The movie Alpha shows a delicate and vastly human divide between historical accuracy and a kind of emotional wistfulness. While the movie was a far cry from a more mainstream, stereotypical depiction of our Solutrean ancestors (think leopard print one piece and cavemen living in... caves), it also left something lacking in its attempts to use elements of the Solutrean lifestyle. The film incorporated historical information and reconstructions, such as the brief scenes involving the female shaman, based off an archeological find from the burial of Bad Durrenberg (Porr and Alt 2006, p. 395). Perhaps it is unfair to criticize the film too harshly for historical inaccuracies, as the main purpose of the movie is obviously a heartwarming tale about the domestication of wolves, rather than a true-to-life documentary. However, there is now archeological evidence that dogs were likely first domesticated in Asia, meaning that the premise of the movie is ultimately not the true 'beginnings' as it seems to imply (Ovodov et al. 2011).

The moment of realization for me that the movie combined both thematic and factual reality, was strangely enough the moment when Keda's father, the supposed leader of the tribe, holds his fist up as an indication to stop. The gesture, however small and insignificant, was interesting in that it is a commonly seen element in films, both fictional and historical. Most everyone who has watched a movie has likely experienced the buildup to a great, tense battle scene where the leader or general of the army who is backed up by thousands of men raises his fist and indicates for everyone to come to a sudden stop.

I believe this gesture demonstrates a good indication of the mixing between popular and scholarly agreement in the movie. We have no idea if raising one's fist was an agreed upon indicator to halt in Solutrean times, or even if there was a single, designated leader trusted by all to lead the hunt. And yet, the gesture appeals to the viewer because it is familiar. It is a thematic element that has been used time and time again and it 'makes sense' to our modern viewpoints. I believe that this single gesture is all one needs to understand the course the film will take. We in our modern society understand the idea of an "Alpha" (although the social lives of wolves are admittedly more nuanced than the film allowed), and we emotionally connect with the idea of finding a pet or furry friend (Fox 1972).

Overall, the film is vastly enjoyable to a wide range of audiences as it combines an extreme sense of survival with a heartwarming tale of companionship and new beginnings. The underdog tale of a hunter who 'leads with his heart' is easy to connect and sympathize with. And of course, any classic 'boy and dog' or, perhaps, wolf in this case, is sure to inspire.

Works Cited Fox, M. W. "Socio-Ecological Implications of Individual Differences in Wolf Litters: A Developmental and Evolutionary Perspective." Behaviour, vol. 41, no. 3/4, 1972, pp. 298-313. JSTOR.

Ovodov ND, et al. "A 33,000-Year-Old Incipient Dog from the Altai Mountains of Siberia: Evidence of the Earliest Domestication Disrupted by the Last Glacial Maximum." PLOS ONE 6(7): e22821, 2011.

Porr, M. And Alt, K. W. "The burial of Bad Dürrenberg, Central Germany: osteopathology and osteoarchaeology of a Late Mesolithic shaman's grave.". Int. J. Osteoarchaeol., 16: 395-406, 2006.