The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild (2020) is adapted from Jack London's 1903 novel and tries to solve the book's hardest problem: the protagonist is a dog. Buck is a large dog living comfortably in California. He is stolen, taken to Alaska and sold as a sled dog. From there the book strips his domestication away layer by layer until he leaves the human world entirely. The most argued about choice is that Buck is entirely computer generated. On set he was performed by a motion actor named Terry Notary and a dog was applied over him. The result did not convince: Buck's face carries human expression, which runs against the whole idea of the novel. London's Buck does not reason, he senses. John Thornton, played by Harrison Ford, is a far larger role than in the book; the film has given him a story of loss. The book's harshness has also been softened. The novel deals with death and starvation directly; the film pulls it back to a family rating. It cost a great deal and lost money. It runs 100 minutes. Good for: family films, adventure, and animal stories. Fine with children. Less good for: readers of the book may be seriously disappointed, and there is animal death and violence.