Some movies are emotional gut punches about the trials of the human condition. Others make you laugh until you start crying. And others…get by with Harrison Ford talking to a CGI dog. I wouldn’t call this Call of the Wild, the 7th movie adaptation of Jack London’s novel, Lucky Number Slevin, but it’s irritating marketing scheme can’t totally overwhelm the power of Buck and his personal journey.
Buck, for those who don’t know, is a dog: the main character of London’s novel, and the book is written entirely from Buck’s point of view. In the movie, John Thornton (Ford) narrates Buck’s incredible adventure, which takes him from the lazy life in California to the Alaskan wilderness during the Gold Rush. There Buck encounters all sorts of challenges, including a wide range of owners, like Thornton, Perrault (Omar Sy), and Hal (Dan Stevens).
The marketing machine for this Call of the Wild has decided that this is a kids movie. As such, the truly vicious world of Jack London’s Buck is really softened and beats the viewer over the head with what is happening every step of the way. Example: after Buck gets lured into a dark, cramped crate in the middle of the night, John Thornton, clever man that he is, points out to us that “Buck was scared.” Let me get this straight…the happy dog who’s lived free isn’t happy being caged? Thanks Harrison! Indiana Jones for the win! But that’s not all ladies and gents. The filmmakers slapped a green suit on a dude so they could give the dog every facial expression a human has, so we are 100,000,000% sure that Buck is happy. Or sad. Or scared. Or whatever. With Harrison right, there, telling us what Buck is thinking. Whoever coined the phrase “Show don’t tell” would set this screenplay on fire.
But thankfully, the essence of London’s novel mostly remains, albeit sanitized for kids. The metaphorical call of the wild is rendered in an easy digestible way that makes all audience members understand what Buck’s feeling even before Harrison Ford spoon feeds us like baby birds. The best parts of the novel are kept in tact, especially the terrific scenes sledding across Alaska, where Buck learns about what a pack is and how to lead a pack of wolves. As Buck goes deeper and deeper into the beautiful Pacific Northwest landscape, we see him learn who his true self is, and what that call of the wild actually means with minimal voiceover interference. Fans of the novel know they’re not probably going to do the book’s ending, but they also don’t cop out 100%, really giving stakes to the relationship Buck and John Thornton develop over the story.
There are worse family films out there than The Call of the Wild. If anything, I hope this movie gives kids an interest in the book that inspired it. Jack London’s novel is one of the great American novels of all time, and hopefully one of those kids will grow up, become a filmmaker, and get Netflix to finance their adaptation, initiating new interest in another generation for Buck’s timeless story.