sliderzuk I do not think it is necessary to put a shallow political spin on this charming film. The film basically follows two plots - one is the boy from a poor background who has a goal of changing himself for the better, and eventually represents his country in the Commonwealth Games in Australia. The other plot is the boy meets girl, falls in love, meets another in Australia - original girl hears about it - gets jealous - he comes home and makes up. All the while a great cast fleshes out some wonderful characters in the Highlands - and it is great to hear Highland accents for a change - against a backdrop of wonderful scenery and some fantastic gaelic choral singing; beautiful, too, for its rarity in film. Bill Travers, early in his career - and just under a decade away from Born Free - gives a spirited performance and is highly endearing in the part. All of this old world Highland Scots seems like a world away from now, but the basic story holds up, and, thank goodness, it was made in colour to show up the Highlands at their best.

bob the moo Little Geordie is the smallest boy in the glen, barely able to reach the blackboard at school and as weak as watery broth with it. Fed up with the situation he begins a course of body building despite being just a bairn and continues it into his teens and adulthood. By the time he is 21 he has turned into a fine body of a man. It seems only natural that he will work with his father on the Laird's land and his life seems marked out before him. However should he be making more use of the wonderful physic that he has built?There was a time when Celtic flavour was all the rage – particularly around the time of The Quiet Man, Trouble in the Glen and many other films of the period that cashed in on it. With that in mind it may be that this film was put together faster than it should have been because, while enjoyable, it is not quite as good in depth as it should have been. The plot starts being about body building, then works around it for a while before taking the story to the Olympics; it is enough of a narrative flow to keep things moving but it wasn't the slight story that gave me pause. No, it was the fact that much of the film was close to a character piece on Geordie but yet the character wasn't there.He is a simple character and, although that may be the point, I still think that more could have been made of the person. As it was the film was amiable enough, amusing without ever being funny, engaging without ever being considered a great tale. The cast are not great but do the job reasonably well. Bill Travers has always been a strange leading man for my money and this is not one of his finer hours – he overdoes the simple Scottish cliché and forgets to give Geordie much of a personality. Sim is enjoyable enough but the film was there for the dominating and he didn't do it – although in fairness this may have been a deliberate decision. Gorsen is OK – a bonnie lass but no more although support is generally good.Overall this is an OK film but hardly anything beyond the Celtic flavour film that it is. The central character is not good enough to carry the whole film, a problem given that the plot actually relies on that heavily at times. It distracts and is pleasing enough but expect more than that at your peril.

gbthomas It is time that this movie was released on DVD. It has been at least ten years since I last saw it on PBS. The values extolled in this film are never ending, and perhaps even timely in this period of heightened violence in the world. Geordie has been a favourite for many years and, notwithstanding my like for all of the classic and modern hard-hitting western, war and other action films, the scene where Geordie tosses the hammer for a Gold Medal while he envisions his sweetheart coming over a hill through the heather is only one that remains stuck in my mind, even to this day.

ccogan I saw this film as a small boy in England. I loved it at the time and I have never forgotten it. I first saw this movie at boarding school when I was about 9. I have seen it since once on TV late at night, but I agree that it ought to be made available on Video or DVD.