Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Last Trapper's Bark Canoe

The 2004 French film about the bushlife in Alaska the Yukon (thanks for the correction FrozenFella), Le Dernier Trappeur  - The Last Trapper has some wonderful cinematic shots of a birchbark canoe in whitewater. I came across footage of the film on google video

Around the 5:15 mark, there's some picturesque canoeing in a canyon with the white water run beginning around 11:30. Maybe its just me, but the main character in the film, an actual trappeur named Norm Winters, doesn't seem to be an avid paddler, especially after he rams the bow of the canoe into rockface in calm water just to pick up his pet husky. A simply back ferry would've prevented the cringing collision but the canoe seems no worse for wear.

Some screen shots










It turns out that the exciting whitewater run was paddled by a "stunt double" from Tatshenshini Expediting. Here's a little writeup. Brave stuff!



2 comments:

David Laaneorg said...

Notice as well the solo WW canoe painted to look like a bark canoe! Mind you I don't mind that as much, it actually looks good. I wonder if anyone is actually willing to market a modern canoe painted to look like a bark canoe? Some of the NovaCraft canoes have some great paint jobs lately.

FrozenFella said...

"The 2004 French film about the bushlife in Alaska..."
Argh. It's about bushlife in the Yukon...Canada! Not Alaska.

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