The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky

Jerry O'Connell gets a life changing experience when he does a summer, I guess you would call it an internship, as a forest ranger in the post World War I years in the Bitteroot mountains of Montana with British Columbia providing that background in the filming of The Ranger, The Cook, and The Hole in The Sky. O'Connell comes under the tutelage of Sam Elliott who is acknowledged to be the best when it came to the job of Forest Ranger.

Looking at the film which does convey some of the attitudes of the times I saw O'Connell as someone who as millions did admire the recently deceased Theodore Roosevelt. Remember it was TR who was our first conservationist president and many went into that profession because of him and his Chief of the Forestry Service Gifford Pinchot. TR was a proponent of 'the strenuous life' of which you see these guys are definitely living.

Except for the camp cook played by Ricky Jay who O'Connell feels is kind of a soft moocher and whom he develops a dislike for. There are a select in all our lives who rubbed us wrong at first meeting and we never change or minds. Jay is someone though that O'Connell learns to respect for at least one skill besides cooking he has.

Sam Elliott is also the kind of westerner that Theodore Roosevelt would have considered his ideal westerner. Sam was born 30 years too late what a cowboy hero he'd have made back in the day.

If you're a Theodore Roosevelt fan check this film out.