. . . Could'a been been better . . .

First - some observations:

Abbie Cornish looks exactly like a younger Jean Smart.

Richard Madden is georgeous AND Scottish *swoon*

Sam Shepard was the best actor in the whole thing.

Stillwater, the guy from the confessional who did the live funeral for father Judge was the most interesting character.


Problems with the film:

Costume design for Belinda seemed really strange - and her her black 'weave' was terrible.
She looked like some gothic version of Coor's Elvira . . .

Bill almost NEVER wears a hat, even in pouring rain, which is just ridiculous.


Part 1 and 2 - too many dark scenes where you can't tell who is who and what's going on ...

One example is the scene where Belinda's wagon-load of wood rolls over downhill and the horses just 'pull loose' from their hitch ...??

Too many inexplicable and/or unecessary scenes that contribute nothing to any of the plots - example, Jack London looking for his dog.


Meekor asks Bill what's the first thing He was gonna do when he gets out of there - then Meekor says when he gets out of there he's gonna get an orange. He clearly implies you gotta get out of there (the Klondike) to get an orange. He procedes to daydream out loud about oranges.
The next scene he's in, He inexplicably has an orange.


It seems like they just cut the film in pieces and tried to pick the pieces up off the cutting room floor and tape 'em back together . . .


WAY TOO MUCH unecessary dialogue with no context, and too much repetative dialogue:
Bill's good, too good, this place changes you, makes you tuff, hard, cold, you know what this place does, this place has made me hard tuff/changed me . . .
Just constantly repeated - seems like each variation they tried to say it more dramatically . . .


WAY TOO MANY NARRATORS - would'a been cool if Jack London had done all narration as if reading from the book he was going to write.


Scene in the middle of the lake-ice where Bill has a dog-sled and is going to find Goodman - the whole scene: where the count, with his 2 dog-sled teams and his
goons come right up to Bill - the ridiculous shoot out, then
Bill on foot with no gun, lets the evil count follow right behind him? Even after punching him?
I would used him for a wind-block ...
Bill continues to walk in freezing wind towards the shelter of trees - he's actually wearing a ski cap at least, and then ... he takes the hat off ... ?!


At the beginning of the movie,Ep runs out of the saloon chased by a man with a rifle.
Everyone standing around heard this man threaten to murder Ep.
Yet, after Ep is murdered, everyone is wondering who did it, and this guy is never mentioned again as even a possible suspect . . .


Like I said . . . this could'a been a good movie . . .

I give it a 2.95 - which is what I paid for it . . .