Brighty of the Grand Canyon

Brighty Of The Grand Canyon has one of the best sets for a film ever, the fabulous Grand Canyon. Shot entirely on location in Arizona, Brighty Of The Grand Canyon would have been impossible to mess up scenically even if it had been shot with a brownie camera.

Brighty is a little scrub burro the kind that inhabits the canyon and knows some of the many trails in and out of it. As such he's a valuable animal. Valuable to old timer prospector Dick Foran and valuable to fugitive Pat Conway who fled into the canyon and who murders Foran to get the gold he's scratched out of the place.

But Conway reckons without young Dandy Curran whose parents have a trading post and with Joseph Cotten who is a licensed hunter by the government to kill mountain lions who prey on some of the other endangered species. This is definitely in keeping with who was president at the time.

In fact there's a portion of the film that has Cotten and Curran accompanying President Theodore Roosevelt on a hunting trip for mountain lion in the Grand Canyon. Karl Swenson plays our 26th president in appropriate bully style, but for the life of me I can't figure where all the Secret Service was at the time. It was after William McKinley was assassinated and Roosevelt became president that the Secret Service was assigned presidential protection. Here we see Swenson just with Cotten and Curran and with Cotten carrying a weapon at that.

Brighty is a tough critter, he survives quite a bit in this film, including a cougar attack and a fall in the Colorado River. This is the only animal film I know with a burro as the lead. It's a pleasant 90 minutes for the whole family.

I find many films aimed at kids to be very annoying. Especially during repeated viewings. Brighty of the Grand Canyon goes down easy. This old-school classic is easy on adult nerves and holds the interest of younger children. Brighty the donkey is cute and well defined keeping the kids engaged. Joseph Cotten and the cast deliver professional performances. I grew up in Henderson Nevada. Schools in this area had access to a 16mm copy of Brighty and showed it frequently. I watched it 6 or 8 times growing up. A great family film!

Brighty is a timeless view of the Grand Canyon, and a wonderful family film based on the award winning children's book by Maruerite Henry. The cast has some great Hollywood veterans like Dick Foran and Joseph Cotton, and was directed by Norman Foster who directed for Walt Disney for years, and also directed with Orson Wells. The story is good guys vs. the bad guy, but also is based on the true story of the real Brighty the burro who's owner Jim Owen (Cotton's character) worked as a guide and hunter at the Canyon in the late 1800s, and hunted with Pres. Teddy Roosevelt. This film was shot almost completely in and around the Canyon, and because of restrictions today at the Park, could never be done again! in this respect it is a great cinema-graphic testimony to the Canyon The DVD contains many added chapters and content for both children and adults. It is well worth viewing or owning!

A large number of different views of the Grand Canyon, some unexpected animal stunts, a variety of wildlife make this a pleasant movie. The cinematography is one of the best features of "Brighty of the Grand Canyon". The donkey really is the central character! Veteran actors Joseph Cotton & Dick Foran are convincing as residents of the back country. Jiggs, the actor donkey, has acting chops right up there with the veterans. You remember Joseph Cotton was in what many consider the best picture of all time, Citizen Kane. The movie is set in 1906 with Teddy Roosevelt as an interesting but minor character. The biggest surprises are the animal stunts. Most major plots points are telegraphed. Probably the age range for this is 6-10 years (some not too graphic violence) and older adults. if you are of teen age through age fifty you are certain to be bored by the slow pace, unless you just came from seeing the Grand Canyon, and enjoy a travelogue. This viewer is older, enjoyed seeing Cotton and Foran, the scenery, the animals and just liked the whole thing. I'm glad I saw it.

I saw this movie the year it came out, and although it might be because I was a teenager, I remember it as the single most boring film I ever saw. I guess that's what prompted me to look it up in the IMDB just to see what others had posted. Apparently no one even remembers having seen it.