One would have to be heartless not to be disarmed by this beautifully photographed, acted and realized story of a young boy's timeless, blissful childhood, represented by the yearling, and its inevitable end.
There is a stage in childhood, somewhere between the terrible twos and teens, when a boy or girl is without guile, believing that kindness and good intentions make everything right. Then, one day they discover that sometimes kindness and good intentions are not enough. That sometimes only death will put things right.
Directed by the great Clarence Brown, the entire film is a delight, but there are moments in it . . . the boy's night in a treehouse, with an ethereal little lame friend, when the boy discovers the faun, when they both gambol in the everglade. By all rights, scenes like these - and some of the lines - ought to make one cringe, but they don't. They are transcendent.
This is a family film. This means one for the whole family. See it with your kids. Learn from it as they do.
There is a stage in childhood, somewhere between the terrible twos and teens, when a boy or girl is without guile, believing that kindness and good intentions make everything right. Then, one day they discover that sometimes kindness and good intentions are not enough. That sometimes only death will put things right.
Directed by the great Clarence Brown, the entire film is a delight, but there are moments in it . . . the boy's night in a treehouse, with an ethereal little lame friend, when the boy discovers the faun, when they both gambol in the everglade. By all rights, scenes like these - and some of the lines - ought to make one cringe, but they don't. They are transcendent.
This is a family film. This means one for the whole family. See it with your kids. Learn from it as they do.