Perdido en la montaña

My wife and I were looking for a pleasant, not difficult movie to watch after our usual Saturday steak and wine dinner. We found this one streaming on Peacock. We enjoyed the viewing.

It is a dramatization of events from the summer of 1939. A family had been planning a fishing trip but dad had to change plans because of work. So instead he took his twin sons on a hiking trip up one of the mountains in Maine.

One of the twins, Donn, was the headstrong one of the two. He was more likely to get angry and perhaps do things he wasn't supposed to. As they are hiking, led by a friend who was experienced there, the weather started to become threatening. Instead of agreeing to go back with the others he took off on his own, confident that he would be OK.

So the movie is about his survival, lost on the mountain for at least 9 or 10 days, I lost count. Search parties turned up nothing, his family started to fear the worst. But his dad had always told him, if you find a stream follow it because it will lead you to a river and you could follow that.

A nice touch is the movie interspersed with interviews with family and friends apparently made in the 1990s. Plus even some low quality B&W news footage from 1939.

This is pretty plain movie but well made and tells an interesting story.

Invoked as much fear in me as the book did when I was a child. Very glad Stallone directed and though I am not a fan of Ethan Slater, he did a wonderful job. It could have been more intense at times, and there are certain scenes that did not feel like the Maine woods (ie, the feeling of COMPLETE quiet and isolation). Other than that, fantastic! And now I am trying to meet word count lol. I am born and raised in Maine and have met Donn Fendler multiple times. Up until very near his death, he would visit schools in the state. I wish he got the chance to see this movie! He was a very sweet and spry man and I hope his family enjoys the film.

This review will be relatively long winded, but I have personal connections to this movie and the book it was inspired by. I was born and raised in Maine, just a couple hours north from where this took place. The first thought I have are that Sylvester Stallone has even more of my respect for producing this movie. My second thought is the sadness that Donn never lived long enough to finally see his story on the big screen. This movie was a long time coming!

When I was very young in school, probably around 1992, and about 6-7 years old, we read this book in school. I've read hundreds of books when I was younger, but this one was special, because it was real, and it was in our own backyard.

After we read it, our entire school went to the auditorium and Donn Fendler himself told us his story. It was even better in person. There are several things that happened that are not in the book, and not in the movie, perhaps things that were more personal to him, or things that readers would be skeptical of.

From my home town, on a clear day, we can see the peak from 120 miles away in a few areas of high elevation, especially in the spring when the white snow on the top contrasts with the surrounding green forests, The mountain is not the tallest in the country by any means, but when you see it from 120 miles away, and you look at the MASSIVE amount of thick, pristine wilderness that surrounds Katahdin, surrounded by smaller mountains, lakes, rivers, and massive trees that run as far as you can see to the north and the south, you get a sense of how insignificant you are.

The thought of being lost on that peak as a grown adult with survival skills and being extremely familiar with this area is intimidating. Even though I am healthy and experienced, there are many things in these forests that can take the life of even the most experienced Mainer. The way this movie captures that sense of danger is perfect. From a person that has hiked the regions of the northwest, Alaska, and even the White Mountains nearby, Katahdin looks small and tame. However, that mountain will break you down, and the forests that surround will swallow you whole, and you will never be seen again. A 12 year old boy, with no experience, no survival gear and no training WILL NOT survive even one night under these conditions. If you recall, the first night on the summit, the temperature was BELOW freezing. He was soaking wet from the storm, then the temperature dropped into the high 20's. He didn't even have a jacket, nor could he make a fire for warmth. He did not even have food to even give his body a chance to survive. Yet, he survived. And yes, this is 100% real. This is a true event.

These are some of the thickest, oldest forests in the world. The Appalachians are the oldest mountain ranges on Earth. Millions of years have ground the peaks down, and they are now covered in extremely dense forests. Some areas barely see sunlight, even in the summer.

There are tales of strange creatures, mysterious disappearances, and other phenomena that bend the mind. The natives were here long before us, and the majority of the state is named by the natives. The names of counties, rivers, lakes, towns, and mountains are all directly from the natives.

The creature in this movie that visited Donn is not some illusion. It's not a fairy tale to make the story entertaining. It didn't only appear to him one evening and disappear.

It spoke to him, it showed him where to walk, and what to eat. It protected him from wild animals, including several large black bears, of which one was a mother protecting her cubs.

I commend the producers for putting this in the movie. For people that know the story, we know that this story is full of unbelievable paranormal and inexplicable facts, and we see these mysterious elements woven into this movie in a way that the casual viewer will not quite catch. It does not give skeptics the ammunition to scoff at and talk bad about it, but, it also carries the truth just below the surface.

In conclusion, I've been waiting 30+ years for this movie to finally get made. It's crazy that it took this long, and it's very sad that Donn was never able to live quite long enough to finally be able to see his story on the big screen. But, at least knowing that the legendary Sylvester Stallone had taken this project on personally, I am certain that Donn would have been at peace when he left us.

Rest in Peace Donn Fendler!

I loved that clips of people portraited by these actors were interspersed into the film.

The director has a keen eye and it is obvious that he is a student of great film. Instead of critiquing the acting, light, sound, cinematography etc... of the film I found myself quickly immersed in the story. Always the sign of a great film.

I found myself comparing the boys relationships with their parents to my own relationships with my own daughters. This film brought out more emotion in me than I expected.

My hat goes off to the cast and crew, especially the director who it seems has really stepped up and hit a home run at such an early mark in his career.

Speaking as a Mainer, this is a great Maine story don right. Authentic to the era (1939) it's a true story of a boy lost on Mount Katahdin, a preserved wilderness unlike any other park. Inter cut with actual interview clips from rangers, family members and friends, it has an authentic feel that a regular movie could not duplicate. The actors do a great job. The emotions between mother and son, father and son, brother and brother ring completely true to life. The one drawback is that much was filmed in New York and for Mainers it sure doesn't look like Maine; others won't notice. This is a perfect film for kids age 10 and up. A real family film. We need more of those. Take your kids, your grand-kids, go yourself; you won't be disappointed.