First released in 1975 and looking even older, Survival opens with a shot of a cougar stalking through the desert. As a narrator rambles on about the Bible and King Solomon, the cougar snarls. “How long will God tolerate us?” the narrator asks, right before the cougar mauls and kills a man holding a rifle.
The cougar was my favorite character in Survival, even though it only had limited screen time. My second favorite character was the narrator, who kept talking about how everything on Earth was destined to eventually die, regardless of how they lived their lives. Yes, the narrator was a bit judgmental but, at the same time, the narrator was right.
While two policemen search the desert for the cougar, a private airplane crashes atop a mesa. Everyone in the plane survives the impact but will they be able to survive the desert? The narrators seems to have his doubts. Mom and Dad are both upset about being stranded in the desert. The pilot, who is dating the daughter of the family, says that they better pray before they do anything else. Finally, the family’s 12 year-old son decides to run off and try to reach a nearby town on his own. It’s a two-day walk and his parents are not happy when they discover that he’s run off. It’s a pretty good thing that they don’t know that the small town is actually a ghost town and that the desert is not only home to the cougar but also plenty of rattlesnakes! While Mom and Dad worry about their son, the pilot and their daughter encourages them to keep praying. If their son dies, that’s all a part of God’s plan and it’s probably their fault for not going to church more often. To be honest, I wouldn’t want to be trapped in the desert with any of these people. The incredibly judgmental narrator seems to agree.
Survival was directed by Donald W. Thompson, who is better-known for directing the Thief In The Night films. As a director, Thompson knew how to frame a shot, which sets his work apart from a lot of other independent religious films. Watching this film, one can feel the oppressive heat rising up from the desert. That said, the heavy-handed dialogue is often stiffly-delivered. (At one point, the son worries that he has lost his wilderness survival pamphlet, just for someone to announce that they got him a new one before handing him a copy of the Bible. The lines are delivered so flatly that it almost feels like a parody of a church film.) It’s never a good sign when the cougar has more personality than the humans.
As I watched this film, I thought about how much I hate the desert. Would I have been able to survive as well as the characters in this film? Probably not. When I was 19, I dated a guy who owned his own private airplane. It was fun because he would fly me halfway across the state on a date. He would pick me up in Denton and then we’d fly down to San Antonio for dinner. Watching this film made me realize how lucky I was that we never crashed because I don’t think I would have been much help if we had. So, if nothing else, this film convinced me not to buy an airplane. That’s the important thing.
Through the Shattered Lens 