RUN WILD, RUN FREE

UK, 1969, 100 minutes, Colour.
John Mills, Mark Lester, Gordon Jackson, Fiona Fullerton, Sylvia Syms, Bernard Miles.
Directed by Richard C. Sarafian.

Run Wild, Run Free is a film about a ten-year-old autistic boy. He roams the English moors by himself until he finds a white albino colt whom he befriends. A young girl is also friendly with him and they befriend a falcon. With the help of a man from the moors, the boy comes gradually out of himself – but not without many problems. John Mills is very good and genial as the man from the moors. Mark Lester, who had just appeared in Oliver, is the young boy. Gordon Jackson and Sylvia Syms are his parents.

The film was directed by American Richard C. Sarafian who had directed quite an amount of television material in the 1960s and then made Shadow on the Land with Gene Hackman. He was to have a successful career in the 1970s with a range of films including Vanishing Point and Man in the Wilderness.

Audiences interested in this theme will be able to compare it with Ken Loach’s much more profound Kes which was released in the previous year.

1. The appeal of this film? for family audiences, for children? The appeal of a film about horses, about children and animals? A handicapped child? An animal adventure? How well were these ingredients presented?

2. The qualities of the film in its presentation of animals, colour and locations?

3. The emphasis of the title on the colt and on Philip? The original novel was called 'The 'White Colt'. The film was first called 'Philip'. Which was the emphasis of the film?

4. How well did the film focus on Philip and convey his character to the audience? The quality of Mark Lester's performance? Communication without being able to speak? How did he communicate? Audience sympathy for him? Understanding what had happened to him, his fear, suffering, the world that he lived in, an enclosed world? His relationship to his mother and father? Their love, their impatience? His lack of response to treatment? Why?

5. The importance of the character or the Moorman? His life on the moors, understanding of animals, friendship with Philip, help with catching the colt? Contribution to Philip's growth and joy? How was Philip's joy evoked visually?

6. The importance of the character of Diana? Reach's helping her to help Philip? The Moorman's appeal to her? Their communicating especially with the kestrel? The help that it gave to Philip? The savagery of his chasing the colt while still tied to the kestrel? The listlessness at the death of the kestrel? His seeming helplessness?

7. The interest of the Moorman in Philip and the contrast with his parents? How was this dramatised, the presentation of the parents adequate? Their own particular difficulties and sensitivities?

8. The importance or Philip's learning to ride? The effect that it had on him?

9. The dramatic importance of the crisis, for the colt in the mire, for Philip helpless to rescue it, for their being lost, for the Moorman and his anxiety to find him, for Diana?

10. The physical effort for Philip to help get the colt? The speaking? The colt as a symbol for Philip? For his success and effort?

11. How real did the film seem? How humans? The human achievement, the love for animals?

12. How well did the film present the children's world? The adult world? And the contrast of the two?