Gene Siskel - Host: [reviewing "Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog"] Okay, so adults may be bored out of their minds with this picture. Will KIDS like "Far from Home"? Well, look. I'm sure any kid is gonna cheer when a lost dog in a movie finds its way home, but they're really gonna have to sit through a lot of boring scenes to get to that moment. And as a parent, I'd rather save a few bucks and rent "The Black Stallion", about a capsized boy and his horse, instead.
Roger Ebert - Host: Uh, not only did I like this movie a lot more than you did, Gene, but I saw a different movie. This movie is not about a dog finding its way home.
Gene Siskel - Host: Oh, okay, what did you think it was about?
Roger Ebert - Host: It's about a BOY who is lost in the wilderness, and survives for about three weeks using all kinds of tricks his father has taught him...
Gene Siskel - Host: Mm-hmm.
Roger Ebert - Host: ...And, uh, staying dry and getting food and starting fires and trying to signal for help, and trying to find roads and rivers and so forth. There's not a SINGLE scene in this movie, Gene, of that dog trying to find its way home. You can't name one.
Gene Siskel - Host: Uh, the energy in the picture...
Roger Ebert - Host: Can you?
Gene Siskel - Host: What? Oh.
Roger Ebert - Host: Can you? Because you said at the beginning it's about a dog trying to find its way home.
Gene Siskel - Host: The tension- yeah.
Roger Ebert - Host: The dog does all of its finding its way home off-screen. And you never mention the fact that the whole movie is about the boy trying to find his way home.
Gene Siskel - Host: Because I felt that the energy of the picture was about whether the dog- we knew that the boy was going- the whole tension of the picture, the whole set-up of the direction of the picture is whether the dog is gonna find his way home.
Roger Ebert - Host: That's absolutely incorrect.
Gene Siskel - Host: Okay?
Roger Ebert - Host: That is a complete misstatement about what the movie is about. And on the basis of the movie that I saw, I think it's a fascinating movie that kids would really enjoy, about this boy trying to use woodcraft to survive in the wilderness. I loved it. I was surprised how much I liked it.
Gene Siskel - Host: I'm surprised y- how much you liked it, too.
