My Side of the Mountain

Sam Gribley (Teddy Eccles), a brilliant child, leaves home for the mountains after being told that the family summer trip has been canceled, thus preventing him from doing the algae experiments he had planned for that summer. The film chronicles his struggle for independence, and with the forces of natures.

Ted Bikel said in his autobiography, "What was unusual about this production was that they asked me not only to sing and play, but to write the songs as well." Other than the lead actor, Bikel's character of Bando is the most memorable, and unusual. The whole story in general is unusual in how lightly the adults have taken a child who runs away from home.

Not to knock the movie, because I enjoyed it greatly, but I wonder if it inspired other children to run away from home. Sam has a pretty easy time of training a falcon, eating wild plants and surviving the weather. I think it far more likely he would have starved and gotten sick several times. That may not be a family-friendly story, but it would be more likely.