Virtude Selvagem

This is one of the great lost films. I run into ridicule every time I tell people it's one of my favourite films, but what a great film it is. It's got more treacle than Lyles, very sentimental and heart rendering, but I love it for that. It's also got one of the movie worlds most immortal lines when Ma Forester says of her recently deceased physically handicapped son "I lost ma boy!...ma poor crookedly boy". What a movie, takes me back every time. The essence of the main characters is perfectly portrayed by the main leads of Gregory Peck and Jayne Wyman, but Claude Jarman Jnr as Jody has a special place in my childhood. He plays the head-strong boy to perfection, with great depth and warmth. The Yearling will always live on.

This movie comes together and holds up even after nearly 60 years. This is a rural coming of age movie. Gregory Peck is perfect as the hard-working spare-looking father of a son who is on the brink of man-hood. He introduces him to women, fights, and necessary survival skills. There are difficult lessons. Peck is forced to shoot a doe in order to save his own life. He is a man in love with his child's growth process -- not forgetting what being a child is like, yet knowing that harsh lessons are necessary. Jane Wyman plays a wife who has hardened herself against being hurt by turning hard. Who can forget the scene showing the row of headstones. Claude Jarman is perfect as the yearling adolescent. His performance was so wonderful in this film that I think it is one ofthe reasons his career never reached superstar. He is able to depict the coltish behavior of the adolescent male perfectly. This movie remains a classic because the dialogue, the acting and the scenery all come together perfectly. Sometimes an actor becomes a star and then all one sees in the movie is the star's personality. This movie catches both Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman without their superstar persona. They are immersed in the roles; it's impossible to imagine any other performers in the roles; and it's one of the reasons the remake simply didn't do well.

Spencer Tracy was originally supposed to have played the father in 'The Yearling' with Ann Revere as his wife and some footage was even shot on location in Florida and later scrapped. But then, four years later, MGM decided to start again with Gregory Peck as the kindly father, Jane Wyman as his embittered wife and Claude Jarman, Jr. as the naive Jody whose love for a pet fawn is the centerpiece of the story. It was worth the wait. They are all well cast in this tender, warm-hearted story from the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings novel of a family living near the Florida everglades.

The technicolor photography is as impressive as the use of background music, especially in the scene where Jody playfully comes across the abandoned fawn. Jarman's emotions and the soaring score combine to make one of the film's strongest and most appealing moments. Jane Wyman was so convincing as the hardened mother afraid of losing her only child, that when she took her daughter to see the film she wouldn't speak to her for two weeks afterwards--unable to forgive her mother for the final action she takes in the film!

Ideal family entertainment and a must-see for anyone who has missed seeing this film classic. Claude Jarman, Jr. deserved his Academy Award and, although he had never acted before, was chosen from 19,000 applicants to play Jody. Peck plays the father with dignity and restraint, his love for the boy apparent in every frame of the film. An unforgettable coming of age tale, tastefully produced and faithful to the original source.

If you want a movie you can sit down with your kids and really enjoy this film would be it!! It is so hard to find a film now that shows love, working to keep family and food, poisitive outlooks. There is the mom who is closed off from some tragities of her own...but a door opens up for her and helps her lead to love. I want my kids to one day see this film, they so far are pretty positive and would love to see the boy (Jody) running around so free and happy, plus there are many animals in here that kids just love to see!!! Although the ending like most classics are hard to swallow a lot comes from a bad thing, sometimes it seems to take a really sad thing to happen before people can change and truly come together.

Every so often a film comes along that is so endearing, so righteous and so just darn decent - "Old Yeller", "Pollyanna" and, this one, "The Yearling". When watching this film, I couldn't help but think of the others. And, no, not just because of the fact the plot involves a family and the emotional fallout and drama caused by a pet such as in "Old Yeller", or the fact that Jane Wyman stars with an adorable child actor, such as she did in "Pollyanna". It's the feel and the atmosphere that invoked these comparisons. However, where "The Yearling" is on a pedestal all its own is in regards to the fine performances. No, "The Yearling" is not my kind of film. I tend to avoid the saccharine and goopy syrup of movies like this. You know the old adage, "Never make a movie with kids or animals"? Well, mine is "Never watch a movie with kids or animals". But this one sucked me in. I don't quite know what did it. But I got sucked in and couldn't get out. The performances make this movie.

Claude Jarman Jr. stars as Jody Baxter, a young boy living in post-Civil War America who longs for the companionship and love of a pet - someone to take care of and nurture. While Jody's loving father, Ezra(Gregory Peck)makes great strides to give Jody companionship and someone to look up to, Jody suffers from the neglect of his hardened mother, Orry(Wyman), still reeling from the untimely deaths of her other children. Jody befriends a fawn and takes it in as his own. The two bond and love each other. But what happens when the young deer begins to eat the crops that the family live off of? Only tragedy can ensue.

"The Yearling" is a delicately handled film that encapsulates the best of 1800's living. And while this is deemed a "family film", there are some surprisingly difficult scenes and sub-plots that might be scary to some children. I know I was uncomfortable watching the animal fight scenes and the death of one of Jody's close friends. And even though this has got to be one of the most predictable movies, the performances we get from Wyman, Peck and, especially Jarman, are stellar. In the movie's final emotional scenes, no one has been so convincing as Jarman in conveying heartache and mind-numbing trauma. And Wyman, while on the sidelines, is incredible as a woman afraid to open up and terrified to lose her one remaining child. On top of that, the cinematography is first-rate, with some stunning sunset shots and silhouettes set against the backdrop of rural America. And despite some off-kilter bits at the end revolving around Jody getting lost on the river and being found by a ship, "The Yearling" is a solid and heart-warming film that has earned its place among the top Hollywood classics.