BandicootBurn Based on the novel with the same name by American author Jack London, the film follows the book's eponymous character, a wild wolf-dog hybrid. The story begins with our star Jack (played by Ethan Hawke) who is searching for his deceased father's claim in the 1890's. Most of the film involves Jack and his new partner Alex (played by Klaus Maria Brandauer) overcoming various challenges and hostility from both animals and people until they do eventually make it to his father's claim and the journey was well worth it. The acting is very solid from everyone all involved and even though at times it can be quite violent (for the animals at least) you can't help but be astounded by the production values and amount of time they must have spent training these animals up to produce such realistic fight scenes.Finally, this is definitely an enjoyable film to watch for both children and adults with some of the most beautiful scenic photography I have ever seen!

ShootingShark In the 1890's, Jack heads to the Yukon territory to investigate his late father's gold claim. He finds a beautiful but harsh and unforgiving environment, and meets White Fang, a wolf/dog half-breed with whom his destiny will intertwine ...I read Jack London's wonderful book White Fang when I was ten years old and found it a very profound experience. Unlike most animal stories, it does not anthropomorphise its protagonist into a moral or heroic figure, but rather tries to present a narrative realistically from an animal's perspective (as Richard Adams did in his books later). This to me was a real revelation; nature is presented as cruel and relentless, there is no room for stupidity or weakness, yet White Fang's courage and nobility come from his inner strength as well as his physical prowess. It's just a really great tale, a heady mixture of action, travelogue and frontier history about man's relationship with nature. This Disney adaptation abridges and rearranges some of the events but remains extremely faithful to the novel's essence and doesn't shy away from the more brutal and heartbreaking elements of the story. On a technical level it is excellent; shot in the Alaskan boroughs of Haines and Skagway where the novel is set (and where London was inspired to write it), with beautiful landscapes by British cameraman Tony Pierce-Roberts. The countryside, with its ice floes, pine forests, majestic mountains and sparkling creeks is not just part of the story, it really is the story. Combined with Basil Poledouris' fantastic score it makes the far-off place and time come to life with breathtaking immediacy and beauty. There's another reason however why this film should not be missed and it's one of the cast. The human actors are all fine - Hawke is a good goodie and Remar is a good baddie, but the real star is Jed the dog, who plays the eponymous hero. Jed, like the part he plays, was a real life half-breed, part Alaskan Malamute, part wolf, and unlike most animal actors, who for the most part do tricks on cue, actually gives a real performance. He's very still, and behind his eyes he's both wild and intelligent, always thinking. There are amazing scenes, like the one where he builds a trust with Jack by gradually coming closer to him, shot in two or three incredible takes, and he's an incredibly beautiful animal to look at, but he does more than that, somehow inhabiting the character completely. White Fang is an outcast; dogs hate him because of his wolf half, people recoil in fear and yet he doesn't have a pack to run with. He's alone and his loneliness mirrors Jack's and ours. Jed somehow embodies all of this, partly via his training and the filmmakers' skill, but mostly through simply being. If you don't think animals can act, check this out and you will be converted. For bonus points, there's also a great scene featuring Bart The Bear, a huge Kodiak grizzly who is memorable in several other films (notably Legends Of The Fall and The Edge). A truly great family adventure movie from the pen of one of America's greatest writers - please read the book too (as well as London's earlier The Call Of The Wild) - which thrills and entertains us but also gently reminds us always to respect the beauty and savagery of our world.

Ezra Lunel Set in the frozen wilderness and frontier towns of the Yukon Territory at the height of Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890's, Randal Kleiser's "White Fang" (1991) is above all a story of love and friendship between two young orphans: Jack Conroy, played by a fresh-faced but precociously talented Ethan Hawke, and White Fang, a lone gray wolf.Loosely based on the classic Jack London novel of the same name, "White Fang" is as eager and hopeful a film as Jack is when he touches shore in the Yukon Valley. But no sooner is Jack mugged by reality in the shape of a sly and malicious Beauty Smith (played a finely villainous James Remar) and his two cronies, than Kleiser begins to unveil the unyielding, unpitying hardness of nature, starting with the shooting death of a she-wolf, mother to the wolf pup White Fang.The story of the film is a journey in more ways than one, and Jack's journey closely parallels White Fang's in spirit and tone. Both are recently orphaned survivors, vital spirits in a barren landscape. Jack's challenges start as soon as he lands: a new land, both harsh and majestic, with potentially unlimited wealth awaiting the lucky and the industrious. The difficult conditions are compounded by the reason for Jack's sojourn: though he claims to want only to work his father's claim, he clearly, ultimately, seeks to redeem his father's death.As their stories progress and Jack and White Fang eventually find each other, their fraternal/paternal relationship seems to take the place of the their absent parents. They care and look out for each other and at different times, rescue each other from certain death. Kindred spirits, both were forced to grow up quickly and they take on the odds of survival with pluck and, mostly, good humor.The photography of "White Fang" matches the beauty of the arctic landscape: underground lakes and grottos, ice caves and vast expanses of snow framed by distant mountain ranges. Cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts's impressive use of the wide shot – in some instance with the sled team slicing across the screen, perfectly channel the adventurist spirit of the time and the place. Like Jack, it's hard for us not to be completely swept away by the wide open scenes of nature at its purest. Pierce-Robert's dramatic crane shots, from slow, intimate creeps to quickly rising booms are also beautifully choreographed.According to Kleiser, the film was storyboard from first shot to last. Given that so many scenes involved wolves or wolf-dogs of varying degrees of tameness and training (as well as an astonishing cameo by Bart the Bear in a fight scene) this was a wise decision. Because of the limitations inherent in filming under these conditions, Kleiser bravely relied on the pure visual grammar of film language to tell the characters' story. His economy of shots, matching eye lines, composition and distribution of elements in the screen space were carefully thought out and intelligently, if not painstakingly, executed.On a personal level, I found watching "White Fang" to be a touching, even moving experience, and only very momentarily sentimental. In fact, the director's reserve in not allowing the material to move into maudlin sentimentality is to be admired and appreciated. This reserve is the mark of a great observer.Successful sound design elements also contribute to the film's faithful and creative re-creation of its sensory world: at tense moments like when the ice is cracking under Jack's feet, or when we hear a heartbeat-like thudding in more hallucinatory scenes, as when Gray Beaver of the Han tribe finds little White Fang caught in a game trap. I also very much enjoyed the majestic soundtrack, with its resonant symphonic score: horns, strings, and unusually, wind instruments working together in resonant and harmonic ways to make Jack and White Fang's story truly great storytelling.Finally, the film's faithful and evocative re-creations of the historical era, from the stock photos and maps of the opening credits to the impressive outdoor sets of the Klondike towns, combined with a refined instinct for storytelling, magnificent locations, well-directed actors (including a small, delightful role by the great Seymour Cassel!) and disciplined choreography make "White Fang" a great film experience.

northumbia I just read White Fang and I found it awesome. London is the writer of the Yukon and the Gold Rush. When I start watching this movie I just thought that it must have a lot of twist to be a good movie. The book was really wild: the famine, the attacks of White Fang to the dogs at the station, are not here... It will be too cruel to the movie screen and I guess impossible without hurting the animals. Instead, you will find here a kind movie, with action, with a spectacular scenarios, with this beautiful wolf/dog, with great music and with the London adventure at his best. Inspired in White Fang, the movie carry us trough the life of Jack becoming a man, and a simple and moving relationship between the man and his dog. There are scenes that were just great: the amazing dog combat, in this point both movie and book are just awesome.Enjoy!