The Call of the Wild
by Ken Annakin
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DVD details
Actor: Charlton Heston, George Eastman, Maria Rohm, Michèle Mercier, Raimund HarmstorfDirector: Ken Annakin
Writer: Federico De Urrutia
Writer: Harry Alan Towers
Writer: Hubert Frank
Writer: Jack London
Writer: Peter Yeldham
Writer: Tíbor Reves
Writer: Win Wells
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-12-17
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Good Times Video
DVD Reviews of The Call of the Wild
DVD Review: Heston Saves It from Being a Total... Well, You Know....
Summary: 2 Stars
Imagine my sense of serendipity when, having just finished reading Jack London's classic "Call of the Wild" with my 9-year-old, I found this DVD release on sale for a dollar! (Some company called Double D has just released a series of "classic" films, TV shows and cartoons at this rock-bottom price.) Well, let me say it was worth the buck (pun not intended), but just barely. My son enjoyed watching it, but mainly because he's just finished the book. He had fun pointing out the incosistencies with the book, too. (It only took a 9-year-old to figure that out.) First and foremost, John Thornton becomes the main character throughout the story, rather than near the end as in the book. (I guess Heston wanted a bigger part.) But enough about that. If it weren't for Heston (not my favorite actor, but by far the best one in the film), this wouldn't be worth the plastic it was burned on. The "international cast" (I've learned to beware of that label ever since watching those Robert Halmi miniseries fiascos on TV) are unknowns, and rightfully so, and the dubbed-in dialogue for the foreign-speaking actors is even worse. The soundtrack - early 70's bad electronic - is atrocious. And the DVD was apparently copied from a scratchy print. Lastly, as mentioned by other reviewers, this is not a film (or story, for that matter) for very young children. There is mild profanity and moderate violence, particularly the dogfights, which were so vicious that I hope "no animals were harmed in the making of this picture." It desrves at least a PG. But it is, apparently, the only version of the story on DVD (or VHS?). So if you really want a rather bowlderized version of a classic story for a dirt-cheap price, or if you'll watch Charlton Heston in anything, by all means buy it.
(P.S.: If you want to see a Jack London tale done well, buy or rent the 1991 film "White Fang", starring Ethan Hawke and Klaus Maria Brandauer.)
Description of The Call of the Wild
ACADEMY AWARD® winner Charlton Heston (Ben-Hur) heads an international cast as John Thornton in this adaptation of the classic novel by Jack London, famed author of The Sea Wolf and White Fang. Government mail carriers Thornton and Pete Smith (Raimund Harmstorf) take mail and supplies across the brutal Yukon wilderness from Skagway to Dawson City during the 1898 Klondike gold rush. An intelligent German Shepherd, Buck is stolen from his beloved owner in California and sold to John as a sled dog, whose loyalty to his new master is tested when John tries his own hand at prospecting. Praised by Leonard Maltin?s Movie & Video Guide for its "striking...scenery," this 1972 version of the family adventure was shot in Norway by Ken Annakin (The Swiss Family Robinson, The Longest Day).Bestsellers in DVD
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