In late Spring of 1968, at age 51, Dick Proenneke leaves civilization behind to explore the remote Twin Lakes of the Alaskan wilderness.
He kept journals and filmed his oddyseey with his wind-up Bolex camera and tripod!…for the rest of his life (30 years).
Think of it as “Cast Away” meets “Planet Earth”… minus Wilson.
Bob Swerer (the producer) provides the narration, reading from Proenneke’s journals. I love his voice!
There are two parts of Alone in the Wilderness (Part 1 and 2).
Part 1 (57 minutes) was released in 2004.
Then, in 2011, Bob Swerer put out a sequel that he called “Part 2” (also 57 min.).
I rank “Alone in the Wilderness” #1 in my list of “Best Richard Proenneke Documentaries” (up to 7!).
And I rank it #2 in my list of “Best Survival Documentaries” (I’m up to 15 of them!).
Thanks to Joe Rogan for first pointing this doc out; and to the Wayback Machine for sourcing some of the doc.
Trailer
Where to Watch Alone in the Wilderness (for Free!)
There are a few ways to watch “Alone in the Wilderness”
Watch “Alone in the Wilderness” (the original full movie from 2004) (later called “Part 1”)
The best place I’ve found to stream Alone in the Wilderness (the full original full movie) for free is on Archive.org here:
Source of video above: https://archive.org/details/a-4-t-00/A4_t00.mkv
If you have to watch just one video of Proenneke, the above link is the one I recommend.
If the video above doesn’t work, I found the first 9 minutes and 34 seconds of “Alone in the Wilderness” that you can watch for free here on YouTube (it looks like someone ripped it from PBS) here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss&t=561s
Stream “Alone in the Wilderness” Part 2 (2011)
Seven years after the first “Alone in the Wilderness”, Bob Swerer put out a sequel which his company now calls “Part 2”.
Part 2 (also 57 minutes long) is harder to find — the only video I can find are these two clips below (both are free to watch on YouTube):
Watch “Alone in the Wilderness” on DVD
I see at least 3 legit ways to buy the “Alone in the Wilderness” DVD:
- Part 1 and Part 2 are both sold at https://www.dickproenneke.com/ ($23.95 each last I checked September 3, 2024)
- Amazon sells a 2 DVD set of the “Alone in the Wilderness” at https://www.amazon.com/Alone-Wilderness-2-DVD-Package/dp/B0058JQYE4 (for $56.95 last I checked)
- Amazon sells just Part 1 for $28.95: https://www.amazon.com/Alone-Wilderness-Dick-Proenneke/dp/B0009PUAFG.
- You can also get the DVD on PBS ($27.95 at http://AfmBOoqElu5CDJsegc1x_QeyzaiYTOZDTy31iHP8qSxnlH_UITgCTexd
“Alone in the Wilderness” on Netflix
There’s some talk (on Reddit) about streaming Alone in the Wilderness on Netflix.
But I haven’t ever heard of that. Netflix does carry “Alone” and “Win the Wilderness” (both are reality shows about being alone in the Alaska wilderness but they otherwise have nothing to do with Proenneke).
Still, if you want the latest on whether any streamers have added the “Proenneke” Alone in the Wilderness, you might want to check out this page periodically: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/alone-in-the-wilderness
Vitals of Alone in the Wilderness
- Genre: Nature, Survival
- Release Date: 2004 (Part 1) and 2011 (Part 2)
- Director: Dick Proenneke, Bob Swerer Jr.
- Narrator: N/A
- Duration: 57 minutes for each of Part 1 and Part 2
My Favorite Parts (Includes Spoiler Alerts!)
Part 1:
- Dick wouldn’t kill big “game” (caribou, moose, bear) to eat because it was too much for one man to eat.
- He ate trout and berries
- He feeds birds and squirrel by hand.
- He builds his log cabin in about 2 weeks.(10 hours a day)..all by hand.
- He starts building his new cabin with front door facing Northwest and a window facing the lake.
- One year he used a pedometer for a full year. It registered 3,081 miles (an average of about 9 miles a day).
- “Solitude is not loneliness.” – Dick Proenneke.
- Wildlife… close-ups! Bears, moose, birds… nature’s symphony.
- Footage of Twin Lakes… breathtaking views, mirror reflections.
- 30 years. Dick’s footage compiled.
Part 2
Covers the Spring (circa May) into Fall.
[these are from the first (10 min.) video above:]
- Dick shows off his makeshit backpack to carry huge amounts of wood for his “cache” building (mini cabin on stilts) for extra storage.
- He catches a 15 inch trout for dinner (he eats it with biscuits made with a sourdough starter that Mary Allsworth gave him the previous spring)
- Dick builds his cache building.
- Dick takes a pistol
- A momma bear and 3 cubs are shown.
[these next highlights are from the second (7 min.) video above]:
- Dick builds”a big wooden spoon for Mary in exchange for all those cookies she sends me” (takes him 2 hours)
- Awesome quote: “Learn to use an axe, and respect it…and you can’t help but love it. But abuse one, and it will wear your hands raw — and open your foot like an overcooked sausage.”
- Nice shot of 2 Carabou bulls (huge antlers!).
Thanks for reading!
-Rob Kelly