recommended

Excellent, a Must See

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The words 'Lucio Fulci' and 'children's film' aren't what you would regularly see very often, and when you add 'animals' to that, alarms bells start ringing. Now, Fulci doesn't really register on the old Italian Film Directors Who Kill Animals For Their Films List, unlike Umberto Lenzi, Ruggero Deodato, Sergio Martino and Antonio Margherriti, but these White Fang films, of which he made two, sail close to the wind. However, I'm also of the opinion that, judging by the above examples, if an Italian director did go out of their way to film an animal being hurt, they would include that in the film, and that does not happen here. That's a long way of saying that you could probably watch these films guilt free, although this supposedly family-orientated film does start with a bunch of dogs eating a deer carcass. Thus begins Fulci's take on the classic Jack London novel about a dog who is a wolf/dog or something who never stops barking. It takes place in the Klondike in Canada during the gold rush, where a bunch of prospectors live in the mining town of Dawson, run by villain Beauty Smith (John Steiner, the best thing in the film). These unheeding miners are being ripped off by Beauty, who also runs the local bar, and keeps the alcoholic priest (Fernando Rey) in place so that no fully functioning minister can expose his nefarious actions. Beauty therefore is miffed when a government man turns up to set up a mining commission, who also brings along writer Scot (Franco Nero), a man with principles who immediately finds himself up against Beauty, as well as giving a few of Beauty's men a sock on the jaw. A nun also arrives in town to set up a hospital, and add to that the Inuit fella who not only brings his sick son into town, but also seems to have a very protective dog, White Fang, who takes an instant dislike to Beauty's dog Satan. There's a lot of characters to follow and a lot of plot threads, but most of it revolves around either Beauty or White Fang, so that's not too bad. Basically, a group of folk start to gather against Beauty and usually White Fang steps in to sort things out. This being a children's film, naturally this involves characters being stabbed in the gut, or White Fang either fighting a dog, or being forced to fight a bear! This film is PG, apparently! I think he killed someone as well, come to think of it.The set design is rather outstanding for this one, so there must have been a bit of money behind the scenes for a change, as Fulci uses every chance he has to sweep the camera across the town of Dawson and the various crowds. It gives the film an epic feel and really helps bring the cold atmosphere of Canada to life. The main attraction here is John Steiner as Beauty Smith. He's so evil he even has a pencil-moustache, although he doesn't twirl it. He's snidey, snobby, sneery, hates everything, makes passes at women, double-crosses everybody he encounters and only shows the barest of humanity when he accidentally kills someone. It's a hard call to outdo Franco Nero onscreen but Steiner does it effortlessly. Although Nero kind of gets sidelined with all the sub plots to be honest.My son watched about two minutes of it (and of course he walked in on White Fang fighting Satan) and was disturbed by it. The two animal fights are bad enough (although it's obvious in the bear fight that someone in a bear suit was involved to a certain extent), but the knifing of someone in the guts would be too much to handle for most kids. If Fulci complained so much about being pigeonholed as a horror director, why do so many of his non-horror films end up in that category anyway? So, to sum up, I have no idea whether I liked this or not. Therefore I give it a seven, just like every other film I review.

This adventure movie is set in 1896 , on the Klondike region of Yukon, Canada . It has the wolf-dog named White Fang befriends an Indian boy and his father (Daniel Martin , A fistful of dollars) . Later on , the dog teams up a journalist (Franco Nero, Djanjo) along with an adventurer (Raimond Harmstorf) who arrive in the small gold town named Dawson City . There they find a priest (Fernando Rey, French Connection) , his daughter , a gorgeous saloon-girl (Carole Andre, Sandokan) and the nun Sister Evengelina (Virna Lisi, How to murder your wife) . The reporter and his faithful mate , the wolf-dog , attempt to stop the evildoer , an ambitious , snarling businessman (John Steiner, Tepepa) and hoodlum (Rik Battaglia) . They're deceiving by faking manner to the prospectors who are working in the Alaskan gold mines and to profit from them .It's a tepid and light-hearted adventure about known and classic novel by Jack London . Lumpy blend of adventures , action , villainy , though needlessly violent and aimed to young people . The talent of diverse and wasting casting is redeemed in part for the spectacular outdoors filmed on Austrian landscapes . Weak screenplay written by Peter Werbeck or Harry Allan Towers who produced in similar premise : 'Jack London's Call of the wild (directed by Ken Annakin and starred by Charlton Heston) . Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Carlo Rustichelli . The film is rated PG-13 (Parents guide) , because containing some violent scenes about killing , a cruel fighting between bear and dog and brutal biting . The motion picture is regularly directed by Lucio Fulci , a famous expert in gore and splatter (N.Y ripper , House outside cemetery , City of the Living dead) . Followed by an inferior sequel ¨The return of White Fang¨ (Fulci , 1974) with similar characters and actors . Other adaptations about Jack London's classic are : ¨White Fang(1991¨ by Randal Kleiser with Ethan Kawke as young prospector and Klaus Maria Brandauer and ¨The return of White Fang(1994¨ by Ken Olin with Scott Bairstow and once again Ethan Hawke .

The story has little to do with Jack London's original novel. I thought the acting was very unnatural, the dubbing was done very sloppily and the story itself contains a fairly large number of inconsistencies and loose ends. Apart from that, the pace of the movie was horrendously slow at some parts.

Based on the Jack London story, White Fang was well done. The main drawback is its violence. Lots of fighting and killing, including graphic scenes of shooting, stabbing and animals fighting. My young children (5 and 7) were upset by this. It is surprising that the video had a PG rating.Otherwise, acting was good, cinematography was excellent. English-language dubbing was a bit slipshod and noticeable.