Rating: C+
Dir: Eli Watson
Star: Marc Myrsell, Cliff Barackman, John Pickering, Kathryn Myrsell
Just over a century ago, in 1924, a group of miners were prospecting in an isolated Pacific Northwest valley, not far from the slopes of Mount St. Helens. They encountered gigantic humanoids, who proved unusually resistant to gunfire. Shooting may have been a mistake, because that night, the miners’ cabin came under attack from a number of the creatures, who laid siege to the canyon. The miners eventually had to flee for their lives, abandoning their claim and equipment. Or so the story goes, anyway. Beginning with a recreation of the events, this documentary seeks to dig into the tale, and tries to discover how much truth there might be behind events which have become a classic of the Bigfoot mythos.
Well, sorta. The immediate problem is obvious. You’re dealing with an event which happened more than a hundred years ago, with all the people involved now long dead. Even the first-hand accounts, such as miner Fred Beck’s 1967 22-page pamphlet, enticingly titled, I Fought the Apemen of Mt. St. Helens, are perhaps not to be trusted. For not only was Beck writing four decades after the events, he had become interested in spiritualism and other esoteric subjects, which appear to have coloured his recollections significantly. He says the group was led to the mine’s location by a giant white arrow floating in the sky, as well as encountering a native American spirit guide – claims which certainly do little to improve the credibility of his account.
At this distance in time, trying to prove what happened is likely futile, though lead researcher Myrsell, who has devoted years to investigating the topic, does cite a lot of primary sources. Some support the story; others offer alternative, prosaic suggestions, such as the attack being a prank by a group of teenagers, also known to be in the area around the time. We’ll likely never know. The film instead diverts into what’s as much a character study of the people involved, as well as expeditions into the extraordinarily rugged terrain, in an effort to prove the existence, both of the mine on which the men were working, and their cabin. This is made trickier by the terrain changes resulting from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
Therefore, if you are looking purely for definitive conclusions regarding the titular battle, you will likely be disappointed. [Personally, I likely left more skeptical, due to elements like the interview with a daughter of one of the miners. She confessed her father never so much as mentioned the supposed event to her] Yet I was still reasonably entertained – just in a way different to expectations. Myrsell makes an engaging central character, to whom it is very easy to listen, and the film still has something to say, about the way an event slowly transforms over the decades, from fact into folklore. While less excited by old nails than the researchers, throw in some stunning scenery, and I didn’t feel my time was wasted.
[The film is released today through streaming platforms, including Prime Video and Vimeo on Demand]