The Great Alone

This film is a great film about survival, about working dogs who are the are on average 10x more physically and psychologically healthy than pet dogs.

Please ignore the sole detracting review from a person who lives in Florida and runs a one person effort to ban dog sledding and who knows nothing about it. Really three dozen dogs have died running the Iditarod since 1993? OMG! But in fact some 10,000 dogs have run that race. Statistically they are safer running that race than in a the urban dog park in Florida! Iditarod dogs have a lower death rate and lower injury rate than human marathon runners

The person running this one person effort admits she has never even been to Alaska to witness an iditorod and is an expert?

Her rantings have been thoroughly debunked. See tinyurl.com/yet89gm and tinyurl.com/y8y9brqd

...as much a story of man against nature, man against himself, and man against man as any story you would ever watch. The documentary plays out without maudlin hype, with excellent camera work- you are right THERE-warts and all. Mackey is an unlikely hero in the Iditarod, a 1000 mile race through grueling Alaskan wilderness, not a polished man but rough hewn and flawed but who appears MADE for just this sport. Kudos for letting us be our own judge... great journalism.

NOTE ON DOG ABUSE: I mushed ( 20 minutes) by a Colorado family that used "retired" sled dogs for tourists for these brief outings of 90 minutes. From the second these dogs are hooked up, they are lunging to pull, yapping, up on their hind legs, vocal... 'LETS GO!' You HAVE to stand on the brake when stopping or they will take off. I was not going to participate until I understood this: not torture but fulfillment for them. In the movie, Mackey is nuzzling all of his dogs regularly, sleeps with them outside at times!... with some nuzzled in his arms. They lick his face anytime he's close to them and can't get enough of him! Not abuse!

Great documentary and lesson on never giving up!! Lance has passion and is determined to overcome any obstacle.

I picked up the documentary from the library because I like Cloud Cult, the music in the background. That said, I have been very interested in the Iditarod. I didn't find Lance to be a very likeable person quite frankly. But I guess if you are a winner, often times your obsession doesn't allow you to be a socially perfect person. I was disappointed that his mother, who raised him, wasn't given more of a presence, particularly after he won the races. Lance clearly disliked his father but his father got the glory after Lance the first race in 2007 and his mother had to fight to get any kind of attention. I find that very dismissive and sexist.

He may have won four in a row and that is something that is something amazing. But yet, I feel like this film left me flat - like, so what? Maybe his personal history should have been left out? Or maybe there should have been more attention on the history of the race or even his brother and father's involvement.

I am sure if I met Lance I probably wouldn't like him. Is that the point?

This documentary chronicles the story of Lance Mackey, to date the only winner of the Iditarod dog sled race four consecutive years (2007 thru 2010). The Iditarod race is held every March and is over 1.000 grueling miles through the Artic wilderness, beginning in Anchorage and ending in Nome, Alaska, and can take some 8 to 15 days to complete.

Mackey was smitten with the dog sled racing bug ever since he was very young, and especially after seeing his father Dick Mackey win the Iditarod in dramatic fashion, in 1978. However, he would have to overcome a lot of obstacles along the way including his rebellious youth and drug use, the divorce of his parents, and being given little chance to survive a throat cancer operation. Eventually, he would overcome them all and become a champion musher, while achieving lots of notoriety whether he welcomed it or not.

As far as the film itself, it can be disjointed, at times, but does contain some superb cinematography, and, of course, I'm always enamored by those wonderful and loyal sled dogs, to whom Mackey clearly gives much love and attention to.

All in all, I thought this documentary has some drawbacks, but it illustrates the remarkable determination of a man to overcome many challenges, and to be successful at what he loves to do.