Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Call of the Wild: Don’t bother.

Resident liberal? I vote pro-life pro-gun and pro environment in that order and believe every individual should be equal under the law, free to pursue excellence and rated upon their own personal merits, if that makes me a Liberal so be it.

Anyways, while I’m complaining about the movie I might as well observe that it bothered me that the Black guy, who gets about as much screen time as Harrison Ford, Is kindly, wise and comical, and lives in a tent with his generically indigenous girlfriend, hardly the message I would want to convey to the kids at home this movie is aimed.

They are even shown sharing a bed albeit fully dressed

Disney is a disease.

Disappointing. All these great large screen TV's, and content continues to decline.
A really good new movie seems about as rare as an electable democratic presidential candidate.

After emancipation, thousands of newly freed blacks went west and added to the number of freed slaves in TX. The west was being settled and ranches were badly in need of cowboys. The freed slaves fit the bill nicely. A lot of them also joined the army. They were called Buffalo soldiers.

Actually, I found the Black guy more believable because he was African, I knew some kindly, good natured people much like him in Africa. And I also know Black folks were represented everywhere on our Frontiers, these same people far removed in mannerisms and outlook from any ‘Hood culture.

It was the context and the obvious message of it all that troubled me.

Yes, along with all the animals. Looks stupid. You can tell from the trailers on TV.

I should mention that most of the cowboys, both black and white, were just that - cowboys. They tended cattle. The tv westerns were just fiction. Real cowboys cowboyed. They all carried guns but most couldn't shoot worth a darn. Most of them couldn't afford the ammo and the practice time to get even remotely proficient. Quick draws were almost non-existent and shooting from the hip? What a joke.
Any of them who went to the Klondike would have likely been hard working miners, whether prospecting for themselves or hiring out to work in other mines.

I can see that happening. The slaves have all been freed in 1865, these guys can for the first time, go where they want to go, and they can wear a gun! Now that would be freedom. So they went out west and herded cattle.
Don't see many of 'em in our western movies.

Just from the trailers, yea it looked that way. Looked cheesy

Yep...you nailed it!

Birdy and I have a friend who is on history staff at Texas Tech univ. He does buff soldier at ft. Concho. He is an awesome guy. And knows his schidt! I’ve also done several other eras of living history with him too. He is quite the character. It’s amazing what he can pull out of his small wedge tent!!! We always ask him how the hell he gets all that stuff in there! Like Fibber Magee’s closet!!!

It's not at all far fetched. A black frenchman running mail in real life is entirely possible. The book is fiction and London didn't assign any race to the man. If London wanted the man to be an Indian he would have said so but for the rest of his characters he said nothing. A black is entirely possible.

Read the book over 60 years ago, when I was maybe 10 or 12. Close enough for me. Read so many books in the school library, tended to get in trouble over not doing homework and other bits of mandated crap. London, Jim Kjelgaard and most of Zane Grey's mythologies, were favorites back then.

Ain't been inside a movie theater in years and sure as hell wasn't gonna break the habit for this POS?

Any Jack London story could not be told today in his own words. The harsh realities of life and the day to day struggles in those environs does not fit the 21st century agenda. People dying because they are stupid will not be tolerated.

Was there a scene in the book where someone fell into a lake, got out, and then froze to death? I think I read that in high school.

Can you see them making a movie from Batard?

Best I remember from the story, the chick and her two male companions eventually all fell thru the ice and all succumbed due to their stupidity.

Edit. I believe her name was Mercedes. Been about 10 years since my last read.

Some people are shocked to know that Sandwich Islanders aka "Kanakas" we’re employed in the fur trade in the NW early on like 1810-11 ish. Lots of em!

With Jamie Fox as Black Leclere.

Nope, Jamie Fox would bring in modern ‘Hood speak, Most any African could do it better, or Denzel Washington.