The Wolf is not the savior this time

 WHITE FANG 2: 

MYTH OF THE WHITE WOLF (1994)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Filmed adaptations of Jack London's classic novel, "White Fang," have relatively focused more on the human characters than the wolf hybrid known as White Fang. The 1991 film adaptation, which realistically evoked the brutal winters of the Yukon, showed some of the rough treatment White Fang endured by humans who only used him for dog fights and not much else. One young prospector, Jack Conroy (Ethan Hawke), kept the wolf as his hunting guide and the shift in perspective became obvious - the movie focused largely on Jack's adventures. "White Fang 2" is not based on any Jack London novels since a sequel was never written and squarely focuses on the human characters leaving our favorite iconic wolf's paw prints on the snow as opposed to on the screen. Still, for a Saturday matinee adventure that will keep kids and some young adults quiet for an hour and a half, it will do.

Ethan Hawke does an unbilled cameo turn as Jack Conroy, writing a letter from San Francisco to another young prospector, his friend Henry Casey (Scott Bairstow), and entrusting him with the log cabin, White Fang who loves to run around and, of course, the gold mine. Naturally, other prospectors have their eyes on the gold yet White Fang and Henry's rifle keeps them at bay. When Henry decides to go to town and collect some dough for the gold dust, his raft falls into the dangerous rapids and he's separated from White Fang. A young Native American woman named Lily, from the Haida tribe, is told to find the wolf who can supposedly shapeshift into a human and vice versa - Lily's father informs her of this since he dreamt it. Lily finds the wolf in the water, then happens to see an exhausted Henry emerge from the water. She believes he's the wolf who will free the caribou from the villainous miners so the tribe can free themselves from starvation. 

While watching "White Fang 2" unfold, I found there was not a single moment one couldn't anticipate. Everything is told like a clockwork, run-of-the-mill western, the likes of which nobody has seen since perhaps the 1950's. It is all so perfectly innocent and harmless that you wonder if this was some sort of undiscovered youth-centric adventure movie from back in the day. As soon as one sees Alfred Molina as a preacher, well, you just know he's not really a preacher. The whole business of the mine and the wall of rocks separating the caribou from the Native Haida tribe is straight out of either Lone Ranger or Davy Crockett, not Jack London. And there is precious little time devoted to everyone's favorite half-dog, half-wolf canine who sometimes frolics with a purely white-as-snow wolf (those scenes evoke a certain wonder about wolves that the movie could've used more of).

So if you want to see White Fang in action, it is only in spurts. Bairstow's boyish Henry Casey remains the hero and the savior of the Haida people (though one must also give credit to Charmaine Craig's Lily and her trusty bow and arrow). I might have preferred if this was Lily's story along with White Fang's - what if Jack entrusted the title canine to the Haida people? Lily is seemingly the heroine of the piece since she saves Henry's neck twice but then she's also the damsel in distress in a frantic wagon chase. It is all perfectly silly and not half as memorable as the 1991 film, but its breathtaking scenery and the details of the life of the Haida tribe in the snowcapped mountains of Alaska make for watchable entertainment.