Grey Owl (film)

Grey Owl
Directed by	Richard Attenborough
Written by	William Nicholson
Produced by	Richard Attenborough Jake Eberts Claude Léger
Starring	Pierce Brosnan
Cinematography	Roger Pratt
Edited by	Lesley Walker
Music by	George Fenton
Production companies	Largo Entertainment Allied Filmmakers
Distributed by	New City Releasing (USA) 20th Century Fox (UK)
Release date	15 February 2000 (2000-02-15) (US)
Running time	117 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom Canada
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$632,617

Grey Owl is a 1999 biopic directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Pierce Brosnan in the role of real life British schoolboy turned Indian trapper "Grey Owl," Archibald Belaney (1888–1938), and Annie Galipeau as his wife Anahareo, with brief appearances by Graham Greene and others. The screenplay was written by William Nicholson.

Plot

Archibald Belaney (Brosnan) was a British man who grew up fascinated with Native American culture—so much so that in the early 1900s he left the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for Canada, where he reinvented himself as Archie Grey Owl and lived in the wild as a North American Indian trapper. Eventually, Belaney becomes an environmentalist after renouncing trapping and hunting.

Cast

• Pierce Brosnan as Archibald "Grey Owl" Belaney
• Annie Galipeau as Anahareo
• Nathaniel Arcand as Ned White Bear
• Vlasta Vrána as Harry Champlin
• David Fox as Jim Wood
• Charles Powell as Walter Perry
• Stephanie Cole as Ada Belaney
• Renée Asherson as Carrie Belaney
• Stewart Bick as Cyrrus Finney
• Graham Greene as Jim Bernard
• Saginaw Grant as Pow Wow Chief

Production

The film was shot in the English town of Hastings, Quebec towns Chelsea and Wakefield, Jacques Cartier Park and Saskatchewan's Prince Albert National Park.

Director Richard Attenborough said in an interview that he and his brother, noted presenter and naturalist David Attenborough, had attended "Grey Owl's" De Montfort Hall, Leicester lecture in 1936, depicted in the film, and being influenced by his advocacy of conservation.

Reception

The film met with average to negative reviews, and has a 'rotten' 18% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. William Gallagher of the BBC said, "if you like cuddly animals or you fancy Pierce Brosnan, you're in luck".

The film won one Genie Award at the 20th Genie Awards, in the category of Best Costume Design for Renée April.

External links

• Grey Owl at IMDb
• Grey Owl at Rotten Tomatoes
• Grey Owl at AllMovie