THE YEARLING
US, 1946, 134 minutes, Colour.
Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman Jr., Chill Wills, Margaret Wycherly, Henry Travers, Forrest Tucker.
Directed by Clarence Brown.
The Yearling is a very attractive film classic for the family. It is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. The film was intended as a vehicle in the early '40s for Spencer Tracy. However, production had to be postponed and at the end of the war the film was made with Gregory Peck. Peck was at the beginning of his career, making quite a number of fine films including The Keys of the Kingdom, Spellbound, Gentleman's Agreement. He received an Oscar nomination for this role as did Jane Wyman. She portrays a very repressed, hard mother - in contrast to the many warm attractive roles that she played. She was to win an Oscar in 1948 for Johnny Belinda.
The film introduced Claude Jarman Jr. He is appealing and effective in the central role of Jody. He was not to make many films, but one striking film also with director Clarence Brown was Intruder in the Dust, 1949. Clarence Brown, the director, made a number of impressive films in the '30s and '40s, including several of Greta Garbo's films and the other M.G.M. family classic concerning animals, National Velvet. The film itself is beautifully photographed and won Oscars for colour photography and set decoration and was nominated for Best Film. The treatment is full of sentiment and poignancy - perhaps a bit too much for later decades, especially in sky sequences with celestial choirs. However, the film has a strength in its portrayal of a young boy learning to grow up into the adult world.
1. The status of the film as a family classic? Its many Oscar nominations and wins for production values? The perennial appeal for the family?
2. The colour photography, the stars and the strength of their performances, Claude Jarman Jr. engaging audience sympathy and attention? Children identifying with him? The prize-winning novel, the adaptation to the screen, the use of musical themes from the composer Delius for the score?
3. The tribute to the pioneers and the memory of American pioneers in faraway states as, here, in Florida? Tribute. memory? The historical setting - the Civil War and its aftermath? The swamplands, the farms , the small communities growing up? The preserving and handing on of the American tradition, especially within the family?
4. The presentation of Florida in the 19th. century, isolation, beauty, hard work, the capacity of the peoples for survival, the family unit, neighbours, harmony and clashes? How well did the film immerse the audience in this world and its values?
5. The Baxter family? The introduction and the voice-over commentary by Pa? Their simple life, the swamplands, their home.. the vegetable gardens? The animals? Pa and his hard work? Jody and his love of the animals? The encounter with the bear? The story to the neighbours and the clashes? Pa and the snake bite and Jody's helping him? Pa and the hard work and the back injury? Gregory Peck's style as Pa? His wisdom, love and affection for his son, the rapport with his son? A sympathetic and engaging presentation of an American father?
6. The contrast with Ma - her tight manner, severity of appearance and word, the deaths of her children, her hard life and attitudes towards it? Her inability to show affection to Pa or to Jody? Her reaction to the fawn? Her severity and wanting it out of the house? Her reaction to its destruction of the crops? Her visit to town and her surprise that people remembered her? Jody's running away and her breaking, her telling the story to make them laugh - and its seeming lack of humour? Jody's return and the reconciliation, her ability to express her feelings? Jane Wyman's sensitive performance in a difficult role for audience sympathy? How well did she communicate this kind of tormented ordinary mother?
7. The presentation of the neighbours, their work, life, the clashes? Jody's friendship with Fodderwing? Their talks together, Fodderwing and the name for the fawn? His death and Jody's grief? The burial and the words said about him - indicating the religious feeling, hopes and values of the community?
8. The film's focus on Jody - an attractive young boy, the deaths of his brothers and sisters and their place in the cemetery, his love for his parents, sharing their way of life, hard work, his joy in nature and the animals, his need for companionship, the importance of the encounter with the fawn, his care for it after rescuing it? His relationship with his father and the tenderness and strength of love? His love for his mother and yet her lack of response? His grief at Fodderwing's death and burial? His growing up? The fawn developing over the year, growing bigger, the destruction of the crops and Jody's not wanting to blame the fawn? His working harder, building the fence? Ma helping with the fence in Pa's absence and injury? The final crisis and his unwilling~ ness to shoot the deer? Ma and her shooting and his resentment? The running away, the hunger, the riverboat, his return and reconciliation?
9. How important was his growing up - the role of his father in explaining things to him, sympathy, strength of judgment and decisiveness? ma and her reconciliation and warmth at the end?
10. Audience response to the young fawn, Jodie's caring for it, its place in the house, getting a name from Fodderwing, the visual presentation of the fawn and its growth? Audience response to its destruction of the crops, the need for destroying it?
11. The world of nature, beauty, growth and seasons? The long sequence of the rain, the fine weather and the sowing again of crops etc?
12. How well did the film blend sentiment, poignancy, wisdom and experience?
