The Alaska Beat

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: CELEBRATING ALASKA IN FILM T he Academy Awards may have lost some of the show’s excitement in recent years – ratings have declined and the Covid-19 pandemic has made going to movie theaters far less popular or feasible – but as they say in Hollywood, ALASKA BEAT the show must go on. So as films like Belfast, The Power of the Dog and King Richard will vie for Best Picture honors on March 27, we thought it would be fun to honor the best films TWEET OF THE MONTH and actors/actresses who have appeared in films set (though not always filmed) in Alaska. Call it the Alask-Academy Awards. (We’re trying to stick with mostly outdoorsy movies, but there are some others that deserve a look!) • Best Picture: Into the Wild (2007) This one made a few categories in our awards show, and quite frankly, could have made even more. The cinema story of Christopher McCandless, the college graduate who wanted to experience life off the grid, begins and ends in the Last Frontier, where living in an abandoned Fairbanks city bus in the isolated Interior along the Stampede Trail would be his final adventure.

The entire movie is a beautifully produced tale of McCandless’s journey, the people who he touched along the way, and his ultimate undoing in the unforgiving Last Frontier. The scene where he shoots a moose, a desperately needed food source that goes awry, is one of several heartbreaking scenes in this great piece of cinema. • Best Actor: Anthony Hopkins, The Edge (1997) We admire actors who can be convincing no matter the role. Hence, Hopkins as a psychopathic but calculating serial killer (The Silence of the Lambs) but also as a wise old survivalist tasked with saving himself and his fellow passengers – one with sinister intentions – after an Alaskan plane crash.

While filmed mostly in the Alberta, Canada, wilderness, The Edge indeed keeps viewers on the edge of their seats (more on the film’s ursine co-star later), with Hopkins’ calm demeanor, creativity and compassion for how humans handle themselves when thrust into a crisis situation shining brightest. (Honorable mention for Emile Hirsch playing McCandless in Into the Wild). Sometimes you think you know a bit about fishing…until you fish in Alaska! -@ChefMavro, Feb. 16

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• Best Supporting Actor: Robin Williams, Insomnia (2002) The late great funnyman Williams was an at times underappreciated movie star and

Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s all-gear catch target for Chinook salmon swimming “ ” in Southeast Alaska waters, continuing a run of poor seasons. THEY SAID IT “Our Tribes deserve better. The EPA must provide Tribes, fishermen, and communities in the region the certainty that their way of life, cultural and spiritual identity, and the local economies are protected. That means, first and foremost, upholding their trust responsibility to the Tribes of Bristol Bay. EPA can and must work quickly to get back on track, the science is clear and they must finalize protections for our region.” -United Tribes of Bristol Bay executive director Alannah Hurley, reacting to the Environmental Protection Agency’s delay in determining whether or not to offer permanent protection to the region from mining interests.

Laura Zerra (left) and Steven Hall took on the cold and snow of Alaska with little more than their nude bodies on an episode of Naked and Afraid. (DISCOVERY CHANNEL)

NAKED AND AFRAID GOES COLD AND COLDER IN ALASKA

They might have been miserable, cold and hungry at times as the days went on in Alaska, but this was who they are and what gets their competitive juices churning.

“Totally different. (Among) Africa, the Bahamas and Alabama,” Hall says, comparing his other Naked and Afraid destinations to Alaska. “It’s a totally different environment and a totally different set of dangers between the environments and the animals. And especially the weather; that’s probably one of the biggest dangers we had up there. That was the hardest animal that we had to compete with up there.”

“But it was incredible. It’s literally the Last Frontier, so to be able to go up there and take it on was a blessing. And it was a huge challenge.”

That started right from the get-go as they were helicoptered into the Alaska Range for a bird’s-eye view of what they were about to confront. Hall, sounding like an excited child on the last day of school before summer vacation, was a passenger in a chopper for the first time.

“You’re surrounded by monumental mountains, these neverending rivers and these so-dense forests that you can’t see 2 feet in front of you,” he says. “So to be up above it and see the grandness of the entire thing and to know that helicopter is going to land and you’ll be right there in the middle of it, it’s exciting and intimidating all at the same time. It was an experience for sure.”

Unlike most Naked and Afraid meet and greets, where the man and woman have never met, Hall and Zerra already knew each other and were both relieved that they were each other’s partner in this project.

Of course, this being Alaska and all, they had to struggle through at least knee-deep snow on either side of them to exchange salutations. One of the critical variables of the challenges is how the teams work together.

Conflict does not enhance your chances of getting through the number of days required to finish (because of the extreme weather conditions, Zerra and Hall were required to last 14 days in Alaska). So in this instance, the partners’ chemistry with each other would at least give them a puncher’s chance.

“I’m kind of a loner by trade. I’ve done a lot of my survival challenges by myself. But in Naked and Afraid, you have a goal for both of you to make it,” Zerra says. “And if you’re out there with someone who’s not into it and who’s tentative, it just really affects your core skills.” -Chris Cocoles could play a villainous creep as well as the class clown. Teamed with another giant in the industry, Al Pacino, in a cat-and-mouse chase, Williams is dark and terrifying in this murder mystery in a fictional Alaska coastal town (filmed in part around Valdez).

• Best Actress: Drew Barrymore, Big Miracle (2012) The Barrymores are one of the great show business families of all time, and while young Drew gets a bit typecast as a hopeless romantic in rom-com roles, she’s also got some of her ancestry’s acting chops, and she delivers the goods as a Greenpeace activist trying to save a pod of distressed Alaskan gray whales.

• Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Keener, Into The Wild From Hirsch’s portrayal of McCandless to Hal Holbrook’s heart-wrenching turn as one of the lead character’s final close friends he meets before his impending death, the Into The Wild list of stellar performances includes Keener, a free spirit who becomes something of a mother figure to McCandless along the way.

• Best Music: Into The Wild Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder was among those who collaborated on the score and the original song. ’Nuff said.

• Best Cinematography: Mystery, Alaska (1999) Granted, the community of Mystery is actually a Canadian filming location, but this is Hollywood, so let’s just say that the gorgeous setting of an outdoor hockey rink – the local Alaskan hockey team somehow gets a chance to play the NHL’s New York Rangers in a publicity stunt game – in a winter wonderland could have been just as spectacular in the 49th state.

• Best Director, Charlie Chaplin, The Gold Rush (1925) Let’s face it: Chaplin’s personal life could be described as everything from complicated to controversial to even creepy. But the man was a cinematic genius who could do it all: actor, composer, producer and one helluva director. His film about a dreamer out to strike it rich during the Klondike Gold Rush should be – like multiple Chaplin projects – in a time capsule of the film industry’s memorable moments.

• Best Documentary: Grizzly Man (2005) Much like McCandless, the subject of director Werner Herzog’s brilliant look at doomed bear activist Timothy Treadwell is equal parts inspiring and tragic. Treadwell was – for better or worse – a polarizing figure, and Grizzly Man’s footage shot by Treadwell himself, including hours before the fatal Katmai National Park bear attack that killed Treadwell and his travel companion, Amie Huguenard, is haunting.

• Lifetime Achievement Award: The animals of Alaska movies You can’t honor Alaska films without the contributions of the stars of the state’s wildlife. From the iconic Bart the Bear (The Edge), to the wolves in The Grey, to the huskies and malamutes in the sappy but fun Snow Dogs and more serious Togo (a 2019 historical adaptation about the 1925 Nome Serum Run’s lead dog hero), here’s to you four-legged stars of the screen.