I saw this film on August 24th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.Obviously this is an often-told tale about a boy and his beautiful and intelligent collie. But … this is an especially fine telling of that story and specifically of the loyalty and love that can happen between a boy and his dog.
The story is set in England prior to World War II. The boy, Joe, is from a working class family and the father loses his coalmining job when the coal peters out. Lassie catches the eye of a rich Duke played by Peter O’Toole and Joe’s parents reluctantly sell Lassie to obtain much needed cash. This causes Joe to go into a deep sadness. But to make things worse for Joe and his parents, Lassie regularly escapes the Duke’s dog handler and finds his way back to Joe. Over and over the dog is honorably returned to the Duke because a deal is a deal.
Finally the Duke goes off to his other home in Northern Scotland 500 miles away and takes Lassie with him. Lassie escapes again and the rest of the movie revolves around the impossible attempted journey back to Joe.
Lassie is obligated to steal the movie, but he doesn’t quite do this. There are too many other interesting things going on. Peter O’Toole is a great curmudgeon with a slowly revealed heart of gold. The English countryside is gorgeous. And the rich class- poor class dichotomy is adroitly told.
Honor and integrity and human dignity are human traits that can be shown by anyone despite their age or sex or income or social status in life. That’s a message worth communicating in a movie.
FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.
