THE GOLDEN SEAL

US, 1983, 94 minutes, Colour.
Stave Railsback, Michael Beck, Penelope Milford.
Directed by Frank Zuniga.

The Golden Seal is vigorous family entertainment. It is basically familiar material, a family in remote circumstances and a son who befriends a seal. Naturally, there are crises. However, the film was made in the Aleutian Islands and has extraordinary scenery of mountains, snow-clad peaks, islands and tempestuous seas. The golden seal is also a symbol of Aleutian Island mythology, that it will appear before an important time in the world and is a bringer of peace.

There are very good action sequences, delightful sequences of the boy with the seal - and it is solid family entertainment.

1. The picture of life in the Aleutian Islands? Remoteness? Grandeur of scenery? Islands, the mountains and the sea? Simple lifestyle? The house? Travel and communication by boat? The small town and the bringing in of supplies?

2. Scenes of family life - the bond between husband and wife, with their son? The way of training him to cope? And the boy's coping during the storm?

3. The mother and her care for her son, keeping the house, the vegetables? Her concern when he disappeared? Her encouraging her son to express his feelings and tears? The strong father? His training his son to manage? The vision of the golden seal? The father wanting to track it, shoot it? The reaction of his son? The final fight? The seal going - and the father encouraging his son to weep when he was sad? The background of the footloose father and his settling down in the islands?

4. The colour photography of the sea, the storms? Communication by boat? The importance of the sea? Coast? Seals?

5. The significance of the seal? The myth? The quest for seeing it? The Aleutian Islanders and the sense of vision? The oil rigger and his wanting to get the pelt? The father and his wanting to get the pelt and secure his family? The hunting and the shooting?

6. The storm sequence, the bridge collapsing, their rescue in the river?

7. The boy and his seeing the seal? His saving it? Its giving birth? The lyrical swimming sequences?

8. The pursuit, the boy disillusioned with his father, the oil rigger and his double talk, the Aleutian Islander and his wanting to shoot? The father having a change of heart? The islander unable to shoot? The old blind man and his sense of vision?

9. The myth and its meaning?

10. Attractive picture of family life? A boy and animals? Conservation? Message of peace and harmony?