Wild Bill's Run

In 1972, William “Wild Bill” Cooper gained some degree of attention with his plan to lead a small group of snowmobilers on a winter trip from Minnesota to the Soviet Union. But things went awry. Mike Scholtz's loose-limbed documentary details Cooper's disastrous adventures, in which miserably poor planning resulted in the first expedition running out of fuel and food in the Canadian Arctic, while a second attempt in 1973 was aborted in Greenland, where the expedition was jailed for entering the territory without passports. Cooper, who ran a bar in a small Minnesota town prior to his Arctic fiascos, later attracted notoriety as the alleged mastermind of a drug smuggling ring known as the “Marijuana Air Force.” He disappeared prior to prison sentencing in 1977, and despite being named to the U.S. Marshal's Service 10 most wanted list, his fate remains unknown. Scholtz's film focuses primarily on the doomed Arctic misadventures, with comments from Cooper's traveling companions and never-before-seen footage of the trip offering in-depth documentation of his failed efforts. Less attention is paid to Cooper's criminal history or efforts to determine if he is still alive (credible evidence suggests he was killed by the Mexican drug cartel as early as 1977, although his apologists insist he is still alive in Canada). Despite the film's suggestion that Cooper was a modern-day outlaw, he comes across more as a disorganized nut that screwed up his life. Still, this is an offbeat portrait that should be considered a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)