Strong and Moving!

A lot of fun.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Have you ever gotten one of those inexpensive DVD collections of movies? The kind with about 4 DVD's to the box and most of the movies included are just really bad or so bad they make you laugh? In the case of "The Call Of The Wild",it's hard to say which category it falls in of those two. A fair amount of this movie is is just plain dull. In terms of (as someone mentioned) the endless outdoor snow & dog sled scenes. I think there was nearly a half hour of this,or at least it felt like it. The almost non-stop barking of the dogs and just gosh-awful music playing over the scenes, got to be annoying as well.I found the kidnapping of the dog to be completely senseless. It's taken from a California family and I asked myself, "Did they not have pet stores to buy a dog back then?" The dog-napper could have bought a dog and sold it for more.I understand from the beginning that the main character is the German Shepard. Even more so when the ,all too real looking, abusive scenes of animal cruelty are shown. To make it more obvious of the Shepard being the main character, a good idea would have been to get a lesser known actor than Heston. He's always been larger than life on screen no matter what he's been in,so of course,people think that he's the main character.Interseting to see Heston so devoted to the dog and it's well being,much like it's a better friend to him than the humans he knows and hunts for gold with. In reference to those characters,they are the kind I've seen in many films before,more so Westerns. You have the drunken mobs,either in the saloon or the street and of course the big chested female who is the entertainment but pretty much runs the place. She even gives Heston a bath!Then there's the guy who hates the dog and Heston and wants the dog killed because of being (deservedly) bitten by the dog. Heston's buddy talks the man into a wager that if the dog call pull 500 pounds via dog sled,on his own,for 100 yards,then the dog gets to live. Of course the dog pulls it successfully,after the initial struggle.Near the end is a very senseless Indian attack on Heston and his one remaining partner who've finally discovered gold. Killing them both and Heston winds face up underwater.with the dog looking down at him helplessly. The overall point here,is "what's the point of this film?" Maybe if the look and sound were all restored to a better quality I could understand it and enjoy it better? If the acting and direction had not been so bland? Probably not. I can only say that,seeing Heston work with the Shepard , the German Shepard's "acting" and the incredible scene of the thundering,circling herd were the most interesting things shown here. I can,for these 3 things only,give the movie two stars. (END)

Call of the Wild, The (1972) *** (out of 4) A house dog is stolen from its owner and sold to a group of men who abuse him and eventually sell him as a sled dog. The sled owner (Charlton Heston) soon grows attached to the dog and we see their adventures in Alaska, which includes hunting for gold. This version of the famous story isn't as good as the 1935 version with Clark Gable and Loretta Young but this one does remain entertaining throughout. There are some major problems with the film that keeps it from being great but even through there are problems there's still a wonderfully touching movie here. What doesn't work is that the film really appears to have originally been three hours and then edited down to its 100-minute running time. I say this because there seems to be some rough editing and there are various parts of the film that seem rushed. This becomes rather annoying but the real star here is the dog. The dog used in the film does a remarkable job and really makes his role a real character and not just an animal doing tricks. Heston gives a pretty good performance and his actions with the dog are a lot of fun to watch but there are moments when the actor goes over the top and brings a few laughs, which certainly wasn't intended. Michele Mercier is good as Heston's lover and George Eastman makes for a great villain. The film was shot in Finland, which leads to some terrific visuals and the movie remains entertaining all the way through. The love story between Heston and his dog is beautifully captured but some should be warned that there are a lot of scenes of animal abuse, which will certainly bother some.

Charlton Heston as John plays a prospector along with Raimund Harmstorf . They are at the right time and in the right location to live numerous adventures . The picture chronicles the ¨Gold Rush¨ days of Alaska from Klondike territory and in the Dawson City center . Heston finds and befriends a German shepherd dog called ¨Buck¨ which saves and protects to John and his partner . The dog rescues them from dangers and leads throughout snowy landscapes . But Buck is robbed and is taken by various masters , being forced to pull a snow sled.The movie is based on Jack London novel -in part autobiographic but in his real life was prospector- , narrating the story about the gold discovery , people came to find the precious mineral through the freeze ways and corruption , violence and ambition that came with them . Authentic stars film are the animals as there appear : Huskys , pack of wolves and of course the magnificent German shepherd named Buck . The best of the movie are the marvelous , spectacular snowy outdoors , being stunningly photographed by John Cabrera in places as Finland , Norway and Spain . Atmospheric , evocative score by the Italian composer Carlo Rustichelli . The picture is one of various renditions based on Jack London novels along with ¨ The White Fang ¨ , creating the sub-genre about the Alaska adventures . The film is a European co-production by Harry Alan Towers with actors of several nations ( German as Raimund Harmstorf ; French as Michele Mercier ; English as Maria Rohm ; Spanish as Juan Luis Galiardo , Sancho Gracia and Italian as George Eastman or Luigi Montefiori). Charlton Heston said about this one resulted to be his worst film but I think is entertaining and watchable although mediocre for its poor direction and weak plot which hamper this familiar story .

If you're looking for a classic piece of literature transferred to film, and you see this 1972 "version" of Jack London's classic on the kiddies' shelf at the library (no self-respecting video store should stock this thing), move on. This is, quite simply, the most incompetent film I've ever seen.I'm not sure if it's the wooden acting, the muddy dubbing, the pinking-shears editing, the outtake-quality colors, or the lack of any relationship between the plot in the book and the movie, but my only question for the people who made this Mystery Science Theatre 3000-grade garbage is, "Were you aware you were making cinematic doggy poo?" After reading the book, my seventh-grade English class was very interested in seeing a film version of the book. It didn't take long for one of the more eloquent 13 year olds to ask, "Can Jack London's family sue the people who made this movie?" I wanted to say, "Yes, a class action lawsuit!"