The New Cam Hanes Flick

[Nameless Range]

OK, so after the razzing in the Social Media Thread, I got curious and gave it an hour of my life. The new Cam Hanes Flick.

Seriously, I can be charitable. What hunting is to me may not be what it is to others. Some people take things way more serious - get way more into them. I tried to go in with an open mind.

The filmography is good. Branlin Shockey is skilled. Even if silly, I do not think the characters are bad people. I'm fairly ambivalent, and yet, an add for a shirt memorializing the flick pops up toward the end.

 

[Nameless Range]

And it kind of snaps me out of it and makes me think.

The whole time I am just trying to understand if this film is solely genuine, even if I think it is often gross and over the top, and I think that for many of the characters within it this is absolutely genuine - they just operate differently than me or anyone I know.

I've thought often about hunting lately and how it can survive if it becomes something more intertwined with markets. The Culture of Hunting I grew up with as my church, which I know is not the only culture that people hold sacred, is now up against a different culture - one with money and markets.

Markets are both everywhere and perfectly natural, and most of the time they are good. There's just this thing though, and it's a risk you run, when you let markets into your soul. It can be ok - a guy who loves to fish becomes a guide, a guy who loves to paint becomes an artist, a guy who loves to hunt makes flicks about hunting, etc.

The danger though is that being genuine may not save someone, and allowing Markets into the sacred is slippery as hell in that they are just always one signature away from being a deal with the devil, and an ad for a $30 tee shirt with the title of a movie on it that is interrupting the same damn movie one is watching is a little demon on your shoulder.

 

[Southern Elk]

I’m torn when it comes to Cam. I followed him way back when he was with Eastmans. At that time he was doing long distance running. Then he got into all of the weightlifting and beast mode/keep hammering stuff. It’s just a little over the top for me. I haven’t watched any of his content in years.

I do think he’s sincere about what he does and there’s obviously an audience for it. For whatever reason all hunting influencers seem to get more and more commercialized as they spend more time in the industry.

Question, would you feel the same way about a tshirt if the ad was popping up during a sporting event and trying to sell you a T-shirt for one of the teams? I watch a ton of football and baseball and it’s very common for ads to come on for buying gear to represent your team.

 

[Nick87]

Gay.

 

[jt13]

I had to turn it off when I heard the "I want to be remembered as a f***ing badass savage mountain-man killer" line

 

[mtmuley]

I am so out of the loop with these guys. I got here because of Randy a long time ago. mtmuley

 

[Southern Elk]

I am so out of the loop with these guys. I got here because of Randy a long time ago. mtmuley

Cam has been around as long as Randy. Maybe longer. They just took very different paths.

 

[WapitiBob]

What's the point of putting your bow on a rifle kill?

 

[mtmuley]

Cam has been around as long as Randy. Maybe longer. They just took very different paths.

I don't watch either one's content. mtmuley

 

[Nameless Range]

I’m torn when it comes to Cam. I followed him way back when he was with Eastmans. At that time he was doing all of the long distance running. Then he got into all of the weightlifting and beast mode/keep hammering stuff. It’s just a little over the top for me. I haven’t watched any of his content in years.

I do think he’s sincere about what he does and there’s obviously an audience for it. For whatever reason all hunting influencers seems to get more and more commercialized as they spend more time in the industry.

Question, would you fee the same way about a tshirt if the ad was popping up during a sporting event and trying to sell you a T-shirt for one of the teams? I watch a ton of football and baseball and it’s very common for ads to come on for buying gear to represent your team.

It's an interesting question. I would not.

It's almost about what I would personally be disgusted with if my own association with hunting became what theirs is - if while watching a video of me hunting, an ad trying to sell you a tshirt, so you could literally pay to advertise the movie you are watching for me, popped up and interrupted that very same movie. I think the main part that I guess makes it difficult for me to square, is that many of the statements in the flick are lofty has hell. Loftiness, purity on par with their words - it just does not come easy, and when one fails to achieve it, it's cringe. As @JT13 mentions above, there's numerous statements or scenes in the family of, "I want to be remembered as a f***ing badass savage mountain-man killer".

If as I believe he believes, hunting is sacred to him, the content I just watched is something related and akin, but far shinier, to a TV preacher asking a christian for money. I almost don't think there's anything wrong with it, outside of I wonder if, without him even noticing or intending, what hunting is to him has changed for Cam Hanes - if markets got into his soul. Or maybe he is actually leveraging the world effectively to keep doing what he is doing because it's his favorite thing to do . Only he knows.

 

[DouglasR]

What's the point of putting your bow on a rifle kill?


View attachment 274995
View attachment 274996

Low blow!

 

[Watts307]

Cams view on carrying guns during a hunt bothers me...he says he doesn't carry one because he is ok with dying and getting eaten which is goofy to me and sounds corny, but then when he hunts around dangerous game, he usually had Roy behind him with a 45-70 and then now in this hunt with a full arsenal behind him. I dont know, I am sure he had a guide with a rifle behind him when he went to Africa. Reminds me of celebrities' not thinking we should carry guns but has a full security team. Its easy to say those things when he is hunting in Oregon or his huge dollar private resorts, Rogan and him go to but it seems to change when he is around the animals we carry guns for.

plus when he says his destiny was interrupted because of a gun and should of gotten ate? I dont know about anyone else but I dont think my destiny was to become bear poop and never see my family again...

 

[brymoore]

Cam has some mental issues probably developed from trying to get approval from his now dead father.

 

[Nameless Range]

I'm not psychologizing nor talking chit, more just wondering if markets corrupt the well-intending when brought into the sacrosanct, if in this case they have, and whether it's wise to let them into our own sacred things.

 

[DouglasR]

Cams view on carrying guns during a hunt bothers me...he says he doesn't carry one because he is ok with dying and getting eaten which is goofy to me and sounds corny, but then when he hunts around dangerous game, he usually had Roy behind him with a 45-70 and then now in this hunt with a full arsenal behind him. I dont know, I am sure he had a guide with a rifle behind him when he went to Africa. Reminds me of celebrities' not thinking we should carry guns but has a full security team. Its easy to say those things when he is hunting in Oregon or his huge dollar private resorts, Rogan and him go to but it seems to change when he is around the animals we carry guns for.

plus when he says his destiny was interrupted because of a gun and should of gotten ate? I dont know about anyone else but I dont think my destiny was to become bear poop and never see my family again...

I think he might just want to see Roy again

 

[Southern Elk]

It's an interesting question. I would not.

It's almost about what I would personally be disgusted with if my own association with hunting became what theirs is - if while watching a video of me hunting, an ad trying to sell you a tshirt, so you could literally pay to advertise the movie you are watching for me, popped up and interrupted that very same movie. I think the main part that I guess makes it difficult for me to square, is that many of the statements in the flick are lofty has hell. Loftiness, purity on par with their words - it just does not come easy, and when one fails to achieve it, it's cringe. As @JT13 mentions above, there's numerous statements or scenes in the family of, "I want to be remembered as a f***ing badass savage mountain-man killer".

If as I believe he believes, hunting is sacred to him, the content I just watched is something related and akin, but far shinier, to a TV preacher asking a christian for money. I almost don't think there's anything wrong with it, outside of I wonder if, without him even noticing or intending, what hunting is to him has changed for Cam Hanes - if markets got into his soul. Or maybe he is actually leveraging the world effectively to keep doing what he is doing because it's his favorite thing to do . Only he knows.

I haven’t watched it and don’t plan to. I think I would agree with you, if I did.

Just don’t let us catch you wearing that T-shirt.

 

[DouglasR]

When you guide dangerous game and your client’s an HxC bow hunter...

 

[RemingtonRules]

Hard pass

 

[Bambistew]

WWMRT? That's all you have to ask yourself. Pretty sure Matt would give this film a 0% on the rotten tomatoes scale.

At what point will this industry stop self-aggrandizing? I couldn't imagine wondering if people think I was some bad ass hunter or not.

We kill animals with half our intelligence. Its not like racking up a body count is equal to a cure for cancer or solving some paradox. Insert your means of harvest, private/public land, wealth tags, etc excuse. You outsmarted an animal with half your intelligence or less, that's the end of the argument. No one cares.

I'm just happy to get out side, spend time with friends and family. Its not some mythical pedestal to be placed on because you kill lots of animals or lots of big ones.

 

[Sytes]

I'm just happy to get out side, spend time with friends and family. Its not some mythical pedestal to be placed on because you kill lots of animals or lots of big ones.

This.