evanston_dad "The Yearling" is one of those movies I had stayed away from because of my misguided perceptions about what it was going to be like (maudlin, sentimental, "family friendly" in all the worst ways). How wonderful to have those perceptions proven wrong and to discover such a beautiful, moving film.Most people know the plot of this movie. It takes a tough, matter of fact attitude about death and the natural world and doesn't offer a lot of cornball platitudes to soften the blow the way you might expect a movie from the 1940s to do. I wonder if this is largely because it came out right after the end of WWII, when films could begin allowing themselves to be honest and jaded rather than peppy morale boosters. At the same time, it's not a depressing movie; far from it. It captures perfectly one of those experiences -- of which there are many -- that mark the transition from childhood to adulthood. Much is to be gained from being able to experience the world as an adult, but much is lost too.One of the things I liked best about "The Yearling" was its visual style. Art directors Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse along with cinematographers Charles Rosher, Leonard Smith, and Arthur Arling use Technicolor to create an almost expressionistic version of the Florida swamps and an isolated farmstead. Parts of the film almost look like they're happening in a dream. The effect highlights the beauty and wonder of the natural world, but it also serves the purpose of making the men who populate it seem even smaller and humbler in comparison to all the grandeur.Gregory Peck and especially Jane Wyman give lovely performances as parents, and Claude Jarman, Jr. won a special juvenile Oscar as the young boy who adopts an ill-advised pet. The film deservedly won the Oscars for Art Direction and Cinematography in the color categories, and brought nominations to Peck and Wyman in the Actor and Actress categories, respectively, as well as to Harold Kress for his editing, Clarence Brown for his directing, and MGM for Best Picture of the year.Grade: A+

evening1 A powerful family film about loss and resilience.Thirty-year-old Gregory Peck, at his most boyishly handsome here, plays a Job-like soul of post-Civil War, backwoods Florida, a man who can't shoot straight when a bear kills his livestock, gets fanged by a rattlesnake, and pulls a hernia while uprooting a tree.His saturnine wife, embodied with simmering rage by a stellar Jane Wyman, sinks toward hopelessness after the deaths of her infant children and nature's ravages of the family's homestead. Their only surviving child, played well by Claude Jarman Jr. in his film debut, has just one friend -- the orphaned fawn of the movie's title.This emotionally rich film is beautiful in its depictions of the wild southern terrain and its characters' intimacies. A few questions are left unanswered. The odd young character Fodderwing is perhaps intended to be mentally retarded. One wonders why his family left him unsupervised when he wanted to fly.My 10-year-old son didn't want to watch "Yearling," thinking it too old-fashioned. But he was deeply drawn in by the film's second hour.A memorable effort.

edwagreen Yes, this is a story of coming of age, maturity and the realization that your childhood may be over; with these great themes, I was very much disappointed with this 1946 film.Claude Jarman Jr. was constantly whining here. I also got tired of the constant "paw," "maw," etc. After a while, I expected a backdrop of the Kentucky back woods.The film was a departure for Jane Wyman in her usual sympathetic roles. Here, she was an embittered woman. Frontier life was apparently too much for her. She is also quite nasty; unlike Gregory Peck, who does so well in his usual understanding roles.How about taking the deer and going far away with it? You knew it was going to follow you.Obviously, Jarman realizes that his childhood is over in the film. He could have met up with Jean Brodie; after all, her prime was done for as well.

Robert J. Maxwell This family lives in the near-swamp country of 1870 Florida -- Gregory Peck as the stolid, humane pater familias, Jane Wyman as his hard-working wife, a little grim maybe, and Claude Jarman Jr. as their blond, pudding-faced son who finds a tiny fawn and brings it home to raise. The deer, like most animals, gets less cute as he grows up and starts to destroy the family's little plot of corn, which must last them through the winter.Jarmon tries to take the deer into the woods and lose it but like cats, like dogs, like my ex wife, no matter how far away you take them or how often, no matter how desperate you are to get rid of them, they always find their way home. The deer, Flagg, finally suffers the fate of so many prey animals, an event in which Jarman is coincidentally instrumental.What's striking about the movie, aside from the story, is the photography and set dressing. Man, this looks like it could be post-Civil-War Florida. The hardy and religious folk talk a kinda patois from the rural end of the folk-urban continuum. "He ain't hurt nobody none." "Ya got ta put him out of his torment." "Lord, why did my boy grow up so crookedly?" It's easy to look at -- what with its swamps and palmettos and blackwater creeks -- and fun to listen to.The acting is Hollywood professional. Peck's family may be marginal, living on hard work and hopes, their clothes slowly devolving into washrags, but he's always clean shaven and handsome. They went to some effort to deglamorize Jane Wyman. And Jarman Jr. pulls off his role with enthusiasm and at least a modicum of skill. None of the performances is outstanding but none is a disaster. Clarence Brown's direction is functional and lacking in poetry. It gets the job done without being in any way imaginative. When Peck sits on his son's bed and reminisces and fantasizes about his dreams, he stares at the wall. During a long monologue that's all he does. He doesn't blink. He doesn't glance down at his son's face. His gaze doesn't drift. He stares at the same space, as a painted portrait might.And when poor little Claude Jarman Jr. hears a shot and realizes that Flagg has (sob) been wounded and -- and -- pardon me -- that he must be dispatched with another shot, sob, administered by the very boy who LOVES HIM, why -- excuse me -- there won't be no dry eye in the house.I don't think they could make anything like this again. Our sensibilities have become too coarsened. We'd have to see the deer's skull shattered by a dozen shotgun pellets, the blood and brain tissue spattering the kid's horrified face. Maybe in slow motion. And then, Maw and Paw, being the practical people they are, would have to force Jarmon Jr. to EAT the animal he raised and adored. "Cain't have no food going' to no waste round here, Son, tough as it may be -- the situation that is, not the meat, cause you got to admit that venison's a mite tasty. Here, try a eyeball. Do you a power of good. Now stop that snifflin', Son. Ain't no need for no snifflin'. Just for double and triple negatives." I never read Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings novel. If it's as evocative of a given lifetyle at a given period as the film is, it might be rather good.