IN THE COMPANY OF WOVES – Review by Valerie Kalfrin
The documentary In the Company of Wolves: An American Journey is an ambitious one, hopscotching around history while noting some threats to wolves, now returning to places they haven’t been seen in decades.
Director Susan Kucera (Wild Genius) assembles some impressive footage of these animals and other storied beasts the American West such as bison and horses. Yet while some interviews prove as thought-provoking as the stunning imagery of canyons and prairies, the film ultimately is as wild as the wolves in its title, needing more focus to bring its points home.
Narrated by Jeff Bridges (Minions & Monsters), In the Company of Wolves sets up the tug-of-war between American myth and reality by interspersing wide shots of the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, and national parks with archive and reenactment footage of wagon trains and people laying railroad tracks. Those interviewed note how people’s relationship to wolves first changed as people evolved from hunter-gatherers to ranchers and farmers, seeing wolves as threats to their livestock and livelihoods instead of essential parts of biodiversity. Folk stories and fairytales reinforced the perception of wolves as villains.
Yet the wolves shift to the background as the film tackles more of the expansion in to the American West. Indigenous representatives and other interviewees note how the idea of the West as a wilderness is “very much a fantasy,” with Europeans supplanting themselves as the “managers” of these landscapes, hiding evidence of the native peoples who lived here far longer and saw these spaces not as ones to conquer but respect.
Screenwriters Jon Coleman and Anna Kirsch introduce some interesting threads, such as how the early forest service and national parks partnered with railroads to make money from transporting tourists to spectacular sights, but the film struggles to tie them into a unifying whole over an hour and twenty-three minutes. A latter segment interviewing ranchers of sheep and cattle throws cold water on the “conquering the wilderness” mythos through realities like grazing regulations, but here, too, the wolves largely take a backseat. That’s unfortunate, as the film offers some fascinating observations, such as how hunters can kill older wolves who essentially instruct the younger ones, and how wolves’ haunting howls encompass a whole range of conversation.
We often approach animals through human culture rather than allowing these creatures to speak for themselves, one interviewee notes. While In the Company of Wolves: An American Journey advocates for coexistence and conservation through this shift in perspective, one wishes the film had spent more time in these animals’ company.
