Eight Below (2006)

And we thought we had a blizzard this past Friday and Saturday here in Central Ohio. Have you ever seen Antarctica in the winter? Eight Below, the movie, gives us a glimpse of what it is like in Antarctica. Snow, ice and wind and that is about all. Life is limited and must be hardy. I think I had it rough shoveling the 12-18 inches of snow off of my driveway.

Eight Below is the story of a small expedition team traveling to a far flung outpost at the bottom of the world. It is based on a true story. Two men take off with a team of Siberian Huskies in search of a meteor rock. The story is about both man and dog. It is a story the team of Siberian Huskies and their adventures both pulling their sleds and trying to survive a long winter after they had to be left behind by their master.

Seeing the scenery itself is worth the price of the movie. The frozen wasteland is beautiful in its own way. Mountains, glaciers dog-biting monster-seals, and no evidence of Algore’s hot air and imaginary man-made global warning was to be found down there, just a lot of COLD air.

It was a good adventure film. It had suspenseful. It was a story of survival.

THE IDITAROD

In a timely story also related to harsh environments and difficult challenges, I heard on the news today that a 37-year old man just won the famous Iditarod Dog Sled Race in Alaska. It took him 9 days to complete the 1100 mile race. The following comes from a Baltimore Sun Blog called Mutts, which reported on the race,

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“Lance Mackey won his second consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Wednesday morning – a race marred by the death of three dogs, injuries to several others, and the crash of a small plane carrying three Iditarod volunteers.”

It takes special people to tackle such challenges as the shown in this movie and in racing in the Alaskan Iditarod Dog Sled Race . . .

RATING

I rate this movie **** out of *****. This is a good family movie. It is a movie depicts excellent character qualities such as courage, loyalty, trust, devotion, and determination.

Eight Below and the Iditarod both put winter here in the Midwest in proper perspective for me . . .