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8 Outdoor Films 

Humans and nature rarely have an easy relationship in Hollywood films. Sea swimming might be all the rage now but it’s no surprise it fell out of fashion in the 70s after the release of Jaws. Still humans and nature can co-exist on the screen, sometimes with heartwarming results.

Jaws (1975) 

It’s now 46 years old, but Steven Spielberg’s first blockbuster has lost none of its bite. Roy Scheider heads the cast as Brody, a police chief on New England’s Amity Island whose relatively idyllic existence is turned upside down when a great white shark starts snacking on the locals. The mayor is reluctant to close the beaches in case it scares off the tourists, so with the aid of a wealthy expert (Richard Dreyfuss) and a salty hunter (Robert Shaw), Brody heads off to find and kill the beast. It’s a masterpiece of direction, combining genuine thrills with three-dimensional characters, and although the shark itself is a bit of a let-down, by the time we get a good look at it, we’re having too much fun to care. John Williams’ iconic score just adds to the tension.

Jurassic Park (1993) 

Steven Spielberg’s monster blockbuster sees a group of scientists (including Sam Neill and Laura Dern) being given a sneak preview of a safari park set up on a remote island by an eccentric tycoon (Richard Attenborough). The creatures on display are genetically engineered dinosaurs and it isn’t long before something goes wrong and the prehistoric beasts escape their cages. Now that the dinosaurs are free to roam the island, the visitors become prey for a multitude of carnivorous critters. The plot may be a rehash of author Michael Crichton’s earlier hit Westworld, but at the time this was one of the greatest shows on earth. In 2021, it still packs a punch, not least because of great effects, sound design, action scenes and Jeff Goldblum’s wonderful performance as a swaggering ‘chaotician’.

Babe (1995) 

Based on Dick King Smith’s book The Sheep Pig, this utterly charming family comedy proved to be a huge hit with audiences and critics alike – it was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. James Cromwell stars as the kindly farmer who wins a cute piglet at a county fair. It seems the porker, known as Babe and voiced by Christine Cavanaugh, is destined to be served as a roast dinner, until he shows a remarkable talent for herding sheep. Will that be enough to save him and also win over some of the more sceptical animals on the farm? Jim Henson’s Creature Shop provided the stunning fake pigs, geese and horses while computer-generated wizardry helped the beasts deliver some rather witty dialogue.

Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017) 

Simon Curtis’s handsome drama exposes the anguish and resentment that festered beneath the Hundred Acre Wood. AA Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) returns to London from the trenches, where he witnessed hundreds of his countrymen cut down in their prime. Angered by the senseless loss of life, Milne abandons the capital for a quaint house in Ashdown Forest, where a walk with his young son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston) fires his imagination. Milne develops the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, which magically bring to life his son’s menagerie of stuffed toys, but while the books become a success, Christopher Robin struggles to deal with his newfound fame.

Rango (2011) 

A lonely chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) is stranded in the Mojave Desert, where he meets an iguana called Beans (Isla Fisher). She takes him to the town of Dirt, which is on the brink of collapse because the water supply is running dangerously low. Wandering into the saloon, the chameleon rechristens himself Rango and pretends to be a famous gunslinger. The townsfolk are thrilled to have found themselves a hero and Rango becomes town sheriff. Rango is a rootin’, tootin’ computer-animated adventure peppered with earthy one-liners that should have parents and teenagers chuckling, although it may be a little too dark and quirky for very young kids.

The Sound of Music (1965) 

Based on a true story, this much-loved musical follows novice nun Maria (Julie Andrews), who is employed as a governess to the seven unruly Von Trapp children. Their widowed father (the late Christopher Plummer) runs the house on military lines, but his new employee eventually brings fun and music back into his offspring’s lives and melts his heart in the process. However, the Austrian family’s happiness is threatened by the looming Second World War. There’s a reason this classic gets rolled out every Bank Holiday – there isn’t a single dud in the Rodgers and Hammerstein score, which includes songs such as Do-Re-Mi and My Favourite Things. Andrews is on iconic form as the all-singing Maria, while Plummer’s sardonic Captain Von Trapp stops things getting too sugary.

Alpha (2018) 

Man and beast join forces to survive the elements in director Albert Hughes’s adventure set 20,000 years ago during the Ice Age. Teenager Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is poised to cross the threshold to manhood and is torn between the competing desires of his parents: proud tribal chief Tau (Johannes Haukur Johannesson) and kind-hearted mother Pho (Natassia Malthe). To prove himself as a hunter, Keda joins the rest of the clan to bring down a herd of bison, but the animals stampede and the boy is thrown off a cliff during the chaos. Tau discovers his boy’s broken, lifeless body and mourns Keda’s death before returning to the tribe. Soon after, Keda regains consciousness and begins the slow journey back home unaware that his parents believe him to be dead, but he gains a travel companion in the form of a wolf.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019) 

Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor makes his feature film directorial debut with an inspirational story of triumph against adversity, based on the uplifting memoir by William Kamkwamba. Trywell Kamkwamba (Ejiofor) is a farmer in Malawi, who is struggling to provide for his wife Agnes (Aissa Maiga) and intelligent 13-year-old son William (Maxwell Simba). Their village has been ravished by famine and greedy landowners cruelly exploit the desperate times by offering families pitiful amounts for their homes to escape the poverty and hunger. William reads one of his books, Using Energy, and makes a startling realisation. He designs and constructs a wind turbine, which is connected to a dynamo. The power of the wind should be sufficient to generate the electricity to power his village and irrigate the parched land.