Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog

SPOILER: We stumbled into "Far from Home" by chance. It proved to be a solid entertaining way to spend almost an hour and a half in good company. Phillip Borsos, the director, has to be congratulated for capturing this adventure that shows a boy surviving some of the worst conditions when he is shipwrecked. We would recommend this film to families with children because it shows how a boy forms a bond with his beloved dog under the worst possible circumstances.

The beauty of British Columbia and its rugged scenery serve as the background to this story. A close knit family living in a rural area and loving the outdoors are at the center. When Yellow, the dog that appears at the McCormicks, Katherine and John, the parents, appear reluctant in keeping it. Angus, the teen ager son, sees more than his parents and accepts the challenge, and responsibility in keeping Yellow in check.

When Angus and his father take to the water in John's medium sized vessel, they bring Yellow as well. They encounter rough seas and the ship capsizes. John hangs to the boat, but Angus is separated from his dad. What follows is a parents' worst nightmare. Every effort is made to look for the boy. It takes many days to locate Angus and when he is going to be rescued by a helicopter from the top of a tree that serves as a bridge, Yellow, his beloved dog, loses his balance and falls into a river below. Angus is saddened by the lost of Yellow, but deep inside, he never loses faith. We watch him whistling for the dog, who has responded to the signal before. Throughout the ordeal Angus never loses hope of being reunited with Yellow.

Jesse Bradford, makes a great impression as the resourceful Angus. Bruce Davison and Mimi Rogers are seen as the parents. Ultimately, the trainers of Dakotah, the Yellow dog in the picture, must be congratulated for their skill in making this amazing dog perform some excellent work and its inter action with Jesse Bradford.

A film for all ages, but mostly for young children thanks to Phillip Borsos.

"Far From Home, the Adventures of Yellowdog" is a very simple film, very much suitable to family viewing. And in this day and age, with bathroom humor and violence very common in family films, it's very nice to see a movie which can hold interest without all that.

The plot line is very simple, you can pretty much figure out the whole storyline by just reading the scene index on the DVD liner, and the acting is very basic. But where the movie truly shines is through local color and cinematography. The sweeping views of the Pacific Northwest shoreline, lush green forests, and amazing wilderness makes a viewer almost be able to breath in the fresh air. The bond between Angus and his Labrador Retriever conveys the message of loyalty and love.

While you won't get a deep storyline or a life lesson like what was conveyed in "Old Yeller"(the original boy-and-big-yellow-dog movie),you will get a pleasant 87 minute adventure away from a sea of bad reality TV, violence, and general stupidity. Worth the $10.00 you will spend on the DVD at Wal*Mart.

Far from Home - The Adventures of Yellow Dog

Despite a rather ridiculous title ("The Adventures of Yellow Dog"?), this winning tale of a 14-year-old boy's bond with a yellow lab will warm your heart. Okay, I'm lying--but it will entertain the kiddies. It's a children's version of "Cast Away" after Jesse Bradford is stranded in a Canadian wilderness with his pet dog, left with only a few items for survival. Really, it's not as bad as it sounds.

1995, PG (violence).

*** / *****

Angus is learning to drive in his father's pickup truck (with comic results), so he must be in his mid-teens. A mysterious dog shows up at his house, and he wants to keep it, but his parents say it must belong to someone. They reluctantly agree to keep the dog at least until its owner is found, if there is one. The dog causes problems and Angus is reminded he must be responsible for the dog. One day the father is making a delivery on the boat CORMORANT, somewhere on the Pacific coast, with Angus and the dog. The weather gets rough unexpectedly, and the boat capsizes. The father is rescued quickly but does not know what happened to his son. Angus and the dog managed to get in a small boat Angus helped build, along with some supplies, and they make it to shore. But the area is very isolated, and even though search planes fly over several times, Angus can't make his presence known. He is there for many days with the dog, but despite his age Angus has learned many survival skills (earlier in the movie Angus and his younger brother camped out in the back yard and we saw the father teach some of these skills; the father also gave Angus a knife that had been given to him by his father) and gets along quite well. After a while the food situation gets so bad Angus even eats some of the cookies his girlfriend Sara made him. The dog helps some, even chasing away wolves and later a bobcat (these were the only scary scenes, but nothing that should bother parents). Angus later starts moving toward civilization. The search team shows signs of giving up, but as in most movies like this, the parents will not let them. This was an okay movie. No standout performances, and nothing to make it better than any other movies like it, but the boy's ability to take care of himself was nothing less than amazing.

This is a locally made movie, so my expectations were low. It was a gripping tale. First, the characters were all thoroughly likable, none of the Hollywood cliché petty cruelties and insults. The landscapes are spectacular and menacing. The imaginative use of mixed sound and music gives a heightened sense of reality. Even though I saw it on a relatively small screen, it has much of the emotional impact of IMAX. Of course yellow dog steals the show since she is so sincere. This is not a cute film, but a rather scary tale of getting lost, survival and rescue.

Only in retrospect did I wonder how the climatic scene was done. I still wonder if everyone, including yellow dog risked their necks to shoot it. The natural world dangers in the film were similar to dangers I have lived myself, so they seemed ever so much more frightening than guns and bombs. It would be a bit too frightening for small children.

Even though I knew I was being strongly manipulated by the inevitable happy ending, I could not help myself from bursting into tears.