I opened up my latest issue of Traditional Bowhunter magazine over the weekend and started off by reading the Co-Editors Note penned by Don Thomas about the movie Trophy. As soon as I hit the end I made another cup of coffee and read it again from the top. Apparently Don Thomas and I feel the exact same way about the movie and about the state of hunting in the world today. He closes with this:
“We need to do better. The whole world is watching. Literally.”
I had seen this movie either two or three times before reading the article, and I will probably watch it again as I am a documentary junkie. I can’t think of anyone I wouldn’t recommend the movie to. Not because it’s a grand-slam that aligns perfectly to what I think of hunt. Actually quite the opposite, it gives a glimpse into just how confusing the entire state of affairs really is! While I’ve heard it argued both as an anti-hunting film by some, and a pro-hunting film by others, I think it’s really a good amount of information about both pros and cons as well as really a good spotlight on the slippery slope of either argument in general.
Here are my predictions if you are about to watch it for the first time.
- If you are a hunter you will be proud of some successes we’ve had keeping animals from going extinct. You will probably also be disgusted by some of the things said and done by our fellow hunters on film.
- If someone is an anti-hunter there are some things that will probably reinforce the negative stereotypes held about hunters and hunting, but it also clearly shows where hunters have supported the saving of species where other methods have failed.
- Most importantly in my mind would be what a non-hunter would see in all this: It is a complex situation with a whole lot of grey in the middle and very little black and white.
I will be going back to Africa soon to pursue some plains game and try again for the African Buffalo that has haunted my dreams for so many years. For me the movie reinforced the importance I have as a hunter being a very small percentage of the population on the survival of several species. It along with the article in TBM also reminds me of the importance of my actions while I’m in the pursuit, and how I represent myself as a hunter.
To my hunting peers, I close with this; “We need to do better…”