Old Yeller

A film set in Texas in the 1860s. The father sets out on a cattle drive. He will be gone for months and fifteen year old Travis is left as the man of the house. The mother, little Arliss and Travis are alone on the farm. Crops, animals, water, and the wild country around them. A dog turns up. Yellowish, large, belonging to nobody, and the first thing it does is steal the meat from the store. Travis does not want it. Arliss throws his arms around the dog and the animal stays. From there the film is a story of getting used to each other. The dog gradually proves useful; it protects them from hogs, from a bear, it gathers the herd. Travis changes his mind. A strong bond forms between the boy and the animal, and the film builds it through time and events. Then rabies appears in the district. Dead animals are found and the mother warns the children. One night there is an encounter with a wolf. The dog protects the family and is bitten doing it. What the narrative is interested in is not love but responsibility: the decision at the end is left to a child rather than an adult, and the narrative does not soften it. The ending is counted among the most discussed closings in American children's cinema. The production was made as a family film and the final scene was never changed. The source is Fred Gipson's novel; the author worked on the screenplay too. Tommy Kirk, Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker and Kevin Corcoran are in the cast. Robert Stevenson directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes classical family films and stories about animals. Who it is not for: anyone looking for something not upsetting for small children; the ending is plainly shattering and should not be watched unprepared.