Product Description

Kent Bonar, who has been called the "John Muir of the Ozarks," is one of America's great naturalists. Living without modern amenities in the tradition of Thoreau, Leopold and Muir, Bonar has spent his life observing and recording the natural history of t

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116712 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-04-25
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 32 minutes

Customer Reviews

The sort of professional we need more of.
High Plains films has many fascinating films, and "The Naturalist" is no exception. It presents the work of a person who has dedicated himself, much like Henry David Thoreau, to studying the ecosystem he lives in. Given that this industrialized, hyper-consumptive world so often disregards nature - paves it, damns it, mines it, clear-cuts it, poisons it - Kent Bonar's respect for creation seems almost subversive. I wish our corporate media wasn't sponsored by car companies and owned by weapons contractors like GE; otherwise, worthwhile movies like this would be aired, and would provide the US population with information about things that really matter, instead of endless glorified gun battles, car chases, and other programming that degrades our species.

Anybody who has enjoyed being outdoors, which is pretty much everybody, will appreciate this top quality documentary.
I'd also recommend the DVD "Varmints," and Richard Louv's "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder."

Kent Bonar - The Classical Naturalist
I highly recommend this movie for aspiring or experienced naturalists alike.

First, the production itself was well done. A variety of stylistic elements were carefully woven together to make an effective whole without being overly polished.

Mr. Bonar's work and dedication show us that there are still opportunities for non-academics to significantly contribute to our understanding of Creation. What is so unusual is to find someone who lives and breathes an ecosystem. Mr. Bonar lives in, and lives with what he is studying. He has an intimacy and understanding that is normally lacking with the academic, Petri-dish ecologist. And in this sense, I think that calling Mr. Bonar "the John Muir of the Ozarks" falls very short for whilst John Muir did much to popularize an awareness for certain regions, Mr. Bonar has done much more in terms of detailed study and interconnectedness of the plant and animal life of a specific region.


My only regret is that his incredible hand drawn sketches and documentation is not being made available for study and instruction.