My Side of the Mountain

I have had this film etched upon my memory ever since I saw it around 35 years ago as a 7/ 8 year old in cinema in North London. I have never seen it since, but I remember, rather like the solitude of the boy in the film, being left at the cinema by my mother and then picked up outside long after the film had finished - this was a different era after all, kids were given much more freedom to roam then. So being apart from my family helped me get into the character of the boy completely and I guess I just zoned out of myself onto the boy on the screen. It all seems like some beautiful dream of a long gone and innocent world that sort of tapped into the hippie consciousness of the time. I would love to get a copy of this somewhere so my own children can see it.

Corny but enjoyable nature story about a young boy who decides to run away from his life in the city to live in the woods for a year like Thoreau. If you can get past the premise that there are 12-year olds out there who are into Thoreau, the film is compulsively watchable as we watch the boy learn how to make shelter, find food, train a falcon, and other survival skills to live off the fatted land. This is the film's main charm because the rest of the film was awfully trite, such as the boy visiting town and being teased by locals, or the kindly librarian who helps him research wildness skills, or his a friendship with a folk singing also living in with woods. However, most anytime a film shows someone making or learning something, it grabs an audience and is interesting to watch, whether it's Rocky chasing chickens to train for his big fight or Freddy Krueger building his clawed glove to do what he does, this is a filmmaker trick for sucking an audience in that always seems to work. Remember those Mr. Rogers segments where he show how crayons or boxes get made? Those are just inarguably fascinating to watch, but I digress. Overall, "My Side of the Mountain" could easily have been a Disney nature film, though less silly and cutsy than Disney, and if that sounds like a good thing to you, you'd probably enjoy this film.

This film will mean a lot to children of a certain age, particularly boys. It's not really an adventure story, but it is 'boy runs away from family' story done in the old Disney style- that is, you never reall feel that he's in serious danger, and you learn a lot about nature and love along the way. Worthwhile.

I saw this movie when i was a kid and thought it was wonderful. i must have been about 12 or 14. It made me want to eat algae pancakes. I think it had a good lesson, and remember it made me appreciate the mountains. maybe the acting isn't all that great, but it is a Good kid movie. i don't remember why the title was my side of the mountain but i have thought about it over the years and i am 42 now so it must have had an impact on me to last this long. with all the bad movies they make for kids these days i don't think you can go wrong with this one. if you go into it with low expectations you may find that is was much better than you thought it would be.

I saw this movie as a child with my family, my mother being the most enthusiastic as it was filmed in Sutton QC, where she grew up. Back then, I thought the idea of going into the mountains and living in one's own treehouse was a fabulous idea!

The familiar scenery of the Green Mountains of southern Québec was breathtaking on the big screen. My mother pointed out the scene where Teddy Eccles' character, Sam, goes to the library in Knowlton, a library she had been to many times.

I understand Eccles attended and signed the guestbook of Olivet Baptist Church in Sutton, the church where my mother grew up.

Certainly, every kid has a dream of some adventure independent of parents and this movie helped me live mine a little.