Hacker Cinema
The Call of the Wild
2020 · Film · 100 min
Directed by Chris Sanders
Buck is a big-hearted dog whose blissful domestic life is turned upside down when he is suddenly uprooted from his California home and transplanted to the exotic wilds of the Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. As the newest rookie on a mail delivery dog sled team—and later its leader—Buck experiences the adventure of a lifetime, ultimately finding his true place in the world and becoming his own master.
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6 comments on Hacker News
It's rather subjective, though, no?
Having been in prison, I can tell you that being a Blood and having "certain books" in your locker is a "smash on sight" offense. The same could be said for the Aryan Brotherhood/Circle, and I'm sure for many other gangs.
There's a difference between "this one small group: local oklahoma school district/aryan brotherhood/catholic church" decided they don't like a book and the government level you will be imprisoned for owning/sharing this book.
If it's a 'banned' book library, why doesn't it include books banned by a variety of sources? To me, a 'banned' book library would included many thousands of books each tagged by which groups are banning them. That way, were I inclined to do so, I could read texts that were banned by both Jews and Christians, or by both democratic nations and totalitarian regimes, or whatever it was that I was interested in.
This particular compilation is a perfect example. Calling The Call of the Wild, a book that's been made in to several movies (the most recent of which grossing $111.1 million against a production budget of $125–150 million) a "banned book" is kind of ludicrous, no? Clearly many thousands or millions of people have access to it and it's contents, so it is clearly not 'banned' in any meaningful sense of the term, unless you happen to live in some region in which it is banned, but that enforces my claim that any such random small list doesn't really live up to the label.
Some remakes are better (Wizard of Oz, Ben Hur), most are worse (The Mysterious Island). But none destroy the books, so don't worry about it.
Though I am surprised that with all the wealth of books out there for inspiration, how bad Hollywood movie plots are.
I saw a preview of The Call of the Wild remake, where the sled dogs are racing away from an avalanche. The whole thing looks like a Disneyworld ride. That's not the theme or point of the story at all. Too bad.
I visited voat on occasion to see how it was working out, mostly checking out the groups that were not inherently political, such as /v/science and /v/movies.
Here is a description of such a visit shortly before they shut down [1].
I generally saw a lot more anti-Jew stuff than anti-Black stuff, but when a Black person came up there was a good chance someone would use the N word.
They could usually even make their anti-Black stuff be about Jews too. For example in /v/movies there was a discussion of the 2020 "Call of the Wild" movie. People were upset that one of the sled dog team drivers was played by a Black actor. They believed this was part of some nefarious plot by the Jews that control Hollywood.
I remember also seeing quite a bit of outrage over Asian and Black actors in The Mandalorian. I think I only saw one post that specifically complained about how absurd it was to have "<N-word>s in space" but a whole lot of agreement with the idea that all the actors in space shows should be white.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25502118
> Then there's "it's all remakes now"—but 1) it's not,
It really is, if by "remake" you mean all ways of leveraging existing IP. Here are the top ten box office films of 2020:
* Bad Boys for Life (sequel) * Sonic the Hedgehog (videogame) * Birds of Prey (comic book) * Dolittle (book) * The Invisible Man (book) * The Call of the Wild (book) * Onward (original) * The Croods: A New Age (sequel) * Tenet (original) * Wonder Woman 1984 (sequal, comic book)
Two originals. Now go back 20 years:
* Mission: Impossible 2 (sequel) * Gladiator (book) * Cast Away (original) * What Women Want (original) * Dinosaur (original) * How the Grinch Stole Christmas (book) * Meet the Parents (remake) * The Perfect Storm (book) * X-Men (comic book) * What Lies Beneath (original)
Four originals. Go back another 10 years:
* Ghost (original) * Home Alone (original) * Pretty Woman (original) * Dances with Wolves (book) * Total Recall (short story) * Back to the Future Part III (sequel) * Die Hard 2 (sequel) * Presumed Innocent (book) * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (comic book) * Kindergarten Cop (original)
Five originals. Another ten years to 1980:
* The Empire Strikes Back (sequel) * 9 to 5 (original) * Stir Crazy (original) * Airplane! (original) * Any Which Way You Can (sequel) * Private Benjamin (original) * Coal Miner's Daughter (original) * Smokey and the Bandit II (sequel) * The Blue Lagoon (book) * The Blues Brothers (SNL sketch)
Five originals again. I'm going by top box-office gross here because I think that's a good proxy for what is successful. You can look at other years, but there is a very clear (but not overwhelming) trend towards movies based on familiar content. It's not clear whether studios are leading audiences or vice versa. Probably some iterative process of both.
There's also a clear trend away from dramas. I think that's because drama (and non-slapstick comedies) tend to rely heavily on specific cultural norms for their effect which makes them translate poorly. There is a very clear trend especially in the last decade or so of Hollywood focusing on movies that will also do well in China in particular.
And all of that except for the "kill blacks" and calls for violence would be perfectly fine on Reddit on /r/conservative. Most of it would also be fine on Twitter or Facebook, except that some of the conspiracy stuff might get a misinformation warning and/or a fact check link.
That's why sites like Parler, Gab, and Voat end up as cesspools. Those who don't feel the need to post racism and calls to violence can just stay on the mainstream services, getting both their political discussion and their non-political discussion in one convenient place.
Voat tried to have the non-political stuff too, but it just ended up with racism there too. For example, in /v/movies people complaining that the "Call of the Wild" cast included a black actor, and going off about how it was the Jews in Hollywood behind this for nefarious reasons.
As someone who grew up on their mid-late 80’s siblings’ leftover films alongside my own late 90s/early aughts movies, I can see that association looking back now! Might even feel it thinking solely about the VHS cases, either the cardboard slip ons or the hard, flexible sharp edged ones that were the bane of my little hands.
The call of the wild & white fang were early favorites of mine that I haven’t revisited yet, but will now. Definitely also be taking a look at Seven Gothic/Last tales!
Honestly though, I think I might be most excited about To the Lighthouse out of all the recommendations, it sounds like it’s right up my alley, at just the right time.
I have very little experience with solid literature outside what was assigned, and absolutely none with poetry despite a (somewhat shortish) lifetime of constant reading, but over the past year or so I’ve really taken to some more serious movies that paint these absurdly captivating, familiar and utterly foreign perspectives/experiences/vibes over stripped down, or nonexistent plots without much in the way of dialogue either.
Think a series of impressionist paintings of everyday life, nature, and empty rooms, but in book form. is absolute catnip, and even if don’t take to this work in particular, is a thread to pull at now.
Serious, serious thanks to you for all of this.
Made my first account here since 2015 to upvote a book about databases, and left with a completely new, cross pollinated perspective on modernist fiction (and poetry!). Very good day.