Alone in the Wilderness (2004)

this was simply MARVELOUS, and I fell in love with it. Alaskan wilderness with wild animals, crystal clear lakes and etc.This is the story of Richard Proenneke a WWI and WWII veteran and carpenter who decides to devote the rest of his life to live in wilderness of 'Twin Lakes', Alaska. he arrives to a friends lake-side cabin and starts building his new cabin before winter arrives, single-handedly and with use of on-site materials. He takes film by himself and these films become re-cut later, his carpentry skills and knowledge about wildlife are astonishing and Manly.this guy is my HERO and I recommend this documentary to naturalists, adventure and out-door lovers and specially MANLY people.

I sat and watched in amazement, seeing a trade that has pretty much vanished in this life time. I wished it had been longer then an hour and could have seen more of his craft at work. I started a cabin about the same size 2 years ago, this motivated me to get working on it again. I learned a lot from watching this and hope to apply it to the one I am building. Then I will possibly make a few sheds out of logs. The filming was great! Very inspiring. I wonder what made him do this, did he have visitors? I know I would have brought along a dog to keep me company at least.Amazing!

I watched this documentary during a PBS fund raising drive and I was instantly pulled into this remarkable story of natural beauty, individual strength and intimidating isolation. Proeneke's homespun narration is amusingly engaging ("...it was time to go fishing...for I was fish hungry...tomorrow is Sunday...I will go someplace"). The incredible physical challenge of building a shelter virtually from scratch with hand tools forces one to think about the modern conveniences we take for granted. For example, Dick hand sawed every board for his cabin...that means each plank 5 feet in length required him to saw through 5 feet of solid wood 8-10 inches thick, a feat he modestly describes as "...15 minutes of sawing and I had myself a nice board...". I wondered throughout this film how many of the construction challenges I would not be able to surmount because of the physical stamina required in the hand work. The construction of the cabin fireplace from lake stone and sand is nothing short of remarkable keeping Dick's cabin a "balmy 40 degrees" in the dead of an Alaskan winter.I found myself often asking why would someone want to do this? What part of modern society was so unappealing to him that he would want total isolation? Perhaps it was a combination of disgust for the rat race and Alaska's raw beauty that drew him to this remote place of natural wonder but I'm certain most of us would find the challenges he faced overwhelming regardless of the million dollar view from his cabin. A great documentary.

This show has come on PBS a lot in the recent era. It's no surprise that lots of people write glowing comments about it. Mainly because it feeds into the mostly bogus desire of folks to "rough it," to "chuck it all" and move into a cabin in the wilderness. Yeah, right, as if most people really want to do that. Supposedly we're watching this Proenneke guy do everything all alone from scratch—build a house, make his eating utensils, catch his meals, grow his garden, endure the brutal Alaskan winter, etc.—except for the fact that there is a camera there watching him do it. The whole thing looks as stage-y as can be, a fact that is trumped only by Proenneke's cornball narration and completely cheesy camera-work. Was there a crew there filming him "roughing it"? Are we supposed to believe that he filmed it himself, in which case he would've had to have continually set up the camera time and again in order to set the stage for his next staged feat. Supposedly this entire thing is spontaneously filmed, but common sense tells the viewer that it's completely phony. I like to watch this show and laugh at its absurdly contrived conceit. It's supposed to make city slickers and suburbanites who own nice homes and drive SUVs and go to the mall think that their lives are humdrum and "inauthentic," when actually you wouldn't give those things up at all to do what this guy is (supposedly) doing. Gee, I wonder if Proenneke would have a cell phone up there if he were doing it these days. A very weird and oddball show which eventually has the effect of fingernails on a blackboard.