Narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, this rugged and unsentimental portrait of a dog's life displays a reverence for the otherness of animals. After four years of easy living in the "southland," Buck the dog is kidnapped and shipped to the Yukon. A gold rush is on there, and people need dogs to pull their sleds. Buck learns to look out for himself in this cruel environment where men beat stubborn dogs and wolves attack defenseless ones. Buck even kills one of his own kind in this world ruled by "claw and fang." He serves two men who are couriers and then is sold to some inexperienced people who nearly starve him to death traveling on a dangerous route. He is rescued by John Thornton (Rutger Hauer), a trapper who wins his love by treating him well. But Buck starts to feel the call of the wild in his bones, instinctively sensing the lure of another life. Peter Svatek directs this harsh drama about the survival of the fittest which accurately reflects Jack London's world view.