How realistic is Bear Grylls "Born Survivor"?

darkman2

Just wondering. I find it hard to believe any production company would permit 6 nights out in the middle of nowhere doing such dangerous stunts with a crew. What I mean is does he actually stay in a hotel eating very nice food.....or does he really survive in the desert on his own urine? Just curious. IIRC there was some controversy over the program before though im not sure if this was the reason. Just curious.

Crazy Horse 6

It's fake like most things on discovery.

CardBordWindow

I'm sure elements of it are genuinely dangerous, but I reckon he cheats for a lot of it.

Ruu_Old

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_vs._Wild#Criticism_and_response

Jumpy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4NiPPzAB-4

ScumLord

Of course it's fake, it's a TV show. They don't send out their celebrity on a 50-50 chance they'll return for the next episode. It's a show that's supposed to show you what to do should you get caught in that situation.


A good rule of thumb is if it's on TV it's more than likely fake.

brian_t

I agree that a lot is faked on the progamme but the real question is how realistic or right is the knowledge that he imparts.
In other words if you found yourself stranded in a similar situation would you survive by doing what he says.

Obviously when I say "similar situation" I mean on your own rather then with a camera crew.

dlofnep

There's a Candian lad, Les Stroud. His programs are much more realistic, in that he doesn't sit in cosy hotels - and if it's too much, he might end his trip a day early. He's very honet in that regards. Much more entertaining than Bear Grylls.

pixelburp

I always presumed it was fake, on the basis that he has a fricking film crew. C'mon people, we supposedly see Gryll's scramble across hostile, untamed territory using only his bare hands, yet we're to believe the TV crew do the same, lugging around a camera on their shoulders at the same time? If the show consisted of just Grylls and whatever portable camera he carried with, then fair enough. The equally nimble & adventurous camera crew kinda give away the legitimacy of it all.

Bens

I watched him filming in the west.
The crew kept telling us to move, while he said how alone and beyond civilization he was.

ScumLord

pixelburp wrote: »

I always presumed it was fake, on the basis that he has a fricking film crew. C'mon people, we supposedly see Gryll's scramble across hostile, untamed territory using only his bare hands, yet we're to believe the TV crew do the same, lugging around a camera on their shoulders at the same time? If the show consisted of just Grylls and whatever portable camera he carried with, then fair enough. The equally nimble & adventurous camera crew kinda give away the legitimacy of it all.

Every time I watch that show all that I think about is the cameraman. If it's that bad for the guy on the camera it has to be worse for the guy behind the camera. Imagine watching someone drink water from an elephant poo and wish you where him.

fonecrusher1

Even though Grylls is probably a tough enough guy, physically i mean, the show is a load of rubbish in my opinion.

Yet i watch it all the same. More for the quality of the programs content then yer mans silly antics.

stevenmu

A lot of what he actually does is real though, and he's a pretty impressive individual, his wiki page is worth a read. Highlights include

In 1996, he suffered a freefall parachuting accident in Zambia.[21] His canopy ripped at 4,900 metres (16,000 ft), partially opening, causing him to fall and land on his parachute pack on his back, which partially crushed three vertebrae.

On 16 May 1998, Grylls achieved his childhood dream (an ambition since his father gave him a picture of Everest when he was eight) and entered the Guinness Book of Records, as the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest, just eighteen months after injuring his back.

SuckMyGuitar

In all fairness, if I came across a hotel in the middle of nowhere, I'd probably stay the night there instead of sleeping in a tree and eating my own ****e.

Technique

While I don't doubt that he's a tough nut, there's a lot of artistic licence in the show.

The episode based in Donegal gave the appearance that he was miles from anywhere, where in reality he was always close to houses, shops etc. He also accidently found a dead sheep to eat, where in reality a farmer had been asked to leave it there earlier in the day.

He still ate its heart, mind.

harr

Bens wrote: »

I watched him filming in the west.
The crew kept telling us to move, while he said how alone and beyond civilization he was.

My cousin was on holiday in Donegal when he was filming up there the same thing kept telling people to move at one stage he was less than 100 meters from a full car park at the cliffs and there was even a ice cream cart just behind him yet on that show he was spewing on about been miles from any civilization

Morgans

I'd only question his advice. The rest is nonsense. If the program was more honest, it would mostly about a man getting to eat disgusting things, and if he gets this top off its a bonus.

In the programs that Ive seen most of the traps he sets dont work, he finds freshly dead animals to survive. He spends all day chasing food and ends up eating a cricket (if you eat enough of these you'd have recovered the energy you wasted failing to catch something substantial). The time he was bee-stung and just about able to see after he retreived honey from a hive........

MayoForSam

Looks like Bear and Discovery have parted ways:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17364327

He'll have to find another source of funding for his hotel stays and helicopter rides.

ejmaztec

MayoForSam wrote: »

Looks like Bear and Discovery have parted ways:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17364327

He'll have to find another source of funding for his hotel stays and helicopter rides.

He'll survive somehow.





:pac:

Camped outside the dole office living on grubs.

Diddy Kong

ejmaztec wrote: »

He'll survive somehow.
:pac:

Camped outside the dole office living on grubs.

And drinking his own pIss!

McSpud

How could anyone think he was in the wilderness alone? He is not holding the camera!

Caught of bit of one recently where they were interviewing the crew about accidents & some of the food he ate & it was good entertainment, eating skunk & fishing for catfish with his arm.

Niles

Bens wrote: »

I watched him filming in the west.
The crew kept telling us to move, while he said how alone and beyond civilization he was.

Is that the episode where he "found" a dead sheep?

Also an example of why Bear Grylls shouldn't do jokes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3CAma7G5iU