White Wilderness (film)

White Wilderness
Original poster
Directed by James Algar
Produced by Ben Sharpsteen, Walt Disney
Written by James Algar
Narrated by Winston Hibler
Music by Oliver Wallace
Edited by Norman R. Palmer
Production
company
Distributed by Buena Vista Distribution
Release date
  • August 12, 1958 (1958-08-12)
Running time
 72 minutes
Country United States
Canada
Language English
Box office $1.8 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)[1]

White Wilderness is an American-Canadian nature documentary produced by Walt Disney Productions in 1958 noted for its propagation of the misconception of lemming suicide.

The film was directed by James Algar and narrated by Winston Hibler. It was filmed on location in Canada over the course of three years. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[2]

Controversy

White Wilderness contains a scene that supposedly depicts a mass lemming migration, and ends with the lemmings leaping into the Arctic Ocean. There have been some reports that the Disney film describes this as actual suicidal action by the lemmings. However, the narrator of the film states that the lemmings are likely not committing suicide, but rather are in the course of migrating, and upon encountering a body of water are attempting to cross it. If the body of water the lemmings encounter is too wide, they can suffer exhaustion and drown as a result.

In 1982, the CBC Television news magazine program The Fifth Estate broadcast a documentary about animal cruelty in Hollywood called "Cruel Camera", focusing on White Wilderness, as well as the television program Wild Kingdom. Bob McKeown, the host of the CBC program, discovered that the lemming scene was filmed at the Bow River near downtown Calgary, and not in the Arctic Ocean as implied by the film. McKeown interviewed a lemming expert, who claimed that the particular species of lemming shown in the film is not known to migrate, much less commit mass suicide. Additionally, he revealed that footage of a polar bear cub falling down an Arctic ice slope was really filmed in a Calgary film studio.[3][4]

Even though it was legal (if unethical) in 1958,[5], it was unlikely to be authorized or approved by Walt himself. [6]

Marlin Perkins was indirectly accused of being involved in similar controversies and took umbrage, striking McKeown when he challenged Perkins in an interview as to whether he had ever been involved in something of that sort. Perkins, then in his seventies, "firmly asked for the camera to be turned off, then punched a shocked McKeown in the face."[7]

White Wilderness was the inspiration for 1988 Dead Kennedys song "Potshot Heard Round the World".[8]

The scene of lemmings leaping off a cliff in White Wilderness was used as political metaphor in a campaign ad promoting Andrew Monroe Rice,[9] an Oklahoma candidate in the 2008 US Senate race.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "1959: Probable Domestic Take", Variety, January 6, 1960 p 34
  2. ↑ "NY Times: White Wilderness". NY Times. Retrieved November 8, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Watch Video: Cruel Camera (May 5, 1982)". CBC News. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Snopes.com suicides". Retrieved July 12, 2009.
  5. ↑ http://www.thedisneyfilms.com/2010/01/white-wilderness-1958.html
  6. ↑ http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/491121/White-Wilderness/articles.html
  7. ↑ "How We Work – the fifth estate". Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "Welcome To The Official Website For Dead Kennedys". www.deadkennedys.com.
  9. ↑ "Andrew Rice campaign website". andrewforoklahoma.com.
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