I didn't know how to rate this film since the photography, landscapes, animals etc... were fabulous. However, the storyline was a pretty flat. The premise that trappers are needed to keep nature in balance is absurd. Nature does that all by itself without human intervention. It also bugged me that the trapper kept getting his dogs in deadly situations. I wondered how many sled dogs were actually injured in the making of this film.I really liked the trapper's native wife and wish she had a bigger role in the film. She was a very interesting character, but she basically just step and fetched for the trapper all day long. The trapper had a gorgeous canoe, and great dogs too.The film is basically about a bunch of old guys who don't want to leave the wilderness. However, judging by all the trouble they get into, I think it is high time they move to a retirement community with safe activities overlooking the mountains!

While many viewers found the film beautiful and made them love nature, it also should be a warning to us all if our children to see this disappearing beauty. Here is why. We depend on nature and animals to survive. Pollution, eating species into extinction and massacre of environment happens on global scale: sacred and very needed by life on Earth trees are being massacred by human predator. Gold mining, illegal tree cutting, illegal ranching in Amazon already destroyed a lot of sacred trees. Animals' habitat is disappearing with exponential (unbounded) rate. Films: "AMAZON with Bruce Perry", "The End of the Line (2009)". Most vicious predator (human) must learn to stop destroying its own environment. (Aside: the human is most vicious predator because it kills for sports.) While most vicious predator propagates with exponential (unbounded) rate, the nature and animals disappear with exponential rate at the hand of most vicious predator. Most vicious predator must stop unbounded (exponential) reproduction: it leaves no space for healthy environment for most vicious predator and leaves no space for animals. CONSUMPTION is not "cool" anymore. Echo-systems sustain the economies. Economies do not sustain the echo-systems. Bottom-lines and corporations only destroy the nature, environment and animals. In the past, we hoped that our technology would help us to live better lives, but as of today, our technology (better traps, binoculars, nets, better sonars to track our prey, better guns, etc) only leads us to the SIXTH EXTINCTION of all life on the planet, at the hand of the human. If you cannot farm it - do not kill it.

Very beautiful landscapes, nicely filmed, good work of camera crew, and that's all. Guys are fishing dead fishes. The winters are so cold that even the breath has no steam. After a "bath" in cold icy waters, Norman continues his travels as nothing was happened (second time).Firstly the trapper complains about the involvement of man in nature, then after some times he states that without the involvement of the man in nature everything will be a desert. He is assuming himself a quite messianic role.

I have been scanning through the available channels on a Saturday morning, and got captivated by some interesting scenes and an unusual atmosphere at a German speaking channel. The movie was in German, which I can not speak, even though, I found the pictures interesting, and started to watch the movie. I did not regret. I have read through the some previous reviews, and I understand, the dialogs were not perfect, as the actors were acting themselves. Without having understood the dialogs and the narrative, I still felt I was watching something authentic and credible. I think therefore this is a great movie, and I am grateful for the artists who provided me this excellent insight into a wonderful and hard environment and an extincting lifestyle.