White Fang | |
---|---|
Directed by | Randal Kleiser |
Screenplay by | Jeanne Rosenberg Nick Thiel David Fallon |
Based on | White Fang by Jack London |
Produced by | Markay Powell |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Tony Pierce-Roberts |
Edited by | Lisa Day |
Music by | Basil Poledouris Hans Zimmer (additional music) |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 107 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $14 million [1] |
Box office | $41 million |
White Fang is a 1991 American northern period adventure drama film directed by Randal Kleiser, and starring Ethan Hawke, Klaus Maria Brandauer, and Seymour Cassel. Based on Jack London's novel of the same name, the film tells the story of the friendship between a young Klondike gold prospector and a wolfdog. White Fang is portrayed by a wolfdog, Jed, who also appeared in such films as The Thing (1982) and The Journey of Natty Gann (1985). The film was released on January 18, 1991, by Buena Vista Pictures. A sequel to the film, White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf , was released in 1994.
In 1896, during the Klondike Gold Rush, a young explorer named Jack Conroy arrives in Alaska from San Francisco to look for his deceased father's mining claim. He meets Clarence "Skunker" Thurston and Alex Larson, two mushers who reluctantly agree to guide him. While on their journey, they are stalked by a wolf pack. One night, while resting at a campfire, a wolf lures one of the sled dogs away from the group. Another wolf then chases the dog into the woods. Skunker tries to save his dog and is killed by the pack. Later that night, the wolves return but are scared off by Jack and Alex using burning branches. The following morning, the wolves attack the two men, but they are saved when another sled team arrives. In the ensuing fight, a female wolf is mortally shot. The wolf hobbles back to her den, and her cub remains by her side. She eventually dies, leaving the pup to fend for himself. Jack and Alex reach a town where they plan to stay for the winter. A band of Native Americans, meanwhile, find the pup, and the chief, realizing he is a wolfdog (a hybrid of a wolf and dog) from the color of his teeth, names him White Fang.
As spring comes, Jack and Alex resume their quest, but stop off at the Native Americans' settlement. The chief explains that White Fang has been raised to obey, not to be friendly, but Jack seeks to change that. Jack's chance comes when he is attacked by a grizzly bear, who chases him until he takes cover under a woodpile. White Fang, seeing Jack in danger, intervenes and defends him from the bear, leading to him having a standoff with the animal which ends with the bear leaving. Afterwards, Jack and Alex later leave the settlement. Not long after, White Fang is unfairly traded to Beauty Smith, a sadistic dogfighter who previously stole Jack's money; he blackmails the Native American for the wolfdog, saying that ownership of a wild animal is considered illegal. Smith and his gang train and abuse White Fang into becoming a ferocious killing machine in order to enter him into illegal dogfights. White Fang eventually meets his match in a brutal fight against a bulldog, but Jack happens upon the fight and intervenes in the nick of time. Having earlier reached his father's claim and begun the work of digging for gold, Jack returns with White Fang to the cabin, seeking to transform White Fang's vicious and territorial nature.
Jack's attempts to tame White Fang eventually succeed, and the two develop a close bond. Alex and Jack mine for gold, striking it rich with the help of White Fang. One morning, Jack travels to town to claim proper ownership of the gold when Luke notices White Fang. Seeking retaliation and planning to steal the gold for himself, Smith and his men attack the cabin site with guns and explosives. White Fang attacks Tinker, who accidentally discharges his gun and wounds Luke. White Fang eventually subdues Smith until he is ordered by Jack to back down. Jack and Alex take Smith and his men prisoner and force them at gunpoint to haul gold ore into town.
Alex and his wife, Belinda, offer to take Jack back to San Francisco, but he lets Jack know that city life is no place for a wolf; he must let White Fang run free in the wild. Though White Fang cannot understand why Jack is trying to leave him, Jack's efforts by using a stick (which is White Fang's worst fear when he was under Smith) succeed in scaring the wolfdog off. Later, just as he is boarding the ship back to San Francisco, Jack realizes that his rightful place is in the Yukon and decides to stay behind alone and live off the land; Alex congratulates him by saying that it is what Jack's father would have wanted. After a short time, White Fang returns to the cabin site and happily reunites with Jack.
The Walt Disney Company began filming on February 26, 1990, and officially ended this cinematic production five months later. Bart the Bear and the timber wolves were trained by professional employees of Heber City, Utah's Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife. [2]
The film received mixed-to-positive reviews. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 67% from 21 critics, with an average score of 5.80/10. The site's critical consensus states, "This glossy edition of White Fang shaves off the rough-hewn edges that made Jack London's epic story so distinct, but gorgeous photography and heartfelt performances make this an appealing adventure." [3] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100 based on 17 reviews, indicating “generally favorable reviews". [4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four. He described it as a film that "holds the natural world in wonder and awe", and praised the actors' "authentic and understated” performances as well as the "magnificently photographed” cinematography. [5]
The film was produced on a budget of $14 million and grossed $34,793,160 in the United States and Canada. The film was also a particularly large box office hit in France where it had 3,501,373 admissions and a gross of over 35 million French Franc ($6 million), becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of 1991. [6] [7]
Klaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor and director. He is also a professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar.
Archibald Stansfeld Belaney, commonly known as Grey Owl, was a popular writer, public speaker and conservationist. Born an Englishman, in the latter years of his life he passed as half-Indian, claiming he was the son of a Scottish man and an Apache woman. With books, articles and public appearances promoting wilderness conservation, he achieved fame in the 1930s. Shortly after his death in 1938, his real identity as the Englishman Archie Belaney was exposed. He has been called one of the first pretendians.
The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck. The story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively more primitive and wild in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs. By the end, he sheds the veneer of civilization, and relies on primordial instinct and learned experience to emerge as a leader in the wild.
A wolfdog is a canine produced by the mating of a domestic dog with a gray wolf, eastern wolf, red wolf, or Ethiopian wolf to produce a hybrid.
White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London (1876–1916) about a wild wolfdog's journey to domestication in Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. First serialized in Outing magazine between May and October 1906, it was published in book form in October 1906. It is a companion novel to London's best-known work, The Call of the Wild (1903), which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.
The Clash of the Wolves is a 1925 American silent Western film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Directed by Noel M. Smith, the film stars canine actor Rin Tin Tin, Charles Farrell and June Marlowe. It was filmed on location in Chatsworth, California, and at what would later become the Joshua Tree National Park. It was transferred onto 16mm film by Associated Artists Productions in the 1950s and shown on television. A 35mm print of the film was discovered in South Africa and restored in 2003. In 2004, The Clash of the Wolves was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Bart the Bear was a male Kodiak bear best known for his numerous appearances in films, including The Bear, White Fang, Legends of the Fall, and The Edge. He was trained by animal trainers Doug and Lynne Seus of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife, Inc., in Heber City, Utah.
The Giant of Thunder Mountain is a 1991 drama film starring Richard Kiel and Noley Thornton. Bart the Bear also appeared in the movie. The screenplay was jointly written by Richard Kiel, Chrystle Fiedler, and Tony Lozito. It was directed by James W. Roberson.
White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf is a 1994 American Northern adventure film directed by Ken Olin, and starring Scott Bairstow, Alfred Molina, and Geoffrey Lewis. Based on characters created by Jack London, it is a sequel to the 1991 White Fang. Filming entirely took place in Aspen, Colorado as well as British Columbia, Canada's Metro Vancouver region. Released in theaters by Walt Disney Pictures on April 14, 1994, it was later released on VHS on October 19, 1994, by Walt Disney Home Video.
The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story is a 1998 American adventure film directed by Nick Marck, produced by Mark H. Orvitz, and written by José Rivera and Jim Herzfeld. It is the third film adaptation by The Walt Disney Company of the Mowgli stories from The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling. It stars Brandon Baker, and features the voice work of Brian Doyle-Murray, Eartha Kitt, Clancy Brown, Peri Gilpin, and Sherman Howard.
Wolves of the North is a 1924 American Northern drama film serial directed by and starring William Duncan. This serial is considered to be a lost film.
The Legend of White Fang is an animated television series based on the 1906 novel White Fang by Jack London. The show focuses on the main dog protagonist and a young human companion, 12-year-old female Wendy Scott, in the place of the novel's male trail guide, Weedon Scott. Spanning 26 episodes for one season.
White Fang is a 1973 Italian Northern adventure film directed by Lucio Fulci and produced by Harry Alan Towers. The screenplay by Roberto Gianviti was based on Jack London's 1906 novel White Fang. The film, starring Franco Nero, Fernando Rey and Virna Lisi, gained great commercial success and generated an official and several unofficial sequels.
Challenge to White Fang is a 1974 Italian Northern adventure film directed by Lucio Fulci. It is a sequel to Fulci's White Fang (1973), as part of a trend inspired by Call of the Wild (1972), which was a surprise hit in Italy. Two German productions in this trend were Hellhounds of Alaska and Cry of the Black Wolves, both directed by Harald Reinl.
Jed was a Pacific Northwestern American animal actor, known for his roles in the movies White Fang (1991), White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf (1994), The Journey of Natty Gann (1985), and The Thing (1982). He was born in 1977 and died in June 1995. He was a Vancouver Island wolf-Alaskan Malamute hybrid.
The White Fang is a 1946 Soviet children's adventure film directed by Aleksandr Zguridi.
Flight of the White Wolf is a 1990 anime film directed by Yosei Maeda.
White Fang is a 2018 animated film directed by Alexandre Espigares. Based on the 1906 book White Fang by Jack London, the film features the voices of Nick Offerman, Rashida Jones, Paul Giamatti, and Eddie Spears as natives of Alaska who, at different times, come to know White Fang, a free spirited and at times violent wolfdog who eventually bonds with Offerman's character, a gentle master named Weedon Scott. The film also features Dave Boat, Daniel Hagen, and Stephen Kramer Glickman in the original English version, and Virginie Efira, Raphaël Personnaz, and Dominique Pinon in the French dub.
White Fang is a 1925 American silent Western film directed by Laurence Trimble and featuring Theodore von Eltz, Ruth Dwyer, and Matthew Betz. It was produced by FBO Pictures as a starring vehicle for Strongheart, an Alsatian who appeared in a number of films during the decade. It is based on the 1906 novel White Fang by Jack London.