This is not a review of a film version of the Jack London classic.  I reviewed an audio version of that book a while back.  This latest Call of the Wild is a 2007 independent documentary about ill-fated American wanderer Christopher McCandless made by Ron Lamothe of Terra Incognita films (http://terraincognitafilms.com).  I first heard about it from a link on the Wikipedia entry for Christopher McCandless and later read good reviews of it on the forum about him (www.christophermccandless.info/forum).  Some people had seen it on Showtime or on their local PBS station.  I enjoyed the film Into the Wild that came out in 2007 and I listened to an audio version of the book by Jon Krakauer one year later (see earlier review).  Though I don’t feel I can completely relate to McCandless, I do find his story compelling.  The Call of the Wild seemed like it had a different take on the story, perhaps a more personal and honest account than the Hollywood movie.

We don’t have Showtime and they weren’t showing The Call of the Wild on PBS that I knew of so the only way I could see the film was to order the DVD from the Terra Incognita website.  I did so and it came in the mail a few weeks later.  I figured I would just save it until I had to call in sick from work.  With something fun to do on a sick day, I’d probably never call in sick, and so far I hadn’t.  My wife and I decided to watch it on April 2, 2010 that was our 5-year anniversary but also a Good Friday so it didn’t feel right to do anything overly extravagant.  One of our cheap date ideas is to stay in for the evening and watch a DVD and we had a DVD readily available.

We made some Act III microwave popcorn and popped in the DVD.  Right away we noticed that it had no special features, only the choice between watching the film and selecting chapters.  We chose the former.  Each chapter begins with white text on a black background.  I noticed that the chapter names, at least some of them such as the earlier “The Law of Club and Fang” and the later “The Sounding of the Call” are also the names of chapters in Jack London’s The Call of the Wild.  The film is 108 minutes long and has some soundtrack of mostly rock songs such as Supertramp’s “Dreamer,” interestingly enough.  It consists of Ron Lamothe following in the footsteps of McCandless, visiting the places where he went, talking to some of the people who knew him, and giving his own thoughts.  He skips around a bit as he goes through the events of McCandless’ life, but I had no trouble following.

Lamothe’s film is different from Into the Wild even though it was made at the same time and Lamothe often ran into Sean Penn and the Hollywood filmmakers.  It seeks to tell the true story, visit the actual locations, even travel by hitchhiking just like McCandless did.  Lamothe goes to the actual homes where McCandless spent his early childhood in El Segundo, CA and most of his childhood and youth in Annandale, Virginia.  The film includes many actual photographs of McCandless and chooses to go to actual over picturesque locations.  Lamothe doesn’t get to interview any of the major figures of McCandless’ life such as his family because they’re working with Sean Penn.  He still talks to several different people who knew McCandless casually at different points in his life.

This account is very personal.  Lamothe was born in the same year as McCandless and had his own adventure in Africa after he finished college.  He also has an indirect connection to McCandless.  Lamothe’s film explores larger themes such as Generation X, the need for adventure, and to test oneself.  He gives his own speculation about why McCandless took his journey but also lets the people he interviews give their opinions.  Some are sympathetic, others, such as the Alaskans he talks to, are critical.  One interviewee is actually indifferent.  Lamothe doesn’t go into his own theories as much as Krakauer does in his book.  The film doesn’t get into the dysfunctional family situations.  Unlike the book and Hollywood film it has these montages illustrating the themes such as one of Alaska that includes a shot of Rob Morrow from Northern Exposure.  The film also gives more complete backgrounds of some of the places such as Oh My God Hot Springs and the “Magic Bus.”

One problem I had with the film was a problem with the DVD.  Many times it would just stop and freeze.  Speeding ahead caused it to go ahead a chapter.  The only way to deal with it was to roll it back a bit.  The freeze points seemed to get more frequent towards the end.  We were able to catch the entire film but all the active intervention with the DVD made for a less relaxing movie watching experience.

I feel that The Call of the Wild tells a more accurate story of McCandless than Sean Penn’s Into the Wild.  It provides some good background information and some interesting personal viewpoints.  Still, I prefer the Hollywood movie Into the Wild as a more enjoyable film to watch and not just because the DVD played more smoothly.  But The Call of the Wild still made a decent cheap date for our anniversary.

A few months after we watched the DVD, Ron Lamothe emailed me (and others) asking how I found out about the film.  I wrote him back and also mentioned the difficulties I had with the DVD.  He offered to send a replacement copy.  I accepted and received the DVD a few weeks later.  It took me awhile to get around to watching it, but when I did it worked much better.  Thanks, Ron.

On Saturday, November 20, 2010, my younger brother visited me and we saw the film Unstoppable at the Edwards theaters on Lake Ave. in West Covina.  It had been raining hard earlier that day and we didn’t feel like driving out somewhere too far.  I had seen previews for Unstoppable and started to read a synopsis online.  But I stopped almost immediately because it seemed like something I would want to see.  I did read that it got good reviews.  What caught my interest was that it was about trains in which I have an interest because I commuted by train for several years.

My brother and I caught the 2 pm showing at the Edwards cinema located towards the end of Lake Avenue and east of the Westfield West Covina.  The Best Buy used to be located off Lake Avenue but has since moved to the Westfield.  Parking for the Edwards is further down on Lake in a structure and it was free.  We then had to cross a small street into a plaza with several chain eateries.  Unstoppable had been out for one week by then and the big movie out during the weekend of November 20 was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  There weren’t very many kids or adults at the theaters when we went, though, and no queue at the ticket window.  Our tickets to Unstoppable cost $9 each, a bit expensive for Edwards but then the theater was very nice with colorful red carpeted floors and lights.  One theater had a large neon sign above it that said Chinese and another had the name Egyptian, both named after famous old theaters in Hollywood.

We passed one theater near which someone was dressed as the character Megamind from the movie of the same name.  He posed for photos with some kids and even waved at us.  The halls to get to theater 11 got rather cavernous and we eventually found it right at 2 pm.  There weren’t very many people there and, surprisingly, there were several children.  I thought the film was rated PG-13 so I think it was OK that they were there.  I guess I thought they would be seeing Megamind or the Harry Potter film.  We found some seats towards the middle back.  Also surprisingly, they weren’t showing any motion ads before the film.  Perhaps we missed them.  Soon after we arrived the screen went through this virtual coaster ride through the theater intro: get popcorn and snacks, don’t talk, turn off cell phones, etc.

There were at least five previews, mostly for films coming out next year and none of them seemed particularly interesting to me.  The first was “The Next 3 Days” where Russell Crowe’s character tries to break his wife, played by Elizabeth Banks, out of prison.  Then there were Sactum, a 3D film produced by James Cameron about some spelunkers or cavers who are trying to escape a flooding cave.  Next was Suckerpunch that I didn’t even understand.  Some young blond woman gets thrown in a mental health facility and plans an escape that turns into a video game fantasy?  There was a preview for Battle L.A. that I heard was similar to a film just released called Skyline.  The last trailer was the only one that wasn’t for an action film.  “Love and Other Drugs” looked like a romantic comedy set around the release of the drug Viagra and starred Jake Gyllenhall and Anne Hathaway.  The previews finished at 2:20 pm and it was finally time for the feature presentation.

The feature began like an ordinary day for railroad workers in Pennsylvania.  Captions mentioned the names of the rail yards and towns and I’m now sure if they were real or made-up.  Things quickly go from ordinary to out of control though that’s still almost predictable.  We wouldn’t have a movie if it was just an ordinary day.  I found all the references to trains and railroad terminology very interesting.  They used terms such as “main”, “siding”, “rip track”, and “switches”.  They’re fairly understandable but still interesting.  I learned that a conductor for a freight train differs from one for a commuter train.  On a freight train the conductor attaches the freight cars and directs the engineer where to go.  I also enjoyed watching the train dispatchers at work getting trains out of the way of the runaway train and using a big electronic board to track the locations of every train.  I wondered if they use something similar at Metrolink.

The actors do well despite slightly cookie-cutter roles.  Denzel Washington plays the long-time railroad engineer and Chris Pine plays the upstart conductor.  I think he’s best known for playing Captain James Kirk in the 2009 film Star Trek.  Rosario Dawson plays the chief dispatcher with a moral conscious.  There are many supporting characters such as the incompetent engineer played by Ethan Suplee, the railroad upper management, and a welder with a mustache, pony tail, and cowboy boots.  I like that some of these characters, especially the latter, were still portrayed as more than they appeared on the surface.  And then there were the trains that were like characters themselves.  The runaway train seemed especially anthropomorphic like the villain of the film.  It was train number 777 that I guess was a reference to the incident that inspired the film.  In the early 2000’s there was a runaway train in Ohio that I think had 888 or 8888 in its name.  The film also makes distinctions between the trains by making train 777 have a red engine and all the other trains have blue engines.

The setting is also featured very prominently in the film.  Rural Pennsylvania is cloudy and green with industrial-looking towns.  It’s very different from a sunny L.A. setting and so much more authentic to the story.  I have some coworkers who work from home in rural Pennsylvania and I wonder if it looks the same as in the film.  Maybe I’ll ask them sometime.  The names of the towns seemed legit but they could also have been fictional: Brewster, Arklow, and Stanton.

The best parts of the film were the action and suspense.  I kind of knew how things would end but had no idea how they would get there.  The characters tried many different things to stop the train and in the process I learned more about railroad operations such as how every train car has its own brakes.  A few things may have seemed a little unbelievable, but for the most part it was regular employees responding to an extraordinary situation.  It wasn’t about highly skilled secret agents, superheroes, crime fighters or mercenaries.  There really wasn’t any malicious violence though the runaway train could seem very vicious.  The action literally had us holding our breaths and kept our full attention.  It couldn’t have been much more gripping.

I mentioned to one of my coworkers in Pennsylvania that I had seen the film Unstoppable that was set there.  She hadn’t seen it.  I later read that the film was based on a real even that took place in Ohio in 2001.  The movie was filmed in both Ohio and Pennsylvania.  They had a train actually derail unplanned that delayed filming for one day.  Because of all the work and despite the challenges, the actors and filmmakers put together an excellent movie.

We saw Tears for Fears live at the Wiltern on Sunday, March 21, 2010.  I had known of them for at least 25 years since they released the popular songs “Everybody Wants To Rule the World,” “Shout,” and “Head Over Heels.”  They had an earlier minor hit with the song “Mad World” that was later made popular by the film Donnie Darko, though that may have been a cover version.  Later in the ‘80s, Tears for Fears had another hit song with “Sowing the Seeds of Love.”  They consist of primarily Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal and have been touring and releasing material off and on for the last 30 years or so.  Curt Smith has his primary residence in the Los Angeles area and I’ve heard of him performing solo at local venues.  Tears for Fears last released an album of original material, Everybody Loves a Happy Ending in 2004.  I believe they also performed at the Inland Invasion concert festival at Hyundai Pavilion that year.

My wife bought the tickets in advance from the Blockbuster in Glendora.  I believe she first tried to get them at the Blockbuster in West Covina where we had gotten the tickets for Wolfmother the year before but wasn’t able to.  This wouldn’t be the only aspect of the Wolfmother concert that wouldn’t work out this time around.  Tears for Fears would be the third concert we attended at the Wiltern in 25 months.  The first of these was seeing Mika there in February 2008 and the second was Wolfmother in November 2009 (see earlier reviews).  We liked the Wiltern as a venue since we could still see the stage fairly well from the upper mezzanine section, it had assigned seats for us to sit down in, and they usually allowed the audience to send text messages to the ad screen before the acts took the stage.  Our new cell phones had QWERTY keyboards so we were ready to post our own text messages.

The Tears for Fears came at the end of a 10-day stretch that included a birthday/graduation/expecting announcement party, a 4-day business trip to Linthicum, Maryland, and a friend’s wedding at Lake Arrowhead Resort.  So it was a busy time, our own “March Madness” to go along with the NCAA basketball tournament and the “March Cougar Madness” contest on the Jack FM radio station.  Luckily I had Friday, March 19 off as a travel day and would take a vacation day on Monday, March 22.  We didn’t realize until a few hours before we left that the doors opened fairly early, at 6:30 p.m.  We left home at 5 p.m.  Our sister and brother-in-law graciously allowed us the park in one of their spots near Staples Center.  From there we walked north on Hope Street.  While driving to downtown and walking towards Hope Street we saw a few people in Clippers jerseys and many people in Lakers jerseys walking around.  I hadn’t heard that there was a Lakers/Clippers game that evening.  Parked along 11th Street we saw a car in the Clippers colors of red, white, and blue and with the Clippers logo.

As we reached the corner of Hope and 9th I heard the sound of a violin playing.  Across the street on the SE corner of Hope and 9th an African-American man was playing a violin.  He looked like Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, the subject of the book and film The Soloist.  I’ve seen photos and video of him on the L.A. Times website.  He looked younger than I thought I remember how he looked in the photos, though.  I was too shy to go over and talk to him.  We were on our way to Pastagina where we had enjoyed a good dinner before attending the Wolfmother concert.  But after we passed the Ralphs Fresh Fare and walked along the eastern side of the Market Lofts/Ralphs building we found that Pastagina was closed.  This was the second thing that worked out for the Wolfmother outing but not for the Tears for Fears outing.

We went to Ralphs Fresh Fare where my wife had some creamy chicken and wild rice soup and vitamin water.  I had chicken fajitas from the deli/salad section.  They were pretty good but not enough food so I supplemented them with some sea salt and vinegar kettle chips.

We left Ralphs, walked north to the entrance to the subway station and caught the 7:02 Purple Line subway to the Wilshire/Western station.  It came on time and arrived at Wilshire/Western at 7:12 p.m.  We exited that subway station, crossed Wilshire Blvd. and entered the Wiltern at 7:16 p.m.  There was no queue because the doors had already opened.  I believe security just consisted of emptying pockets and opening bags and purses.  No wands or pat-downs.  We found our seats in row 15, numbers 201 and 202 in the mezzanine level.  They were located in the middle section along the right aisle.  There were many people already seated consisting of mostly Caucasians with a few Asians, both men and women in about equal numbers with many couples.  Some men and women came in groups.  There were also some young children with one or both of their parents.

The screen above the stage showed ads for future concerts at the Wiltern.  This time they didn’t have text messages scrolling across the screen.  I guess they figured the older crowd wouldn’t be as tech-savvy or maybe they were just trying to save money.  This was the oldest crowd I had seen for a concert at the Wiltern.  So the texting was the third thing that worked out for Wolfmother but not for Tears for Fears, and just in time for our new QWERTY keyboards, too.  On the stage fluorescent lights shone on a set of keyboards and a drum kit, both covered.

At 7:31 p.m. the opening act, Michael Wainwright, came on stage.  He was bald and wore a brown plaid shirt.  He looked to be around our age or possibly younger.  He played an acoustic guitar and sang mellow songs.  For the third song a woman in a blue dress joined him on stage and sang vocals with him.  He said that she sang with him on his record.  There were some pieces of paper on stage, possibly setlists.  Wainwright described how the last time he played in L.A. was in the Standard Hotel.  He said the next song was a new one.  It was a slow, ambling, lighthearted number about having $1 or a woman in my pocket or something strange like that.  They whistled a bit at the end though Wainwright said, “I’m a bad whistler.”  After the song Wainwright acknowledged that we were there to see Tears for Fears.  He mentioned that the next song was also new and that he wrote it with “Mr. Orzabal via internet.”  It was called “Divers” and was mellow like the others.  It included the lyric, “Divers always have to rise for air.”

The woman left and Wainwright described how he has been a fan of Tears for Fears since he was a kid.  He then said that he wrote the next song in “my sleep.”  He sang the song in a high voice that included the lyrics “Dream a dream for you.”  A man joined him on stage playing one of those portable keyboards with a tube and mouthpiece.  It was another ambling song.  He said he wrote the next song about a girl he saw at Starbucks talking on her cellphone.  It was a bit more soulful than ambling.  At one point he shouted, “It passed you by.”  After finishing that song Wainwright said, “Thank you very much” and that the next song was called “The Last Goodbye.”  It was a sad song that he sang very soulfully in a high voice, at one point singing a long, high note.  It turned out to be the last song.  He left the stage at 7:57 p.m. and house lights came back on.

We took some photos with our cellphones and the guy behind us took our photo.  On stage the crew uncovered the drums and keyboards and set up some microphones.  The venue looked like it had sold out.  We couldn’t see an empty seat in the mezzanine section.  They played classic rock for canned music such as “Boys of Summer” by Don Henley.  At 8:28 p.m. the screen retracted and the lights dimmed.  The stage was dark but we could hear the song “Mad World” playing.  It sounded like a choir singing it and a symphony playing.  The spotlight then shone on Curt Smith singing the song.  I think some of the music and choir voices were pre-recorded but Curt Smith was really singing.  He had very short light-colored hair.  All the stage lights came on for the next song and we could see the other main member of Tears for Fears, Roland Orzabal in the front part of the stage to the right of Curt Smith playing a large red electrical guitar.  His hair looked the same as it did 25 years ago, dark and slightly long.  There was also a keyboard player at the large keyboard set-up, a drummer playing the elevated drum kit and another guitar player or possibly a bass player.

Their second song sounded very familiar because it was their big 1985 hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” with Curt Smith singing lead and Orzabal on backing vocals for the chorus and guitar.  The crowd was on its feet.  They sat down for the next song that was more recent and less well known.  It was “Secret World” from their 2004 album Everybody Loves a Happy Ending.  Curt Smith picked up a guitar and Roland Orzabal sang lead.  It was a rockin’ song with the lyrics “cradle to the grave.”  During this song and the others different colored lights shone on the stage background sometimes purple, green, orange, red, and white.  Their next song was also from their latest album.  It was “Closest Thing to Heaven” another loud song but with a slower beat than the previous one.  Roland Orzabal again sang lead with Curt Smith joining in with a high voice during the choruses.  The lyrics mention “apple pie” at one point.  It was either during this song or the next one that Michael Wainwright joined the band on stage and sang backgrounds.

The next song was more familiar to everyone.  It was their late ‘80s hit “Sowing the Seeds of Love.”  Purple light flooded the stage and they got us to clap along with the rhythm.  The spinning light patterns of green snowflakes shone on the stage floor as they band played.  They looked like flowers.  After finishing that Roland Orzabal said, “Good evening and thank you.”  He then said jokingly (I think) that he “was exhausted from the L.A. Marathon” that had actually taken place that day.  He asked whether anyone had run it and I think a few people in attendance raised their hands.  Orzabal told them something like, “If you fall asleep during the concert, it’s OK.”  He said something about them having a new band member and that they last time they played in L.A. “was in 2004 at Universal Amphitheatre.”  Since then they’ve played concerts in “Orange County, Orange County, and…Orange County.”

Orzabal said the next song was from the best album they ever made together.  It was about a middle-aged man who falls in love with a girl who’s half his age.  But his testosterone level isn’t what it used to be so he has to “take a small blue pill.”  Orzabal said the song has some of the “best lyrics Curt ever wrote.”  It was the fast and rockin’ but still lighthearted sounding “Call Me Mellow” that contains the lyrics “to unify my universe.”  After the song Wainwright left the stage and Curt Smith said, “Thank you and good evening” and that it was “Nice to play in our hometown.”  He mentioned that “everyone (in the band) owns a house in the L.A. area.  He said there were so many versions of “Mad World” and they were trying to work out which one to do.  Someone shouted, “Original!”  and Curt Smith asked, “Do you want to hear the original?”  Loud cheers followed.  Curt Smith sang lead and this version had a loud percussive beat. 

The next song began with Roland Orzabal singing and organ accompaniment.  It song got more rockin’ as the rest of the badn joined them.  We’re not sure of the song’s name but the lyrics “Memories fade but the scar still lingers” were featured prominently.  For the next song he played his guitar very quickly and sang.  It was a loud fast song called “Raul and the Kings of Spain.”  Wainwright returned to help sing the next song, “The Quiet Ones” another loud, rockin’ song.  Roland Orzabal sang the verses and everyone joined in for the choruses.  During the song’s bridge everyone sang in high voices.  After the song Orzabal mentioned (jokingly, I think) how he was so dehydrated from the marathon.  He said that it was now time for the “fun part of the evening.”  Not that the evening hadn’t been fun but it was now time for the “funner part.”  He said he had just taken half a little pill and that he was staying in suite 47 of the Beverly Hills Hotel under the pseudonym “Jay Leno.”  He mentioned that the next song could only be found on their Gold Album, a compilation.  It was “Floating Down the River” a fast song with loud guitar.  It sounded fun and silly with a do-do-do rhythm and Roland Orzabal would jump up and down as each chorus started.

The next song started loud and slow.  It had just Roland Orzabal and Wainwright singing the verses with bass accompaniment.  Everyone joined in for the choruses.  It was “Everybody Loves a Happy Ending” with them shouting “Wake up” for each verse.  After the song Curt Smith told someone in the audience, “I’m in love with you, too.”  Then he said something like “Here we got peeps, teeps, kooks, and my family.”  He said he was going to sing to his children during this relaxing moment and that he was “getting verklempt.  Talk amongst yourselves.”  Turquoise and green light shined on the stage background and Curt Smith sang a slow relaxing song with lyrics such as “It’s all right…gotta tell myself it’s all right.”  Wainwright sang background vocals.  For the next song, Curt Smith picked up a guitar and sang lead.  The rest of the band joined in for this louder, more rockin’ song, “Pale Shelter.”

Roland Orzabal sang lead on the next song, “Break It Down Again” that also had a loud beat.  He and Curt Smith would salute during the short keyboard solos.  The audience clapped along.  The next song was one of their most popular.  Orzabal sang lead for the soulful, keyboard-heavy “Head Over Heels.”  The audience all stood up and sang along.  Towards the end the audience alone sang the part “Time flies.”  When they finished Orzabal said “Thank you very much” and the band left the stage.  It was 9:48 p.m.  The stage lights went dark and the houselights came on but the audience kept cheering loudly.  The band returned very soon by 9:50 p.m.  Orzabal said, “Thank you all for coming.”  He introduced the new drummer, the guitarist, keyboardist, and said they were fortunate to have Michael Wainwright sing with them.  I can’t remember if he mentioned Curt Smith but he did say, “Yes, I am Roland.”

Before the next song, Roland Orzabal explained that it was originally a duet with Oleta Adams.  He said that if someone suggested singing this song with a man many years ago, he would have slapped them, though very gently.  But now they were going to try it.  The song was the soulful “Woman in Chains.”  Orzabal sang the man’s part as he does on the original and Michael Wainwright sang the woman’s part in his high voice.  The song had a mellow guitar but a loud drum beat.  The first few percussive (or keyboard?) bars left no doubt what was the next song.  As they began playing it the audience stood up, clapped, and sang along.  Two young girls stood near Wainwright who lowered his microphone so they could sing along.  The song was “Shout” possibly their biggest hit and from all the way back in 1985.  Orzabal sang lead and towards the end Curt Smith talked over to talk to the young girls.  They finished to loud applause and cheering, bowed and left the stage.  It was 10:10 p.m.  The canned music came back on indicating that there would be no more encores.  We left right after they finished, hoping to beat the crowd to the Metro.  We used a side exit that opened onto Western Avenue, walked to the Wilshire/Western Metro Purple Line station, bought a one-way ticket for my wife (I could still use my Metrolink pass) and made it to the platform by 10:15 p.m.  There were other concertgoers on the platform along with some Metro security personnel.  The screen said the next subway train would leave at 10:22 p.m.  The train arrived at 10:20 p.m., the personnel did a security sweep and it left on time.  Initially we sat behind some drunk concertgoers who seemed to be complaining about the concert.  We moved to sit behind some Spanish speakers.  The subway arrived back at the 7th and Metro station at 10:30. We walked back to our sister and brother-in-law’s loft parking at around 10:40-10:45 p.m., drove home on the I-10 and got back before 12 a.m. the next day.  “Everybody Loves a Happy Ending.”