The Snow Goose

Having been brought up just a few minutes from the Essex sea marshes, this film has always had a special poignancy for me.

I first saw The Snow Goose during the Christmas holidays in 1971 and it has remained the most moving film I have ever been privileged enough to watch. Everything about the film is as near perfection as it is possible to get. Richard Harris gives a masterful performance as Philip Rhayader and the young and incredibly beautiful (then and now) Jenny Agutter matches him scene for scene with a maturity beyond her years. I have a lump in my throat every time I watch it and I watch it at least once a month.

It is criminal that this film is not commercially available for generations yet unborn to revere as do all those who were fortunate enough to see it. If ever a film deserved a ten plus, this is it.

Postscript: In October 2007, almost 36 years after first watching it, I had the most memorable moment of my film viewing career when I saw a perfect version of The Snow Goose at the BFI, London, while sitting next to my friend Jenny Agutter. Tears were running down my face at the end.

I'm excited to finally find people who remember this film, which I saw on the original Hallmark Hall of Fame airing. It made quite an impression on me and must be the only "favorite" that I've seen a single time. I have read the book many times, and would love to see the film version again.

I've had cable TV for many years and have never seen it listed anywhere. How have people been seeing it since 1971? I haven't gotten any satisfaction from people in Hallmark stores and never got an email response to inquiries.

I recently purchased a DVD copy of the George C. Scott version of Jane Eyre, which I also saw only on Hallmark Hall of Fame (1968?). That revived my hope of finding Snow Goose. Would love to hear from anyone who actually has a copy. Thank you for the info in the comments!

A simple, beautifully-filmed story about a reclusive, hunchbacked lighthouse keeper (Richard Harris) and an orphaned girl (Jenny Agutter, whose beauty shines through her masculine clothing) brought together by an injured snow goose. The story is played out against the backdrop of early Second World War England, but the primary story is about these two outcasts and how their friendship, and their care for the goose, allows them to overcome the pain the rest of the world has inflicted on them. Tragic, unforgettable, yet never mawkish, and never a false note.

It was in June 1972 when this movie was shown on German TV entitled as: Schneegans! I just found out who was the writer of the movie minutes ago after 30 years! I had absolutely no idea who made the movie and in which country it was produced. My god the picture had such a great impact on my little soul, I was just 4 years old, and was watching it with my mother, that until now this movie is the most important in my life! Not only did my mother mention it in her diary, as we both were crying and I just could not recover after the movie, so exciting was this picture, but now I found out, that Rhayader was played by Richard Harris, one of my most favourite actors! This Picture is so full of true love, mystery and devotion, it makes a human being very sensitive for the relationship of humans and animals, that I recommend this picture to all teachers as a lesson on this terms.If a BBC Official is reading this, please reconsider the Will of Gallico and try to obtain the rights for a reissue on DVD (with the Screenplay as a Bonus!) As this movie was not repeated in our Country either (to my knowledge!) since it first aired and after reading all this similar entries I m sure he would reconsider it himself.

This 1971 Hallmark Hall of Fame television production was a priceless gift to those viewers lucky enough to have seen it. The program was run at least twice in the '70s but is now "lost" to the public --- no VHS, no DVD. What a shame. The values that Gallico's story presents are timeless, and Richard Harris and Jenny Agutter were never better. And wrenching? I remember well a room full of adults, men and women alike, sobbing at the conclusion of the program. Folks, THAT"S what a great film is all about.

Other Hallmark productions can be seen on VHS or DVD, but not "The Snow Goose." If only Hallmark would "care enough to send the very best" back to us.