The Wild Country

Steve Forrest and Vera Miles leave Pittsburgh with their sons, Ron and Clint Howard and move to Jackson Hole to farm. However, despite friendly Mountain Men, the big rancher won't let them have any water, and their farm starts to dry up.

It's an agreeable movie to spend a couple of hours with, with some spectacular scenery shot on actual location, but despite the competence of everyone, it looks like they were striving for something and missed it. Was it director Robert Totten, the man whose the previous year's DEATH OF A GUNFIGHTER was the birth of Alan Smithee? Cinematographer Frank Phillips, who compositions show so much baby-blue sky that you don't see the people? The Howard brothers, who performances are monotonous? The post-Walt habit Disney had of reducing everything to blandly heartwarming? I'm not sure, but miscalculations like that turn what could have been a fine movie into one that is good.

A family moves from Pittsburgh to Wyoming to become farmers in the late 1800s. They face the expected amount of hardships, including a tornado and a murderous rancher. Wilderness family adventure movies are usually fun to watch. This one doesn't break any new ground, even for 1970, but it'll keep your attention. It's enjoyable even if it's stuff you've seen before. Steve Forrest and Vera Miles are the parents. He's for the pioneer life but she wants to move back to civilization. Ron Howard is the teenage son anxious to be a man. Clint Howard is the annoying little brother who likes to make pets of all the animals. Jack Elam is lots of fun as a goofy mountain man and Frank DeKova has another of his Indian roles he was known for. Dan Haggerty has a blink-and-you'll-miss-him background part. Surprisingly violent for a Disney movie. Tornado scene was very well done. Beautiful scenery is a plus. Worth checking out if you're a fan of such movies.

This is a good Disney family film about the Tanner family: Jim the father (Steve Forrest), Kate the mother (Vera Miles), Virgil the older boy (Ron Howard) and Andrew the younger boy (Clint Howard). They take on farming in the West in the late 19th Century or early 20th Century. There is a tornado in the movie. There is a fight over irrigation water, and it seems the father got killed in it. The Wild Country is based on the book "Little Britches" by Ralph Moody. Ralph Moody's parents lived in New England and moved to the Littleton, Colorado, area, where there was an irrigation fight and Ralph's father died of bad health. Ralph wrote a number of books about his life, including "Horse of a Different Color," which tells about his experiences in the cattle feeding business in the McCook, Nebraska-Oberlin, Kansas area.

Bought this one on Amazon Prime and it made my Day. Good clean Fun with all the elements of a Great Western. Morgan Woodward stellar as the Mean Heavy(Cross). Jack Elam brings his character (Thompson) to Life with the Best. Many close ups of Vera Miles and Steve Forrest as Mom and Dad (Tanner) and The Howard Brothers as THE BOYS ( Read their New Book). The Intention and Obstacle are clear as Story is About a Family that moves West and settles in new Town only to get into Water Rights Fight with Cross led clan.

When I was a child, I caught about the last third of this Disney movie on television, and it made a real impression on me. For decades afterwards, I wondered what the title was, but I couldn't remember it. But just the other day, I caught the entire package on Turner Classic Movies, and I was delighted to finally identify the movie. Seeing the entire thing as an adult, I think I can sum it up by saying that with the movie being an early 1970s movie from the Disney company involving a big city family in the late 1800s moving to the countryside, you can probably predict how most of it will play out. That's not to say that the movie isn't enjoyable, but you should probably be willing to put up with a number of familiar plot turns and characters. Those who do will find some nice scenery, pacing more leisurely than the hyperkinetic family movies made today, and some good messages about working hard and never giving up. It's not a Disney classic, but it's likable enough if this kind of thing is what you want. A word of warning, however: While the movie got a "G" rating back in 1970, there is some surprisingly harsh violence and intense situations that would unquestionably earn the movie a "PG" rating today.