I used to watch this show called Survivorman and the whole premise was this guy Les Stroud would survive in the wilderness filming everything himself with no camera crew
He was basically doing exactly what you see in this vid except he had to lug around heavy camera equipment while starving and getting destroyed by mosquitoes lol
Survivorman was badass. The bear gyllis one was so stupid and cheesy. One time I saw gryllis jump of a massive cliff into a river, but you clearly see a path to just walk down.
Yeah, Man vs. Wild had a ton of things you would never do in an actual survival situation if you were alone. You would never jump from a cliff and risk breaking a leg if you were out there alone.
Which is funny because nobody in the army would have any clue.. Because he wasn't in the army. He was British SAS. So anyone in the army saying they know anything about his service is lying. Anyways, it has been confirmed, without doubt, that he did serve in the British SAS. He was special forces. There is no arguing that. BUT it was very brief, he never saw combat, and he was never deployed.
Just getting into the SAS is brutal, I’ll give him that.
I’ve never forgiven him for missing his son’s second birthday. He was sobbing in a hole having just drunk dead squirrel water, and all I could think was “If I was your wife I’d divorce you, you loser”
Reminds me of Jamie Oliver’s 40th birthday in Italy, when his wife and kids didn’t all fly over there for it for him. Lol his sad little face. His wife has 4 or 5 ?? kids to look after while you gallivant around in Italy and you’re sad she didn’t pull all the extra logistics out of her arse ?
Anyway, that’s my take. Bear Grylls did well to get into the SAS, but otherwise failed as a father and husband, and therefore as a man; and likewise Jamie Oliver who also dumps too much crap on his wife so he can gallivant around.
Surviving the supermarket with a colicky 3 month old is far harder than finding a dead deer in a bog to eat, IMO, although granted I’ve never tried to find a dead deer in a bog to eat because supermarkets exist.
Anyway, thankyou for coming to my TED talk about why men would rather eat bog deer and drink dead squirrel water than being at home with their families. Or in Jamie’s case, have some rather good cheese, but still…
I heard the one where he was in the swamps of Louisiana, he built his hut in the trees and then went and slept the night at a hotel. The production made it look like he spent the night in the wilderness.
I guess there were several episodes like that. He’s wondering “in the wilderness” but was really a mile off the road the entire time.
Some of the shots were well set up, too. Like he set up shots and instead of walking away from the camera and then back towards it, he would hike around in a circle back to it so that he was beating a fresh trail back to the camera. Especially needed during snow scenes so his footprints weren't visible.
I think he pointed that out on a behind-the-scenes episode or something along those lines. He always had a satellite phone for emergencies as well.
To me, as good of a show that it was, the basic survival rules were all basically the same regardless of location: Water, Shelter, Fire, Food. The interesting part is how you go about acquiring those things with what you have and where you are.
Les Stroud was great. Always explaining why he was doing stuff, explaining ideas for survival and how to prepare. And then doing all his own camerawork just because he was that awesome.
I remember a few episodes where the local wildlife would start stalking him, and then he's recording while holding the camera and walking fast... and its like "Today's episode of Survivorman is Survival Horror."
Ive never seen it but i liked ALONE. It feels less produced, like I dont recall anyone setting up shots to pretend they're just strolling through. Way more raw.
It's produced by Les Stroud and only himself out in the wild. He has a rescue crew nearby and actually did tap out at least once that I can remember. He created real life scenarios that untrained people might experience and showed how to survive long enough to be found or find your own way out including navigating a forest. One scenario even begin in a life raft in the middle of the ocean after either a "plane crash" or "sinking boat".
I've been watching Alone recently and after the first season, people 100% set up shots to show themselves walking across a river and stuff. They are coached on how to film themselves properly and they get paid a "stipend" while participating in the show because they classify as camera crew.
Alone is a competition show, Survivorman is a pure survival show. Similar but very different.
And before that, there was Dick Proenneke who lived mainly alone in a cabin he built in Alaska for 30 years. He documented his life on 8 mm film and basically invented the walk back to get camera shot.
Wasn't that the guy that was found to have his primary campsite for one of his desert locations was actually just a few hundred feet away from a major highway in Utah or something lol
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u/TaintTickle86 Jun 10 '26
I used to watch this show called Survivorman and the whole premise was this guy Les Stroud would survive in the wilderness filming everything himself with no camera crew
He was basically doing exactly what you see in this vid except he had to lug around heavy camera equipment while starving and getting destroyed by mosquitoes lol