My Side of the Mountain

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John B If you saw this film as a kid, you'll enjoy revisiting it for the nostalgia hit, but some of it will come off as laughable. For a kid who's supposed to be "nature savvy", he has trouble getting a fire going, and when he does, he's adding kindling like he's afraid of it. He sets fire to the inside of his tree home to enlarge it, then wanders off to look for dinner. What could possible go wrong? The "falcon chicks" in the eyrie that he climbs to are obviously pheasant poults, but then who would know the difference? The actor playing Sam seems all wrong for the part, he's clearly not too comfortable in nature and comes off as a bit clueless, which is partly due to some ridiculous screen writing. Despite some of these major flaws, the movie is still enjoyable as a whole. The ending is particularly well-done. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 09/10/24 Full Review Audience Member Even a child needs his own side of the mountain Based on the book by Jean Craighead George and directed by James B. Clark A young boy Sam decides to go out into the wilderness to live a solitary life His idol is author/naturalist David Thoreau Sam is more privy to the wildlife than civilized society In the Canadian wilderness he sets up camp, goes hunting, and has his raccoon pal Gus He even adopts a pet falcon Frightful and befriends a librarian next to a traveling folk musician Sam narrates much of the story tracking his progress Yet he faces so much criticism and trouble from all the other grown ups saying he's not capable plus the winter season sets in testing his survival skills Ted Eccles does a wonderful job playing this young boy wanting a taste of Mother Nature, slowly he builds his confidence over time even when he avoids being seen by the outside world The only way to know nature is to live it Sam finds hardship but also hope in the most unexpected of places being he wants to be somewhat a disobedient person like Thoreau himself in nature that's more simple than complicated civilian life He learns to be a man in his own way and that's what Clark succeeds at getting across in a simple, small scale tale of looking for one's self Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/26/24 Full Review Audience Member It was a nice movie to watch with a young family, but, the circumstances seemed highly improbable that he'd actually survive all that. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review steve d Cheese filled adaptation that even fans of the book will avoid. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review s r Saw this as a kid and I wondered why I didn't remember much. Saw it again on Kanopy and it was exciting for kids, but not much else when showing the realities of survival in the wilderness. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Corny but enjoyable nature story about a young boy who decides to run away from his life in the city to live in the woods for a year like Thoreau. If you can get past the premise that there are 12-year olds out there who are into Thoreau, the film is compulsively watchable as we watch the boy learn how to make shelter, find food, train a falcon, and other survival skills to live off the fatted land. This is the film's main charm because the rest of the film was awfully trite, such as the boy visiting town and being teased by locals, or the kindly librarian who helps him research wildness skills, or his a friendship with a folk singing also living in with woods. However, most anytime a film shows someone making or learning something, it grabs an audience and is interesting to watch, whether it's Rocky chasing chickens to train for his big fight or Freddy Krueger building his clawed glove to do what he does, this is a filmmaker trick for sucking an audience in that always seems to work. Remember those Mr. Rogers segments where he show how crayons or boxes get made? Those are just inarguably fascinating to watch, but I digress. Overall, "My Side of the Mountain" could easily have been a Disney nature film, though less silly and cutsy than Disney, and if that sounds like a good thing to you, you'd probably enjoy this film. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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