It seems like wolves tend to be villains in fiction more often than lions or tigers, who tend to have more stories of being good, even though they are also predators. Sharks tend to be bad guys too.
shareI dont know about other films with wolves in but I didnt see the wolves as villains in this film.
The men had the misfortune of crash landing in an area where wolves were top of the food chain and the animals were just following their natural instincts of hunting, eating and defending their territory.
A good movie with Lions killing people is "The Ghost in the Darkness" it is based on a true story unlike "the grey" which is based on stupidity. Also I have a mission to get people on this board to watch The Edge which is similar to this movie but it is Hopkins and Alec Baldwin vs. A bear and the elements after they crash their plane up in alaska
If God created Man in his image, Man has certainly returned the favor.
Also I have a mission to get people on this board to watch The Edge which is similar to this movie but it is Hopkins and Alec Baldwin vs. A bear and the elements after they crash their plane up in alaskaIMO a far more realistic wilderness survival movie than The Grey. Haven't seen it in a long time and would like to see it again.🐭 share
Most people living near lions don't attend Hollywood movies... Wolves on the other hand are actually near people we know and care about.
Never take the chance with animals if you are stranded in the wilderness and have heavy firepower. Kill em and eat em.
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don't look here, the jokes between your ears
People living near mountain lions do...
Quote the raven nevermore
people who live by mountain lions do and those can be quite scary
shareIt could be as simple as geography and culture. I'd guess historically the majority of peoples (or the majority of those who've kept records and created fiction?) on Earth have had a much closer, good or bad (mostly bad), relationship with some variety of wolves than with big cats.
...then whoa, differences...
That's stupid though. The fact is that many other animals are killers, it's just circumstantial as to how dangerous they can be to human. Even pet cats would kill humans if it weren't for the difference in size and strength. It's not that wolves are somehow more bad than other animals.
shareI was just responding to why wolves are the villains more often than big cats. You know, the question you asked. I suppose it was stupid of me to take the question literally and not factor in every other animal on the planet.
...then whoa, differences...
Apart from movies about werewolves, what other movies are there where wolves are the main villains?
The Ghost And The Darkness had lions
Cat People had panthers
Gladiator (2000) had tigers
Jungle Book has a panther
10,000 BC has a sabretooth tiger
In the meanwhile, Dances With Wolves, White Fang, The Journey Of Natty Gann and The Secret Of Kells had wolves as companions (i.e. friends) to the protagonists.
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Joe Satriani - "Always With Me, Always With You"
https://y2u.be/VI57QHL6ge0
Beauty And The Beast
Lambert The Sheepish Lion
The Sword In The Stone
Frozen
Peter And The Wolf
The Rugrats Movie
Mostly cartoons it seems.
Cultural issue, I expect. Most big movies are made in the west, particularky Europe and North America. For Europe especially, wolves were the most troublesome predators of the day. Look at your classic fairy tales, like the boy who cried wolf, the three little pigs, Peter and the wolf, or red riding hood. All stories from Europe, all featuring the wolf as a villain. Add in the plethora of stories about werewolves and you've got a cultural bias against wolves that's been in place for centuries.
Whores will have their trinkets.
Because we see ourselves in wolves. The vicious pack mentality... alpha/omega roles... savage methods of killing prey.
Cats simple don't resemble us, not even sociable lions.
Also there's something terrifying about being hunted by dog-like creatures - hyenas, hounds, wolves - which make a lot more noise, than stealthy cats which deliberately try not to scare you.
shareThat doesn't really make sense, and I don't buy it. Big cats are also savagery, and regarding domestic cats and dogs, cats are much more in touch with their instincts than dogs, and toy with their catch often for a long time. Most of the cats I've had have killed things whereas my dogs never did, or tried too. People are fickle about animals.
shareI didn't say cats aren't savage. But you don't see a pride of lions barking and yapping in mad excitement during a chase.
shareBut that still doesn't seem like a good reason when other animals can be just as savage or dangerous. Sharks freaked people out A lot after Jaws and they don't make any noise.
shareBut the original question was why we've demonised wolves - sometimes literally - more than cats for so long. Not so many cultures have a strong tradition of demonising aquatic animals.
shareAnd going back to my first point... we humans behave more like dogs than cats, so I think wolves symbolise wild deviant behaviour in human beings... whereas lions are just beasts.
shareHave you ever seen a wolf in real life? Not in a zoo where they are used to people? They are gorgeous animals but they have an extremely eerie quality to them. It's something in the eyes, they are just hands down creepy. I live in an extremely rural area and though we have coyotes and foxes in town all the time, I didn't see my first wolf till I was in my twenties. You could hear them but you couldn't see them. When I moved out of town and into the woods I came across the wolves on the road right in front of my house mid winter. They go out of my way but stayed along the side of the road just looking at me. That was when I realized why people are scared of them they are extremely creepy animals up close and personal.
The Aboriginal Peoples of North America had a great reverence for the animal. They looked into their eyes and saw wisdom, the Europeans looked into their eyes and saw danger. I can see how both points of view came about. They have a very I'm gazing into your soul quality about them.
Its something you'll get used to a mental mind *beep* can be nice!
Most Hollywood movies are going to be targeted towards Americans, and Wolves are a much more relatable villain. Tigers and Lions are foreign animals that are less scary because they are not something you would ever run into while living in USA. Wolves are scarier because they is always the very small chance that you could turn off the movie, walk outside, and run into a wolf since they actually live on this continent.
Sharks are the same way, due to the fact that they are native to the waters in North America.
I think it has something to do with the relentless hunt and that feeling of being hunted.
A pack of wolves will hunt you down. They will stalk you, tire you out and get you. The moment you hear the howls you know that death is coming for you.
Cats hunt differently. They will sneak up on their prey, jump their prey and kill it. If they are spotted, they retreat and try again. Very few cats will actually bother to run after you for an extended period of time.
In terms of storylines wolves are more appealing because of that.
And in terms of primal fears, wolves our our cultures childhood nightmare. Wolves ate little red riding hood's grandmother. The big bad wolf blew away the homes of two out of three little piggies. And if you live in a rural area, your grandparents may have told you stories from their time when wolves were still killing farm animals and were a danger for people venturing into the woods. Cats...not so much in our climate.
I don't think any of that is a good reason to demonize wolves though.
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