I am assembling this list of film adaptations of The Most Dangerous Game for all those of you out there who would like to supplement the subtle joy of reading Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game with cinematic adaptations.
The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
You can actually watch this superb adaptation here:
I have previously remarked on my perspective regarding the differences between this film and the short story narrative.
For a small fee, you can actually watch this film in a version which has had color applied to it. You can find it , for example, on YouTube.
Surviving the Game (1994)
This can be found on YouTube as well as on DVD.
Surviving the Game takes the central story of the hunt of a man as the ultimate hunting experience and builds it out in a manner that dispenses with the need for an abandoned island, dispenses with the need for the random boat to scuttle itself on the rocky crags of the inhospitable and shark infested waters of Ship Trap Island, and substitutes a type of recruitment outfit, to permit the active and regular acquisitions of suitable quarries.
Surviving the Game, like the 1932 adaptation, takes some liberties with the story, there are complicated interpersonal conflicts that arise which are original to the film, but which add substantively to the drama of Surviving the Game. In discussing the psychology of the individuals involved, there are some differences from those present in the short story.
In any case, Surviving the Game is a movie that I love, it is a great movie to watch on its own, and it is a great movie to watch to compare and contrast with The Most Dangerous game.
The Hunt (2020)
In this film which further builds on the human hunt theme brought to such high form in The Most Dangerous Game, we again see a mechanism developed to effectively kidnap people for the purpose of being used as hunting quarries, we see a slight shakeup in that the analogue of the Zaroff character is a woman(played by the great Hilary Swank) and the analogue of the Rainsford character is also a woman(played by Betty Gilpin), and we again see slight variations in the psychology of the main characters.
I definitely recommend this film as a companion for the short story.
The Most Dangerous Game (2020)
This is a taught, thrilling, dialogue-rich, adrenaline-inducing, edge-of-your-seat experience. Its cinematography is superb and awe inspiring. Finally, the performances given by Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz were absolutely first-rate. (As of right now - August 2022 - you can watch it free at Roku Online at https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/49922e8caf9059048bd2024461789b92/most-dangerous-game)
Though each of the films in this list deviate to some extent from the short story, there is a twist in this story that makes it - in my opinion - far far darker. Having said that, I do have to confess that this adaptation captured the seriousness of the original adaptation or the short story and is a superb movie. I recommend this film hands down.
Hunting Ava Bravo (2022)
This is another variation of a human intentionally hunting another human in a remote location for the thrills of it. It kept me on the edge of my seat. It stars Kate del Castillo, a famous mexican actress, as the prey and Marc Blucas as the hunter. It serves as yet another great movie to watch to compare and contrast with The Most Dangerous Game. The trailer can be seen below:
At the current moment you can watch Hunting Ava Bravo here for free (https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/ddc07fe0d6f395b126b99c2babd59282/hunting-ava-bravo)
The Most Dangerous Game (2022)
In this film adaptation starring Casper van Dien as the Zaroff character and Christopher Tamburello as the Rainsford character, we have an adaptation that follows the story relatively well. Though some critics have said that the film was cheesy or weak or some other such claim, I feel that it was still satisfactory. Van Dien plays a Zaroff that is totally sinister, totally wild, and while slightly caricaturish relatively satisfying. If you are going to watch films related to The Most Dangerous Game, I recommend that you watch this modern interpretation at least once.
AV: The Hunt (2020)
Though this film cannot possibly be stated to be an adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game, I felt that it was sufficiently similar in a large aspect of the plot to include in this list. The problem that launches the Hunt is entirely entirely foreign to the plot of the short story, but the actual hunt itself captures the same fascination as the short story, is dramatic, thrilling, and definitely thought provoking and in my opinion a good pairing with the short story as with the rest of the films in this list.
Desierto (2015)
I felt that this film could not avoid being added to this list.
This is a tight thriller directed by Jonas Cuaron. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. It definitely belongs on this list as a worthy film to watch when considering The Most Dangerous Game.
Conclusion
I am confident that there are a great many other films that involve people hunting people, I believe this is a good start for anyone seeking films to supplement The Most Dangerous Game. I believe that the 1932 film and the 2022 eponymous films follow the short story most closely. The rest of the films are included here for comparison, contrast, and discussion, more generally, regarding the short story.
I believe that the great 1997 movie The Game which stars Michael Douglas and the 2014 movie Beyond the Reach are also highly worthy of consideration when considering this theme.
Moreover, it must be stated that this post is focused on The Most Dangerous Game, the great short story, and for this reason I did not touch or approach discussion of two serial killers who had a modus operandi of attempting to, aspiring to, or yearning to be "hunters" of men. The serial killer Thomas Dillon would use a rifle to shoot men at a distance, and he would then just simply leave the body and flee the scene, this made it difficult for him to be tracked and apprehended. There was a Twisted Killers episode and an FBI Files episode dedicated to this killer. Robert Hansen was more methodical in his approach and actually did hunt his victims in the Alaskan wilderness. There is an FBI Files episode, a First Blood episode, and a film The Frozen Ground based on his story. I find both of these detestable figures awful in the extreme, but I felt that it was necessary to include this brief discussion to emphasize that my avoidance of this topic was intentional.
I hope that this list helps any of you to examine this topic thouroughly.
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