Author: tristanlindsay

Jack London’s Call of the Wild opens on a bucolic countryside with a protagonist who in many ways is much like myself. I mean, save for the fact that he’s a dog, there’s almost no difference. Yes friends, Buck is a Saint Bernard who’s been domesticated. He’s managed to scratch out for himself a pretty cushy life in California (I live elsewhere, but still). He’s well taken care of, a little soft around the edges, but when Buck gets sold to pay off a minor character’s gambling debt, the story takes off. You see Buck is so well taken care of that he has become physically quite impressive, again much like myself.

It is the Klondike Gold Rush and dogs that can be trained to pull the sleds are being bought and sold at a high premium. Buck is trained as a sled dog and eventually learns how to work and survive. There is a pretty vicious fight between Buck and the leader of the sled dogs and after a series of harrowing adventures quite a bond also develops between Buck and a wolf from one of the local wolf packs. It is probably no secret that Buck must constantly walk the line between domestication and the titular Call of the Wild and we, the readers, are ping-ponged back and forth between which path we think he might choose.

Despite most of the time being cute, animal stories are the foundation of many famous careers. Brian Jacques, Felix Salten, and Walt Disney to name a few, but Jack London’s career is actually quite an adventure tale as well, though it is possible that much of it is puffed up to make him seem more adventurous than he really was.  Self-educated, London actually spent most of his time in a local tavern picking up odd jobs such as being an oyster pirate. He also participated in the famed Klondike gold rush in the Yukon where a lot of his most popular stories are set.

The other strange thing about The Call of the Wild and Jack London specifically is that he was often accused of plagiarism. The creepy thing is that this was not the only time London was accused of such an act. He was also accused of plagiarizing The Story of Ab for his prehistoric novel Before Adam. Even more disturbing is the fact that London did not even bother to deny these charges. In fact, he boldly stated that another book My Dogs in the Northland was “inspiration” for The Call of the Wild. It however appears to be more than inspiration as many of the dogs names are the same or similar and some of the scenes and sequences match up. Even some of the phrasing is the same. It’s possible that number  seventy on our list should actually be My Dogs in the Northland by Edgerton Young instead of The Call of the Wild. That being said, London actually has the better book, so despite the fact that he kinda stole it. It remains where it is on our count down.

Note: Because its hero is a dog, The Call of the Wild is sometimes sold as a kiddy story or a young adult novel, but with its casual violence and vague allusions to the Joseph story from The Bible, Call of the Wild is actually quite grown up and a fine addition to any adventurer’s library.

Next up … number 69.

There is a scene in House of Flying Daggers where Jin, played by Andy Lau, is being attacked by one of “the general’s” men. He is armed only with a bow and arrow and there is no good shot because his attacker is carrying a shield big enough to hid his entire body behind it. The bodies of the rest of the general’s men lie strewn about on the field of battle, their shields were of no help to them. And yet we the audience are not exactly sure how Jin is going to get the arrow through the shield of the man coming toward him. The solution is, like the rest of the House of flying Daggers, both ingenious and practical. He fires, but the arrow seems to be off its mark. It appears to be headed for one of the already dead soldiers. The oncoming attacker appears to be safe until Jin’s arrow bounces off the deceased soldier’s shield and is deflected into the oncoming soldier knocking him off his feet, deftly circumnavigating the soldier’s now useless shield. This is a scene that is indicative of The House of Flying Daggers as a whole.

Released in 2004 this movie hit at the height of America’s brief obsession with a genre called wuxia. Which basically means “awesome kung fu” in English. The trend was started by an earlier film on our list the brilliantly titled Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Daggers was directed by Yimou Zhang who is a famous foreign director famous for directing famous foreign films. One of which (Ju Dou) I actually saw in film class once, which basically goes to show you just how useless film class is. The one thing people always say about Yimou Zhang is that he has a fantastic gift for color. Which amazingly, is true this time and it is put on display in many sequences in Flying Daggers. And even more amazing is that he doesn’t fill the screen up so much with color that it overpowers the rest of the film.

The plot is fairly basic. Two warriors are escaping back to the secret fortress of the Flying Daggers, which is basically a band of rebels who rob from the rich and give to the poor. Sound familiar? Even though the plot is simple there are plenty of twists and turns. The two warriors are a man and a woman so is it any wonder they fall in love? Though one of them is blind they are both incredible masters of martial arts, which is good for us, because just as you think the movie is getting bogged down in the love angle. The action cuts in and takes the film for a dance. The ending is a tad over-dramatic, but the direction is crisp and the action is some of the best-choreographed work I’ve seen, even better than the aforementioned Crouching Tiger, even better than the Matrix, but still one below Jackie Chan.

Next up … 73!