Reviewing Movies

In the first place there really is a red fern.

This movie is based on the book of the same title by Wilson Rawls. Although it is not to my knowledge on any Canadian Syllabus it is apparently required reading by at least half of all classrooms in the USA. Therefore the story is widely known. I have read the book but the background information about how it was written is new to me and quite fascinating. For more background see:

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rawls.html

Not surprisingly, this is not the only movie treatment given this book but this version gives the story the full Disney Treatment. My one observation would be that if Dave Matthews were only an inch or two shorter he could pass for Billy Coleman his son played by Joseph Ashton. Only 11 years separate the two and as the picture above shows he looks boyishly young. As grampa Dabney Coleman inhabits the part fully.

This being a Disney show although Billy covers the smokehouse wall with coon skins we never see one shot even during the competition where guns are present. One of the Pritchard boys gets killed but we are not shown his injury. Given the violence that permeates the media these days this seems to be a rather sanitized version of the story. Watching it gave me the perverse notion that it should bear a Restricted to those 10 years of age or under rating.