No.323 : White Fang (1991)

 

White Fang (1991) at the IMDb

Jack London’s book ‘White Fang’ has had half a dozen movie adaptations and you’ll be pleased to learn that we are just going to have a look at one of them. This review is for the 1991 version starring Ethan Hawke and directed by ‘Grease’ helmer, Randal Kleiser. It’s a Disney adaptation and probably the safest and most family friendly of the bunch. It does have a couple of slightly upsetting moments that may cause the five year olds in our readership a small pause before they decide that it’s OK, no one has really been hurt.

The film is set at the time of the Klondike gold rush. Hawke plays ‘Jack’ - presumably named after the author as there is no one of that name in the book - one of many prospectors seeking their fortune. Jack is heading to his father’s gold claim and is a complete novice who gets robbed as soon as he arrives in town by Ajax out of ‘The Warriors’. He manages to traverse the steep mountain pass that leads to the gold fields and hooks up with his Dad’s old pals, Largo off ‘Never Say Never Again’ and poor old Seymour Cassel who plays a wolf banquet.

The two journeymen gold hunters take Hawke on their trip to bury a dead colleague at his favourite spot. As they set off we also witness a pack of wolves killing a rabbit - one claims a paw which it takes back to its lair to feed to its young cub. We later learn that this is a wolf/dog hybrid is of course, our old pal, White Fang.

The lads manage to spill the body into a frozen lake and lose most of their gear. They are being stalked by a pack of wolves and soon Cassel becomes their dinner. Largo and Jack form a bond and soon they are at Dad’s old claim. Meanwhile White Fang has grown up and is being looked after by native American, Grey Beaver - I think I’ve seen that film.

Grey Beaver gets conned out of White Fang by Ajax who starts to fight the dog/wolf for cash just as Jack strikes it rich. Can White Fang and Jack get together and forge the bond we always suspected they had?

This was a decent offering that had a few moments that made me forget it was a schmaltzy Disney interpretation, of this tough frontier text. I liked it when the blue corpse escaped from the coffin and dragged Jack under the ice of the frozen lake - bet that gave a few kids nightmares. To be fair the animal action betrayed any sense that the film was realistic with the central casting animals failing to deliver a drop of blood. The action was OK though, with a grizzly fight being the most impressive.

The mining was well done and my experiences of watching a dozen seasons of ‘Gold Rush’ meant that I enjoyed the proto-trommel and shaker beds. The cast were serviceable but clearly second string to the animals and scenery. Hawke didn’t convince as Jack and his relationship with the dog seemed perfunctory at best. It would have worked better if he had raised the wolf as a cub rather than just picking it up after a dog fight.

Largo went through the motions and Cassel became a motion just 20 minutes in. The baddies were scenery chewing bad, although they did exhibit most of the ‘boo hiss’ qualities their thinly written panto baddie roles deserved. The murderous showdown ended tamely with Ajax getting a bite on the bum for all of his nefarious deeds.

The gold strike seemed somewhat unlikely as did the cast's plans to bugger off to San Francisco the day after striking it rich.

I never bought into the boy and wolf bond, but the film was well shot and hit enough marks to allow it a pass on the ‘turned out well in the end’ front.

Best Bit - Grizzly Attack - ‘W’ Rating : 16/23

No.308 : Wolf Totem (2015)

Wolf Totem at the IMDb

Who’s up for some Chinese language period cinema? Just me then!

Made in 2015, ‘Wolf Totem’ is set in 1967, two years after the cultural revolution in China. Two students are sent from Peking to teach the Mongolian natives Mandarin for two years. Could have been worse, they might have gotten Port Glasgow.

A guy from the Ministry of Production dumps our lads with an old guy from a nomadic tribe. He tells him to put them to work and he’ll be back in a couple of years. And he doesn’t even leave the wi-fi password.

We flash-forward six months with our guys settling in and becoming able horsemen. One gets a bit cocky and goes off the path only to be confronted by a pack of wolves. He gets away by clanging his stirrups, but we’re pretty sure that lead wolf gave him a pass.

Our man develops a fascination for wolves and resolves to find a cub that he can rear and study. The locals are not so keen, what with the wolves eating all their sheep. The fine balance between people and wolves is disturbed when the tribesmen steal all of the wolves’ food. I don’t know if this is true, but it was a good scene where the wolves stash all their dead gazelles in a snowdrift to eat later in the winter. This has happened from generations and the humans have always left enough for the wolves. This doesn’t suit the man from the ministry however, and he orders the people to grab the lot, despite warnings from the wise old man in charge.

Of course the old man is right and the wolves get their own back by driving a herd of prize horses into a freezing lake where they all drown. Despite it being tit for tat the ministry sets out to kill all wolves by hunting down and killing the cubs. Our hero manages to save one and starts to bring it up, despite local hostility.

The nomadic tribe are ordered to work with another more settled group and things start to go badly wrong. The old man is injured by a bomb set to kill wolves and a child is hurt when he gets a bit too close to the slowly growing cub. With the wolves now starving all out war is declared (not literally) and when the wolves have a sheep eating party , the ministry resolves to kill off the wolves for good.

Can any survive and can the symbiotic relationship between man and wolf be restored?

This was an excellent film with cracking cinematography and animal action. It was almost like a Disney film, but with more killing and death. It is subtitled but you’d probably manage without them as the plot is a pretty simple progress v nature narrative. The wolves were shown sympathetically and they are wonderful creatures. That said, I could see why the villagers thought them to be a pain in the arse.

There was a tacked on romance story that I didn’t buy into but the Mongolian grass people getting royally shafted at every turn was an interesting watch. Real wolves were used in the production but they did look a bit stage school in some scenes. You could tell they slowed the film down and adjusted the lighting to show them at their best. And why not? It was their show and they provided great entertainment and a bit of learning too.

I wasn’t keen on the cub killing, which involved them being chucked them in the air, and the cornered wolf committing suicide rather than being caught seemed a bit daft.

There was a lot of focus on the spiritual, with the God Tennger getting most of the credit, with some fancy cloud work letting us know that everything will be all right.

The production was lavish with some cracking set pieces including a lake of frozen horses which was fantastically realised.

Overall, not one for the squeamish but an interesting parable on the age old ‘man v beast’ issue with plenty of scenes that will stick with you.

Best Bit : Horse Lake 20/23

No.58 : Wolf (1994)

 Wolf at the IMDb

On the way home from clinching a book deal in Vermont Jack Nicholson smashes his Volvo into a jaywalking wolf. Rather than drive off or hit it with a tyre iron he goes to see if it’s OK, and gets bitten for his trouble.

He quickly notices changes in himself such as hairy hands and improved vision and hearing. Just as well really, as his firm is being taken over and his job is on the line. He learns he is to be marginalized by new owner Christopher Plummer’s incoming regime, that sees slimy subordinate James Spader promised Jack’s job. At a party at the boss’ house, where he learns his fate, he meets Plummer’s daughter the slightly dull Michelle Pfeiffer.

Whereas he‘d have previously accepted his fate, he goes on the attack and threatens to take all the good authors from the firm and upset the stock price. Impressed by this Plummer agrees to Jack‘s demands while Jack himself is starting to lose time and wake up covered in blood. Suspecting something wolfy is going on, Jack meets up with an aged expert and begins to harness his new powers. When he finds his wife is seeing Spader he gives him a bite and her the boot, but things go pear shaped when the wife turns up dead.

The police suspect Jack but he was in bed with Michelle at the time of the killing - or was he? As the police move in we discover who the killer is and who else has the hairy hands syndrome. Can Jack find the happiness that he’s being denied in the non-lupine world?




‘Wolf’ is an OK distraction but it is so predictable and derivative that I wouldn’t recommend it. The plot essentially follows that of ‘An American Werewolf in London’ with the midnight hunts and enhanced senses all present and correct. I liked the idea of his new found talents being transferred to the dog eat dog business world but this wasn’t developed in favour of the dull romantic angle.





The big reveal at the end was seen a mile off and the whole thing was unsatisfying. The transformation scenes were very poor with yellow contacts and big side boards being all we get. The wolves can jump great heights but this just looked like basic wire work.

Nicholson is always watchable but this definitely falls into the playing himself category. There was no chemistry with Pfeiffer, and Spader just played his usual slime bag character. You do get some Cybil Fawlty for your money, so it’s not all bad.

‘Wolf’ offers nothing new in an already cluttered genre and you have to wonder why they bothered.Not to worry it’s finished nowooooo!

Best Bit :Michelle’s short skirt bitch fight
‘W’ Rating : 11/23