The Yearling

A farm in the woods in Florida. Penny Baxter works the land in hard conditions; his wife Ora lost three children and has become a hard woman. Their son Jody is twelve and alone. One day Penny is bitten by a snake; to save himself he shoots a doe and uses its liver. The doe's fawn is left behind. Jody brings it home. The fawn grows and starts eating the crop. That crop is what the family will live on through the winter. Clarence Brown directs. The film is adapted from the novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman Jr. and Chill Wills are in the cast. It is an American production. Claude Jarman Jr. received the Academy's special award for a child performer for the role. The film was shot in colour and won awards for cinematography and art direction. The matter it treats is the price of growing up; the boy is made to take his own decision and the decision is bitter. The narrative does not avoid showing rural poverty; hunger and illness are inside it. The mother is drawn as unlikeable, and by the end her reasons are understood. It was shot in Florida in real woodland. The film looks as though it was made for children but its subject is heavy. The ending leaves the boy changed. Its limit is pace; the narrative is long, slow, and the emotional pressure high. Who it is for: viewers who like classic Hollywood family drama. Who it is not for: it is slow, sorrowful, and the ending bitter.