Movie: The Last Wild Race
My Rating: 3 stars
This film is another one that I streamed through Prescreen. It’s another independent documentary, but this one has a pretty slick, high-budget feel to it. The film tracks the progress of several teams of “extreme adventure athletes” as they compete in what is billed as the most intense survival race on earth. Several teams try to traverse the unforgiving terrain of Patagonia in the world’s most difficult treasure hunt. They are given their first destination, but they must reach it within the allotted time in order to learn the location of the next checkpoint. The race lasts for four days, and each team is responsible for determining for themselves whether they’re going to waste any of that time sleeping. The race is set in a particularly wild and untamed region of Patagonia. The terrain is severe, and the weather unpredictable. On top of that, since the competitors aren’t given access to the course ahead of time, they don’t know what sort of gear they’ll need to bring along with them. That’s an important thing to know when you’re dealing with a race that may involve crossing rushing rivers, scaling rock faces, covering vast distances, and sleeping out in the bush. And, you’re going to need a pretty high tech film crew to be able to capture the adventures of these groups out in the wild. Plus, it would be a shame to use low-grade gear on such stunning scenery. The views are really amazing. So, the overall production value of this film is pretty high.
The teams are all pretty hard core. And, they are all seasoned outdoorsmen (and women). Most of them are ex-military. I was a little amused by the team of yoga instructors in the midst of all these ex-special-forces types, but it became pretty clear that these kids weren’t just a bunch of wimpy hippies. The yoga probably had a little more to do with their nature-centric spirituality than their exercise regime of choice. All the competitors are legitimate survivalists. However, some teams are more prepared for the unpredictable conditions than others. This is one contest where experience definitely pays off. The same team of British athletes has been winning the race year after year, so they definitely come to this race with an advantage. They come to the table expecting any kind of challenge the course can throw at them. If a bike tire is going to blow out on them on a long cross-country portion, these guys are prepared to just run for it. This film falls into the category of fantasy for most audiences. This isn’t the kind of stuff that your casual exercise or travel enthusiast would ever be tempted to pick up in real life—even though the scenery in Patagonia is absolutely gorgeous. So, you can really just let go, and be amazed by the kinds of rigors some people are willing to put themselves through.
My one complaint about the film is that this documentary feels more like a TV show than a feature film. (This was the same complaint I had about The Gloucester 18.) Perhaps this is because I’ve seen too many episodes of The Amazing Race. That show really has set my expectations for what the adventure-race should look like. But, in my experience, TV and feature film documentaries are just paced differently. They have different dramatic arcs. This one felt like it would have made a really good miniseries on the Travel Channel or something similar. But, perhaps I need to adjust my expectations for these indie documentaries. Maybe these directors really are developing them with television distribution in mind. It would certainly be the largest market for a program like this.
The teams are all pretty hard core. And, they are all seasoned outdoorsmen (and women). Most of them are ex-military. I was a little amused by the team of yoga instructors in the midst of all these ex-special-forces types, but it became pretty clear that these kids weren’t just a bunch of wimpy hippies. The yoga probably had a little more to do with their nature-centric spirituality than their exercise regime of choice. All the competitors are legitimate survivalists. However, some teams are more prepared for the unpredictable conditions than others. This is one contest where experience definitely pays off. The same team of British athletes has been winning the race year after year, so they definitely come to this race with an advantage. They come to the table expecting any kind of challenge the course can throw at them. If a bike tire is going to blow out on them on a long cross-country portion, these guys are prepared to just run for it. This film falls into the category of fantasy for most audiences. This isn’t the kind of stuff that your casual exercise or travel enthusiast would ever be tempted to pick up in real life—even though the scenery in Patagonia is absolutely gorgeous. So, you can really just let go, and be amazed by the kinds of rigors some people are willing to put themselves through.
My one complaint about the film is that this documentary feels more like a TV show than a feature film. (This was the same complaint I had about The Gloucester 18.) Perhaps this is because I’ve seen too many episodes of The Amazing Race. That show really has set my expectations for what the adventure-race should look like. But, in my experience, TV and feature film documentaries are just paced differently. They have different dramatic arcs. This one felt like it would have made a really good miniseries on the Travel Channel or something similar. But, perhaps I need to adjust my expectations for these indie documentaries. Maybe these directors really are developing them with television distribution in mind. It would certainly be the largest market for a program like this.
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