“He leads with his heart. Not his spear.”
Alpha is a historical fiction origin tale of the domestication of the first wolf by human hands. The film follows Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee), the son of Tau (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), chief of a tribe of hunter-gatherers based in Europe 20,000 years ago. After embarking on his first big hunt with the tribe, Keda tries to survive alone in the wilderness after being thought dead following an attack from a bison. After fending off an attack from a wolf pack, Keda and an injured wolf he affectionately names Alpha form an unlikely alliance and try to make it back to Keda’s tribe through the harshness of winter.
While Alpha does document the journey of how man and dog’s special relationship came to be, the film also contains a substantive narrative outlining the pressure of expectations as our main character comes of age. Keda is being groomed by his father to become a man worthy of leading their tribe on his own one day. Tau brings him along for The Great Hunt so that he may learn to capture and kill their prey, start a fire, and become the strong, calming presence for his people that Tau has become. Keda feels the pressure to fill his father’s shoes and present himself as a man of similar character and stature, despite Keda’s personality being different than that of his rough and tumble patriarch. Keda possesses a compassionate streak that is put on display early on in the film when a wounded wild hog is presented to him to finish off. Keda is unable to bring himself to finish the job, much to the dismay of both his father and himself. The pressure that Keda finds himself under, and that he puts on himself to an extent, is something that many find themselves facing at some point in their lives, particularly the children of accomplished people. Living up to the standards set by others can be a tall task, particularly when the expectations are a byproduct of who you are born to. In a society where everyone is already faced with the pressure to tamper who we are at our core and instead fit into preconceived notions of who we should be be or who it’s right to be, when what you are is at odds with what is expected of you, it can make for a confused and painful existence as we see in Keda through the first half of the film.
As the movie progresses and Keda finally encounters Alpha, his innate compassion becomes an advantage instead of a hindrance. Keda and Alpha bond over their similar predicaments, both abandoned and left for dead by their respective packs, severely injured with no one else to turn to. The pair help each other survive, working together to find food and shelter, and fighting off various beasts of the wild on behalf of the other numerous times. Keda’s instinct to nurse Alpha back to health despite the wolf’s prior viciousness toward him serves as a window into human development, man’s first show of compassion for a being other than his fellow man; and it pays off.
In addition to the window the film provides into the beginnings of man’s compassion for animals and the benefits that leading with a dove of peace rather than the sword can have on human survival and achievement, Alpha has the distinction of being the most gorgeously shot film of 2018 as of the time of this article’s publication. The film is full of striking scenic shots of prehistoric Europe, from lush, green fields, to ice cold snowfalls, to rugged mountains to night skies covered with oceans of brightly shining stars. Director Albert Hughes also utilizes eye-popping shots of the sky transitioning from day to night and vice verse to signify time lapses, adding in another artistic touch to the visuals. The best shot in the film occurs during a tense sense set on top of a frozen lake as Keda falls beneath the icy surface into cold waters below trapped and sinking fast. Alpha soon attempts to come to his rescue frantically looking at his friend through the transparent ice and trying to break through. As the scene plays out, we’re treated to a wide shot of Alpha standing atop the ice while Keda is simultaneously submerged, the white of the snow-covered icy top contrasting with dark, blue hued water directly underneath, with both subjects focused in the center as mirror opposites. It’s a fantastic shot in a film littered with superb cinematography, the best that film has offered this year by a wide margin.
Alpha takes the interesting question of how man and dog came to become so close and presents it interwoven with the coming of age tale of an ancient prince, trying to find his place in a primitive world while possessing personality traits that have yet to be fully reconciled with among a young species. The complimentary stories of how man and dog became friends and how to cope with outside expectations allows the film to exceed the ones that I had for it, surprising me with just how much I enjoyed it. In addition to the quality story presented in Alpha, the film is also impeccably shot, featuring displays of gorgeous scenery and quality CGI of the prehistoric animals that Keda and Alpha encounter along their journeys. The visual quality in the film is such that it deserves to be seen on the big screen, making a trip to the theater to see Alpha worth it rather than just waiting for streaming. Albert Hughes should also be commended for his decision to shoot the film using subtitles throughout, rather than just having the ancient Europeans depicted as speaking English. It added to the immersive and realistic world in an original, mid-budget film that already had those two factors working against its success. The end result is a good film that is worth viewers taking a chance on while it is still in theaters.
Image: Columbia Pictures
