill as Walter longboards down a long and winding road, whizzing past gorgeous scenery. FYI, the road is called Seyðisfjarðarvegur (no, we can’t pronounce it either). At 700 km from Iceland’s capital city, it really is a place to “get away from it all”...
The takeaway? Put down the phone. Nature has the power to transform us - if we give ourselves the chance to get outside and experience her firsthand.
5. House of Flying Daggers
The wuxia romance House of Flying Daggers may have excellent actors and exhilarating fight scenes, but it was nature that stole the show - it’s one of the most beautiful kung fu movies you’ll ever lay eyes on. The story is set in China, but filming actually took place on location in Ukraine's Hutsulshchyna National Park (nestled amid the Carpathian Mountains, if you’re curious). While all the films on this list speak to the idea of connecting with nature, this kung fu film’s use of flora has a dual purpose: its stunning and peaceful aesthetic enhances the movements of the human characters, acting as a juxtaposition to the violence of combat.
In what’s now become an iconic fight scene, the characters Mei (a blind dancer played by legendary Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) fight off their antagonists in a forest of bamboo stalks. Why bamboo? Turns out, it’s more than just a tasty chew for cute pandas or the latest material fad for undies: the bamboo forest setting was a deliberate choice that tied into the story and elevated the theme.
The ability for bamboo to bend and flex without breaking, even in the strongest of winds, echoes the spirit of Far Eastern philosophy: it’s important to ‘flow with the challenges that we face’ rather than break under the strain. The way that Mei and Jin worked together with the bamboo to fight off their attackers showed unity with their environment. This was especially important for Mei: as a blind dancer, she has to rely on her other senses to connect to her surroundings.
House of Flying Daggers is much more than just a “kung fu flick”: it's to be admired for coalescing its incredible fight choreography and affecting story into a stunning visual spectacle. From battles amongst swaying bamboo to the stillness of romance among chest-high wildflowers or bathing in a gentle river, our “oneness” with the earth is a recurring theme. We might not all be black-belt martial artists, but we can all take Flying Daggers’ message to heart: we simply gotta take greater care of our natural world. Our ties to environment are intricate - and unlike bamboo, they could snap under too much strain.
Any we missed? We’d love to know which films inspire you to jump off the couch and explore the great outdoors! Discover more stories that give the environment a voice at good.film.
