fivexchamps A movie so steeped in virtue it's breathtaking. An absolute American masterpiece that enriched the lives of all that had the honor to view it.

bkoganbing Set in the Depression Era Ozark country, the Coleman family has it pretty tough as most did in those years. But they are a wholesome lot without getting too sticky sentimental. The parents are Jack Ging and Beverly Garland and their oldest Stewart Petersen a slightly pre- pubescent adolescent has only one thing in mind. He's a country kid who has his heart set on getting and training a pair of hunting dogs for coon hunting and on the advice of his grandfather James Whitmore works like a dog to get the money to buy a pair of puppies to train.Coon hunting is both a profession and a labor of love for those who get into it. We see young Petersen train his canines to be the best. But it comes at a tragic price.Where The Red Fern grows is a fine family film that most likely never played in the cosmopolitan east during its release. Stewart Petersen was a Mormon Kid who did a bunch of these of varying quality during the 70s. He comes across as a real and not a Hollywood kid and he gets good support from the veteran cast. Note the Osmonds as producers. Petersen did films for the LDS church itself as well as other family features in the 70s.Where The Red Fern Grows holds up well today. Dig the Quo Vadis type ending which explains about the significance of the Red Fern.

gavin6942 "Where the Red Fern Grows" is the heartwarming and adventurous tale for all ages about a young boy and his quest for his own red-bone hound hunting dogs.The number one reason to see this movie: it has early cinematography from the master, Dean Cundey. The number two reason to see this movie: Beverly Garland (star of "The Alligator People") in a completely normal role.Unfortunately, the version I saw (on Netflix) is full screen. Maybe it was filmed that way, but I suspect somewhere out there a widescreen version exists, and if the right elements were found, the picture could be sharper, too. This is not really the kind of film that demands that kind of attention, but who knows? Maybe it will happen.

shneur Yet another fictional "memoir" of that final year before puberty, which seems colored for so many in sepia or pastel tones of impenetrable nostalgia. There are so many of them that if the films were laid end to end they'd undoubtedly reach the moon. For me, "Stand By Me" is the sine qua non, but as this one precedes it by more than a decade, perhaps it's unfair to compare. In any case, this is the tale of a 12-y/o boy during the depression who longs to acquire a pair of hound dogs with which he can hunt raccoons. Now I don't suppose my opinions about scaring small animals out of their wits and then killing them is particularly relevant here, but if you're going to extol the practice, then at least be honest enough to show it! Here, each raccoon is pursued up a tree, and then seamlessly transformed into a clean and bloodless pelt -- probably tanned and deodorized too, though I couldn't be sure about that. Other than that, I can tell you that the boy was a year older the next year, and that there's an old Indian story about a red fern and two lovers. I suppose if this kid was your grandfather, this might make a good story to loll you to sleep on a cold winter's night, but since he wasn't related to me I found I didn't care for or about him any more at the end of the movie than before I watched it. My advice: give this one a pass.