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Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

A Masterpiece!

A Major Disappointment

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I've had this in the collection for years, but only realised that it belonged to the ultra-specific Italian sub-genre of "Spaghetti Westerns that take place in Alaska/Canada, and have a dog in them" after the first thirty seconds when the dog 'Buck' is introduced. Basically, its White Fang again. Sigh.Buck is a dog who hangs out with a wolf pack but then gets caught up in human affairs when he hooks up with two kids. After gaining the trust of their father, Buck displays clairvoyant skills by trying to prevent the father heading to Dawson city. The father ignores these preternatural warnings and is swiftly killed by Indians about ten seconds later. Luckily for the kids two kind hearted gold prospectors turn up and everyone heads to Dawson city to avoid the Indians (one of which Buck kills, proving that he's not to be messed with). Unluckily for these prospectors, Jack Palance is the crooked businessman who is in charge of the town, and one dodgy card game later, the older of the two brothers gets the life jabbed out of him.On the good side of Dawson city we have the other brother John, who also gets the green light from singer Joan Collins (her singing is the scariest thing about this film), Irish Barman Charlie, the two kids who start up a newspaper, and some lawyer guy the film forgets about. On the bad side is ugly bastard Jack Palance and his never ending parade of hired killers. I have realised from this film that Joan Collins, in young form at least, resembles my wife, as does Barbara Steele. What does it mean?If you've been unlucky enough to sit through any of these White Fang films, you'll notice that this plot doesn't differ from any of the others. There's the kid who bonds with White Fang I mean Buck (who hilariously ditches the kid at the end!), the crooked businessman who tries to destroy all the good guys, and the macho hero who doesn't really do much at all until the end.

The Great Adventure is certainly not unwatchable, but there was a good amount of talent involved and it should have been much better. The Great Adventure does have enough to make it watchable.The scenery and sets are absolutely beautiful, the scenery in the first thirty minutes is enough to take one's breath away and the film is attractively if simply photographed, the costumes are good too. Also very good was the music, with a stirring score that synchronises with and enhances what's happening on screen and is the most exciting The Great Adventure ever gets(again the first thirty minutes especially). The nostalgic title song Song of the Wild, beautifully sung by Joseph Allegro, is one so good that it stands as a great song on its own without being part of a film. A few performances are decent too, the best two being Jack Palance and the dog Buck. Palance is methodically intimidating without being over-the-top or phoning-in while Buck is adorable and performs spiritedly. Joan Collins is a touch out of place but plays her tramp with a heart of gold role very charmingly.However the rest of the acting did seem unenthusiastic and going-through-the-motions-like and disadvantaged further by some very obvious, sloppily synced and odd dubbing(Palance and Collins excepted). The Great Adventure is very staidly directed to the point it becomes plodding, while the writing is what really sinks the film. The script ranges between dreary and cornball and never gets better than that, while the very rambling and also rather predictable story is a little pedestrian in pace and has too many disconnected scenes that lead to very little, if there was any tension or emotional connection intended neither of them registered well to me. The dog attacks do lack tension and excitement and the choreography can be silly and awkward, while none of the characters engage. Instead they are colourless cardboard clichés, despite Palance giving the film's best performance he is also saddled with the most clichéd character, the kind that has been done so many times on film and more interestingly written.Overall, The Great Adventure is a long way from unwatchable, it looks good, has great music and has a few decent performances but it is let down by the odd dubbing, dreary script, plodding direction and dull story. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Thankfully, I had already outgrown films like The Great Adventure by the time it arrived on Anglophone screens. I'm sure lots of younger boys were less fortunate and ended up seeing this feature, which more aptly should have been titled An Awfully Minor Adventure. Young Jim Chambers (Fernando Romer) meets cute with Buck the Wonder Wolf, who saves his life when a pack of less friendly wolves attack the lad somewhere in the snowy wastelands of the Yukon. Jim's father (Attilio Dottesio) wants to put the wounded creature down, but young Jim makes with the mopey face and Dad relents. Soon Dad is dead and Jim and Buck are off on a cross country trek with sister Mary (Elisabetta Virgili) and assorted grownups. Joan Collins and Jack Palance show up in the third reel, both thankfully undubbed, and the film features the motliest imaginable tribe of Native Americans as villainous 'red devils'. Good photography by Jose Aguayo and an excellent Stelvio Cipriani score move The Great Adventure from 'unwatchable' into 'harmless and mildly diverting' territory.

Actually, this movie wasn't that bad though I will concede you probably have to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate it's finery's. I tried it on a hangover while shut in on a gloomy Saturday with the missus out of town and it was the ideal choice -- Brainless adventure with an intelligent dog, the high rockies, a Jack London "family friendly" storyline, and the now late Jack Palance chewing the scenery (albeit gently, since this is a PG rated affair) as a local bigwig corrupt crime boss kingpin who nonetheless knows talent when he sees it.That talent is of course the real star of the movie, Buck the Wonder Shepard. This is one of a string of Schnitzel/Spaghetti Westerns inspired by "Call of the Wild" aimed right at 8 - 12 year old boys: If anyone else gets anything out of it that's just fine, but entertaining jaded adult audiences wasn't the idea. The idea of a Jack London derived adventure yarn is to have a plucky young tyke befriend and bond with a supposedly ferocious wolf doggie who then saves the day for the rest of the movie just like Clint Eastwood would in a Sergio Leone film. He comes running in at the last minute, leaping onto the bar and bearing down snarling on the bad guys. Film buffs with an eye for the absurd will be overjoyed.Animal rights activists may not: The film has some now questionable scenes of dog vs dog action that are rather fierce, and as an actor dogs are hardly concerned about script issues or character motivations. They are dogs, and must be manipulated by an off-camera handler to do things on screen that are edited in a way to make them appear to be heroic intentional actions by the dog. One cringe inducing scene has Buck win a wager for his do-gooder owners by leaping off a second story balcony (don't worry, they faked it) and watching it all I could think of was what the HELL were these people thinking? The film also features the traditional Jack London adventure character types: The bearded plaid wool wearing father (played by Spaghetti Western regular Attilio Dottesio), the clean-cut handsome hero (Fred Romer), the plucky kid, his somewhat jailbaitish teenaged sister (pretty Elisabetta Virgili), the worldly saloon harlot with a heart of gold (Joan Collins looking even more out of place than she did on Star Trek), the corrupt town boss (Mr. Palance, probably drunk: he looks like he didn't give a damn), the friendly rotund bearded innkeeper (veteran character actor Ricardo Palacios) and various legions of local Injuns, prospectors, hunters, card sharks, and lots & lots of anonymous sled dogs, who were doubtlessly envious of Buck's more prominent role. Genre film buffs can look for the familiar faces of José Canalejas, Remo De Angelis, and Manuel de Blas, and enjoy another Stelvio Cipriani musical score that transcends the material: There is actually some respectable talent on display here.But I mean come on, it's not a blockbuster event film, these were made cheaply and quickly to be watched on rainy Saturday afternoons decades ago by young chaps with nothing better to do -- If the leads find romance in each other's arms that's fine, but what's more important is that Buck gets to do lots of cool stuff, have some neat adventures, and in the end run off into the woods until the next installment. If you can live with that and love Spaghetti Cinema as much as I do, this is a fine film that you can even watch with the whole family, though the dog might get a bit jealous watching Buck have all the fun.6/10, I'm feeling generous: And thanks for all the great films, Mr. Palance; You may not remember them very fondly but they made a difference, and at least this movie was better than CITY SLICKERS 2. "See you 'round, Partner!"