The Trap

Trailer—The Trap

source: The Trap

Greatest movie ever made. I have been looking for it, off and on, for 31 years. I first viewed the movie aboard the USS Clamagore, SS343, a United States Navy submarine in 1970. We must have watched it a dozen times in the six weeks or so that the 16mm reel was aboard. The whole crew went ape for the movie. This could very well be a cult favorite. Surely, some TV producer should show it in the US. Then, it would become popular enough to elicit a VHS reproduction. mmullis

Here's what I learned at 10 years old from "The Trap", watched on VHS TV almost once a year (subsequent experience with fathers and men confirmed it all): If you're female, you're screwed. The world is indeed a trap, and your emotional life--not to even mention your physical life--will be a living hell of emptiness. Unless he rapes you--then you better recognize a good thing, girl, and crawl back to him! Good men are hard to find! I watched this film later as a more reasonable adult to see if I'd just been in a bad mood all those years before. I didn't see a more comforting message at all, save perhaps this small caveat: Ladies, you are more powerful than you may seem, and he is LITERALLY nothing without you. If life provides you with any kind of a choice, then choose wisely. Performances are powerful as stated before, but Rita Tushington's the real prize here, in every way. Her look of betrayed hopelessness should be patented as a solvent--it'd strip paint. He's just a schmuck with a fragile ego--a violent house of cards ready to be fled at the first opportunity. As such, Reed's adequate. Okay, so maybe I'm bitter. But I believe some things should NOT be shown to children , and this is one of those films. Over half the world's population's hearts will break, and after all these years, I still don't know which half I'm in.

... that and the young and lovely Oliver Reed growling his way through the film is mainly what sticks in the mind. This is a brilliant film, and both stars are at the top of their form in it. It has the difficult task of making us sympathise and empathise with both characters, and it actually works. The weakest part of the film, IMO, is when Rita is back with her own people and no longer part of their way of life. It's touching, but the scenes between Tushingham and Reed are brilliant. Definitely a film to cherish.

The Trap illustrates the fact that civilisation (of the period) was just as hard and uncaring as was the wilderness and that individuals, in either environment, needed strength of will and character just to survive. Both Tushingham and Reed are real Actors, not just celebrities playing themselves. They both can act without saying anything or with only very limited dialogue and in The Trap they have been able to give full reign to their capabilities. The scenery (the far North, all forest, lakes and snow) is magnificent and the photography does it justice at all times. It's a wonderful film, it will make you wring your hands, hold your breath and wipe your eyes.

Trapper Oliver Reed -- whose accent seems French Canadian, but whose character claims to hail from San Francisco -- shows up in town with furs, gets drunk, and buys mute serving girl Rita Tushingham to take to his cabin by Birkinhead Lake. The ornamentation of the story is excellent, with a great score by Ron Goodwin ad some fine scenic shots of British Columbia, but with just two actors to hold down the great majority of the film, they need to do a lot to fill in the time, and Miss Tushigham's performance wanders between sullen and terrified, and Reed's performance doesn't vary much from drunken masculinity. He's very good at performing that, of course, but 105 minutes of screen time needs more, even though Mis Tushingham does gt to chop one of his legs off.

I truely love this film. The two leads did a fantastic job with their roles. Rita Tushingham didn't need to speak a word for us to understand her character's feelings. Oliver Reed was great, to watch the big, surly Jean LaBete try to express his tender feelings toward Eve was very touching. It was a wonderful, romantic story. Ollie never fails to knock my socks off. So sad that he's gone. LeBete wants a wife for companionship, to laugh, dance, & bear children for him. Yikes! What a proposition for a first date. No wonder they get off to a rough start. Eve reluctantly learns the trapper's way of life, basically because she has no other choice, she's trapped with him in the wilderness. But as time passes, you can see and feel the affection grow between them. Eve is terrified of it, and LaBete didn't know he had it in him. There are some problems with the film. It is easy to see that stock wildlife footage from somewhere else has been inserted. Not at the "Plan 9 from Outer Space" level, but enough to distract from the atmosphere. I could have done without the shrill, harpie voice of the trader's daughter, and the "F-Troop" Indians where nothing short of a blight. If it weren't for these three things, I think this would have been a perfect film. I'm surprised I haven't heard more about it. I also love the score. I give it 8 out of 10.

I don't usually add comments, but just so someone else doesn't make the same mistake I did based on all these glowing comments above, I must add my opinion. I taped the film and it was ridiculously bad. How about these minor flaws? * Two Italian guys playing the indigenous people? And their names are 'Yellow Dog' and 'No Name'? * How about taking a look at the dialogue in this film for the female characters? Not only was Rita Tushingham's character mute, but so was the older woman with child who was being auctioned off? For a while I thought this movie was going to be "Island of the Mute Women." Except that the mother and daughter's dialogue is profuse and terribly written too. * Wouldn't the mute Eve have learned a bit of basic sign language? She never even uses her hands when she communicates! Couldn't she still write? * What about la Bete the trapper being attacked by vicous wolves? How corny is that? Or Eve falling asleep in the canoe and going down the rapids which suddenly appear out of nowhere right near the cabin? Or the Amazing Growing Deer? la Bete goes to shoot a tiny juvenile doe (this animal was in the studio) and misses, and the next shot we see is this half a second of blurry file footage of a huge adult deer scampering away! Look, I enjoyed the film. It was definitely bad enough to be good, but that's the nicest thing I can say.

I remembered this film from my youth - I only saw it once in the cinema, and when A & E carried it on their movie line-up a couple of years ago it brought back all those feelings that I had for this particular film. What a story. I love the characters, especially Oliver Reed - who really fills almost every frame with his menacing presence. It was refreshing to watch a film that was made before encroaching "political correctness", and it dealt with some terrific social and personal issues all with the glorious backdrop of British Columbian wilderness.