Customer Reviews

The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a family movie, set in the year 1919 - Montana wilderness, with a good story about lessons learned by the youngest member (supposed to be 17 years) of a summer forest ranger. Sam Elliott plays a great role as usual, and a young Jerry O'Connell is entertaining as he meets the tests, while learning the importance of honor, trust, and integrity. I think this was a made for TV movie, based on the production, with fade outs, which seem to be placed for commercials. Good vision and sound transfer. This is a full screen movie, but does not look stretched on my widescreen. This does have 5.1 sound, but there are no surround sound values noted.

I picked up this movie at a local discount store for 1/2 the on line price.

I picked this up at a two-fer sale at my local Sprawl-Mart, not expecting much. What a pleasant surprise! This is a wonderful movie. Family entertainment at it's best. Beautiful scenery, no car chases, no dead bodies, no foul language, just a very real look at life and coming of age in a simpler time.

First off, I would like to make it clear: this is not a western or adventure story.

As a fan, like many Montanans, of Norman Maclean I could not be more happy with this movie--unless it had actually been filmed on location here in Montana. The short story, found in A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition, about the last summer Maclean worked for the Forrest Service--1919--is followed almost to the word in the movie. Sam Elliot gives one of his finest performances, while Jerry O'Connell performance as Norman Maclean far outshines that given by Craig Sheffer in A River Runs Through It; all be it, O'Connell is clearly not 17 years old.

As a movie about life in Montana, post World War I, and about the fledgling Forrest Service, I have viewed few better movies--if any. While Norman Maclean is shown as sturdy, conservative, almost wholesome in "A River Runs Through It," in "The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky," Norman is cocky, ambitious, daring, wild, dangerous, funny, and part of the "crew." The movie starts out late in the summer of 1919, with Sam Elliot playing District Forrest Ranger Bill Bell and Jerry O'Connell playing a 17 year old Norman Maclean working for the Forrest Service crew, responsible for fire watch, trail and telephone wire maintenance, back country clean up, and other odd jobs. Maclean is learning how to use dynamite from an old crewman (deftly played by Stargate SG-1's Don Davis), and basically causing trouble for everyone else. After one of Maclean's run-ins with the cook, Bill sends Norman up to the look out to watch for lightening strikes. All the while Bill and the cook are scheming up a plan to get even with the card sharks in Hamilton at the end of the season. Once the plan is laid out, Maclean rebelliously hikes from the camp all the way to Hamilton (over 50 miles) in one day--and without drinking water. After indulging in ice cream sodas, Maclean passes out and ends up in a "sporting house" room sleeping "it off." Then comes the big poker game, in which Bell's crew "swipes" the stakes and have themselves a good fight. After the cook gets rolled, Maclean gives his share of the booty to get back to Butte. As for the "hole in the sky," I recommend the viewer pay close attention to the movie, or read the short story.

I highly recommend this movie for the whole family as just great, outdoors, good-old days fun and entertainment. And the scenery, while not Montana, is beautiful. But, I wish it was in wide screen. Nonetheless, for anyone who has experienced the outdoors or one of those "moments" in your life when everything seems just right, but will "never" happen again, then "The Ranger, The Cook and a Hole In the Sky" is both the movie and the short story for you. "The Ranger, The Cook and a Hole In the Sky" DVD is entertainment at its best; and it is the DVD more people borrow from me than any other except for Kung Fu - The Complete Series Collection (see my review if you are interested in my "most borrowed DVD").

Last Updated: February, 12, 2009.

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This is an ok movie, I'm not sure what the PG-13 rating is for because for the most part it seems pretty tame to me (except for a fighting and kissing scene). You can't go too wrong watching a movie that is smart enough to have both Sam Elliott and Jerry O'Connell in it. They're great together, really the whole cast plays well off each other. I have no idea how they came up with the title to this movie either, as after repeated viewings I still haven't noticed any "holes in the sky". The background music can be quite grating after a while (as with most of these low-budget family films).

I enjoyed watching this movie and will definitely see it again. I'm not absolutely certain what the Hole in the Sky represents, but the plot was well written and the scenery was great.

I enjoyed this film because it was family friendly and presented good ethics in personal responsibility.

I was interested to note one reviewer who said this movie was short on substance. It's about the life experiences a young man had one summer working for the US Forest Service in its early years. Like life itself, as we live it day-to-day, messages seep in, they don't beat you over the head, or at least not often. I began work for the USFS in the summer of 1966 at age 17, and even though this was long after the period of the movie, 1919, I had the privilege of working with a few men who'd started their careers in the 1920s and 1930s. There was a passing of the torch. They were pretty tolerant of a kid who thought he could outwalk anybody in the woods, and who knew everything. I was actually so wet behind the ears I must have dripped! This movie brought back memories. Until Reagan started privatizing government work in the 1980s, young men (and in the 1970s, young women) could find summer employment with the USFS doing all types of outdoor work - tree planting, trail clearing, surveying, stand exams, timber sale prep, thinning, and brush disposal. Fire crews were larger at one time, too. I had the good fortune to spend many summers and some winters in back country camps in wall tents that were similar to ones depicted in the film. As late as the 1970s we still had crank telephones that connected some back country lookouts and remote cabins. I had to laugh at the tree climbing scene. One of my jobs one summer was to take a crew out and put lines back up that had come down during the winter. Yes, sliding down a pole or a widow maker when your spikes kicked out was no fun. We had two lengths of spikes, short ones for poles and snags, and a longer version for thick-barked trees. I used a broad leather safety belt (with a buckle - quite a nuisance when encountering limbs - carabiner clips would have been really nice!) instead of a rope, as it provided more friction. Often times the insulators for the old steel telephone lines were in trees, and then you had to negotiate your safety harness over limbs. This was OK unless you were high up in a stiff wind, then it got dicey. Back around 1907 (the FS was officially started in 1905) an engineer named Darling came to Montana to head up the effort to string lines from Ranger stations to camps and lookouts. You'd be amazed at how many miles of backwoods trails had telephone lines. During lightning storms, the lines were often hit, and the phones would ring. Each lookout and cabin had its own number of rings, so you'd know when to pick up. In the evening, lookouts often got on the phones to chat with one another, and there was a certain amount of eves-dropping, especially when the FS regularly began putting women up. Romances did blossom. It was a sad day in the 1980s when the Forest I worked on put out a contract to roll up all the wire that could be found, and terminated all the telephone line easements. Yes, the days of the old crank phones was over. I forgot to mention that we also had portable phones that you could clip to lines. These were used by pack strings and trail crews. Every Ranger District had a full time packer, and many still had them into the 1970s. These guys were amazing with horses and mules. When I was 17 I spent many evening hours trying to emulate an old packer who could roll a cigarette with one hand while riding and leading a string. He had a bag of Bull Durham in his pocket, and the tag always hung out for easy access. I never mastered the technique, but I sure tried. He lit his match with one hand by scratching it with his thumbnail. When I tried it, I got the hot phosphorus stuck under my nail and it burned the hell out of me.

I was in various camps that had different cooks, and they were always irascible and cantankerous. It seemed inevitable that either I, or someone on my crew would end up in some altercation with a cook. The one MacLean encountered wasn't as overtly cranky as the ones I knew, but he was an odd duck too. I wonder if the FS put that in cook job descriptions? The Ranger gambling was also an authentic touch. Back in the early days at the Monture Ranger Station, the Ranger occasionally ran out of funds to pay his crew and went to town to win payroll by poker. I also knew a few Rangers who were pretty good at throwing a punch, and had no problem buying a few rounds for the boys after work. There isn't enough space to go into all the antics we used to get involved in, making sure we had enough beer for a 10 day stretch in camp, and packing it in. There was less back country (than in 1919) to "tame" when I worked in the woods, but the way of life and the characters on the crews were much the same. I should say that the lookout situation depicted in the film is relatively accurate. There were many tent lookouts or crow's nests scattered around on various mountaintops in that time period. The cabin and tower lookouts became the norm as time went by. I'd have to say though, that I never let the weather, snakes, or bears send me packing from any job. It just wasn't done. You couldn't show your face back at the station if you gave up as easily as the main character in the movie did. It was a matter of pride. Most Rangers I knew weren't as understanding and patient as the Sam Elliott character when it came to getting the job done. You did your job or you went down the road.

Times have really changed, and the mission of the Forest Service is a lot different now. There is far less field work (and what there is, is often contracted out), and very few Ranger Districts hire summer crews that live and work for extended periods in the woods. Rangers no longer have the kind of authority they once had. Drinking and fighting is something that isn't condoned. It's all very modern now. If you pack a weapon onto a government compound, you're in trouble (except in Alaska). If you have computer and GIS skills, that's where the work is now, that and the work of specialists. You don't need to know how to manty and load a pack mule, but it helps if you have a master's degree in an "ology." This is not a criticism, it's a fact. Times change and the Forest Service has changed with them. I'm just fortunate that I had the experiences that I did, and this movie really brought them back. I didn't know how lucky I was, and I thought those times would last forever. Enjoy the movie for what it is, a slice of life that's long gone. One more thing. The movie is filmed in BC, not the Bitterroot, though the film editing makes it look similar. The Bitterroot Valley is very scenic and lovely. Blodgett Canyon is still rugged, but the area has been loved to death. Subdivision upon subdivision have filled the bottomlands up. Even as I write this, there is a fight in Ravalli County over another proposed 396 unit development. The Bitterroot of Norman MacLean's time is no longer there. Hamilton and Missoula are connected by a 4 lane 70 mph highway that has a lot of commuter traffic. It's pretty easy for a freckle-faced girl to get from Darby to Missoula now. A friend of mine once said that someday there'd be a Montana town called "Hamfish" that stretched all the way from Hamilton to Whitefish. It's happening by way of creeping subdivision and development. Enjoy the film. I'd have given it 5 stars if it had been wide screen. It's a pleasant diversion from the mayhem we usually watch.

Good family movie. Fans of sam Elliott will especially enjoy this tale of working with the forest rangers in Montana in 1919.

Depression era story about the clearing of mountain roads in Idaho using a crew of men under the supervision of Ranger Bill Bell. The bravado of a young man along with his dislike for the cook (card shark) create a smouldering conflict. A pretty young city girl is the romantic interest of the young man. The Ranger steers his crew through a plan to get even with the city's cheating gamblers that demands a troubled partnership between the young man and the card shark cook. The exciting plan plays out in a solution that is unexpected. Fun movie to watch with beautiful background scenery. I bought the movie after seeing it on TV. I continue to enjoy watching it about every month.

My wife and I both really enjoyed this show. It is very family friendly, presents an interesting story with some clever lines and acting, has a good message, and takes place in an interesting setting.

I really doubt it's PG-13. Probably PG at most.