Man Vs. (2015)

So how would a TV survivalist who has a warm hotel at the end of his sat-phone do in a real-life emergency survival situation? I love my outdoors shit, so here's a breakdown of the woodcraft/survival techniques and cockups.

• Equipment wise, as well as his clothes he has: a Tilley hat, camera, flashgun, can of energy drink, apple, Swiss Army Knife, a stick of chewing gum and of course the sat-phone.
• Shelter building. It's hard to break green spruce limbs by hand - they're really springy! The lean-to shelter is reasonable but it's a little too tall which makes the open side quite large which will let out heat and let rain and cold in. One of these shelters needs to be just big enough to lie under and no more. There also needs to be a deep, insulating bed of pine branches to lie on, which I think he regrets a little later on.
• Dealing with a large splinter. Cleaning the would.
• Fire-lighting using the concave base of a drink can. He should have already sourced his fuel before starting the fire. There is also no fire reflector so a lot of its heat is going unused.
• Shelter and fire built before night-time which is a good idea.
• Using a sat-phone to ring your friends does not exactly replicate the isolation of being stranded.
• Backed away from a wolf correctly. Did not run, did not act aggressively, did not turn his back but calmly and slowly backed away.
• Wisely didn't eat the dead, floating fish. You should avoid eating a dead animal unless you know exactly what caused its death. I did take home and butcher a road-kill deer once, but it was by the side of the road with a broken neck, no other injuries and still warm. Risky? A little.
• Animal tracking - rabbit shit can usually be found on mounds so they can scan the surroundings from the high ground.
• The figure-4 deadfall trap was well built, primed and should work. Although you only see the single trap he does mention that he'd set others. This is really important. Set as many as possible. More traps equals a greater chance of success (two out of three successful traps would be a little unusual, though).
• Gutted the rabbits away from camp. Good. I always gutted mine in the field and left the innards for the foxes. Skinning and butchering, I'd do at home. The gutting and skinning was done correctly (his knife skills were a little crude but all he had to use was a Swiss Army knife) although at one point he says you want to cut deep - no you don't, you could puncture the stomach and that's something you don't want. One thing he didn't show was that you need to squeeze the urine out as soon as you kill them. If left in it can taint the meat when you butcher it. It will still be edible but will taste a little off. If you do get piss on the rabbit try soaking it in water for a few hours - this also reduces the gamey flavour if that's not your thing.
• Uses a spit to roast the rabbit. Normally you would lose useful fat using this technique but as rabbit has very little fat I'll let him off.
• Saving and rationing food is a good idea.
• Hanging food in a high branch away from camp is good. You'll want to keep bears and wolves away from where you sleep. The rabbit that he hangs hasn't been gutted as yet. Normally you would gut as soon as possible but, in this case, it's probably a good idea to leave the rabbit whole to help keep the wildlife away, as long as you're going to eat it within a day or so.
• Although he uses a camera strap as cordage there are other sources available in the wild: hazel, willow, nettles, ivy.
• Keeping your mind active is very important. Do not become lazy.
• If you think you're going to be camped in the same place for a few days, improve your shelter!
• Do not throw your main means of communicating with the outside world onto the hard ground.
• Good, he reset his traps.
• Moving away from the place where you told people you could be found is not a great idea.
• Shelter mk2 is not bad but needs more spruce boughs on top and the side. Again, it needs insulation on the ground. I would be worried about rain run-off from the cliff-face though.
• I'm not sure how he moved his fire as he left his drinks can at the other camp. This can be done but I would have liked to see him do it.
• Not picking up his old drinks can and disassembled sat-phone was a bad move.
• Do not panic, do not run. A simple injury can be life-threatening in the wild.
• A signal fire shouldn't be lit inside a load of trees - the smoke needs to be seen and wind can blow the smoke horizontally rather than it rising vertically. There is a perfectly good shoreline which would have been better.
• When wet he quickly gets out of his clothes, squeezes out as much water as possible and redresses. That'll do if fire-lighting can't be done.
• Another panicked run.
• Drinking from an unknown and possibly stagnant water source is a bad idea unless you really have no choice.
• I told you a panicked run wasn't a good idea!
• A makeshift bandage but ruins his warm base-layer in the process.
• When climbing try to avoid grabbing roots and grass as they can easily and unexpectedly give way.
• No matter how angry you are, do not smash your radio!
• I'll let him off his panicked run this time.
• I knew that flashgun would come in handy.
• He wisely went around a rock face rather than try to climb it. It's all about minimising risk.
• He grabbed the food and knife but forgot about Duncan's rifle.

The survival stuff was, overall, very good for a change and as for the film? It's Bear Grylls vs. Predator and pretty good fun. That man-sized deadfall scene was brilliant!

I've written a similar woodcraft/survival based review for The Edge if you're interested.

Letterboxd Review

The Edge (1997)

I love being outside and I also love a good wilderness survival film and this is a fine one. I know I've backed off of writing full-length reviews but this is something I promised myself that I'd do a year or so back. A review of a wilderness survival film that actually mentions the techniques used throughout and if those techniques were successful or not.

I'm not an expert just a passionate amateur and the following is a list of the techniques either described or practised in the film.

Equipment = Folding knife, flares, paper clip, three broken watches, canvas satchel, leather belt

• Escape from downed plane in water
• CPR on drowning victim
• Dry wet clothes
• Firelighting with matches [fail - because of inadequate tinder]
• Firelighting with flare
• Letting fire burn out [fail]
• Using Flares for signalling [fail - they use them all for fire building]
• Indication of travel direction [fail - they removed a vital note]
• Importance of thinking/planning/attitude
• Direction finding using analogue watch [fail - all watches broken]
• Direction finding using bird migration route [described]
• Direction finding using magnetised paper clip
• Direction finding using two points
• Move slowly backward away from a bear [fail - they started ok and then panicked]
• Moving calmly and purposefully [fail - running away from bear with little regard to terrain]
• Do not panic [fail - running away from bear]
• Making a log bridge to cross a river
• Crossing log bridge sensibly [fail - keep a low centre of gravity]
• Drying clothes after getting wet [fail - did not light a fire immediately in a very cold environment]
• Finding a high point to navigate from
• Navigation in a straight line [fail - possibly got turned around during bear panic or from interference from a metal object]
• Not losing or throwing away equipment [fail - threw away magnetised paper clip]
• Build a makeshift spear
• Keeping busy
• Knife use/safety [fail - leg wound from making spear]
• Bandaging
• Burying blood-stained clothing in bear country [fail - Baldwin is told to bury the clothing but doesn't]
• Fire building [fail - fire too large and with no reflector]
• Shelter building [fail - lean-to has far too large an opening, too little thatch and has no ground insulation]
• Direction finding using stars
• Camping in a forest during a thunderstorm [fail - although they had no real choice]
• Bear attack [fail - panic, stays on the ground]
• Bear attack [pass - stands ground, does not run, uses burning branch]
• Camp in a sheltered spot [fail - on top a barren mountainside]
• Fire building [fail - again, no reflector]
• Knife use/safety [pass - cutting away from your body]
• Food gathering
• Trap building [pass, although a deadfall would be more efficient as it takes much less work. Less work = more calories saved]
• Signalling to a rescue helicopter [fail - they were in a heavily forested area with no signal method]
• How to build fire using ice [described]
• Keep your companions calm
• Fishing using a watch chain as a lure, a thorn as a hook and jumper thread as a line [I'd have preferred to see several threads combined to make a stronger line]
• Bear attack [pass - fire circle]
• Spear building with fire-hardened tips
• Swinging spike trap
• Descent down a scree slope [fail - you don't do a huge jump at the top. The bear did a far better job of it ]
• Fire building [fail - another fire that's too big and with no reflector]
• Cooking meat on a spit [personally, I think the chunks of meat were too big and that they could have smoked some thin strips as well]
• Direction finding using magnetised watch hand
• Making clothes and backpack out of bear skin [we'll skip over scraping away the fat and the tanning process]
• Deadfall trap [Hopkins refers to it as a dead fall but it's actually a pit trap]
• Keeping gun and ammunition in good order [fail - Hopkins ejects the shells from the rifle and leaves them. Remember that at this point they're still not rescued]
• Makeshift tourniquet using a belt [fail - applied pressure would have been better]
• Rifle as a splint [fail - two branches would have been better rather than possibly gumming up the mechanism on the rifle]
• Pulse checking [pass - correct method used although very quickly]
• Fire building [fail - no reflector, yet again]
• Signal fire [fail - they should have had one set up ready rather than quickly having to improvise]
• Foraging [fail - no foraging in the entire film. Berries, nuts etc. take far less energy to gather for the amount gained than meat]

Their #1 failure, however, is that they moved away from the plane wreck in the first place. Stay where you are unless absolutely necessary. Over all though, Hopkins' character did a fine job in a shitty situation - attitude is everything.

A fine film and that was one beautiful Kodiak!

I've written a similar woodcraft/survival based review for Man Vs. if you're interested.

Letterboxd Review

Beyond the Reach (2014)

An adaptation of Deathwatch by Robb White, but not the first. Back in 1974 there was a TV film named Savages (Andy Griffith and Sam Bottoms) which I think is much better. I first saw it back in the early 80s and it took the next 30 years for me to track it down based on what little I could remember - for one thing, there's a really interesting scene with a slingshot that isn't repeated in the newer version. It can be found on youtube and also on a bootleg DVD along with Pray For the Wild Cats, another Andy Griffith TV film. So watch the original rather than this.

Letterboxd Review