Education Movie Reviews
At first it might seem easy to dismiss this movie as hokey, especially when Little Tree's Scottish grandfather teaches him to make whiskey and he befriends a dog. But the film gains emotional power when Little Tree becomes close to an older Cherokee who tells him about the Trail of Tears. When the government places Little Tree in an Indian school, where he is abused physically and psychologically, the tough issue of the forced assimilation of Native Americans isn't glossed over. Excellent performances and a gripping story make this well worth watching with children ages 8 and up.
An interesting side note: Forrest Carter, who wrote the book the movie is based on, was a one-time KKK member and speechwriter for George Wallace. It's hard to imagine how a former white supremacist could write such a moving tale about racism. Despite the controversy surrounding Carter, this sensitive film deserves to be taken on its own terms. --Elisabeth Keating
Little Tree, Big Controversy
this movie is wonderful seen it before8 year old boy has to live in 1930;s living in 2 worlds
the indian and the other world people the grandparents
who taught him the old and the new way...please watch it
youwill not be dissapointed
Tale Of Lost OpportunityThe Native Americans that are included in this film are The Cherokee People, and their story, including, "The Trail Of Tears", play a prominent role. Like other Native Americans, The Cherokee lived without destroying the land and the wildlife they coexisted with. They only used what they needed, greed did not drive them to exploit nature and destroy her, as we and our ancestors have, and continue to do.
The movie is beautifully filmed in the mountains of Tennessee, and the director took the time to capture the natural beauty that European settlers were to exploit and ruin. It's true some of this beauty still exists, but is largely because it has become national parkland, rather than having been left unmolested out of respect for its intrinsic value. Poignant moments are frequent in this film, and one is certainly when a young boy who is half Cherokee is sent off to a Dickensian nightmare of a school to be abused because of his, "Indian Blood". Upon his arrival he is stripped of his Native American name and given an, "American replacement", Joshua. It appears that biblical names were originally written for re-naming true Americans.
Graham Greene is a familiar face to many moviegoers and he is a pleasure to watch in this film. Tantoo Cardinal who plays the role of the young boy's Cherokee grandmother is also wonderful.
The movie does not resolve its tale on a completely happy note, nor one of complete despair. As it has in real life, time has shown all that was lost when Genocide was carried out against Native Americans as federal government policy. Had good judgment, and lack of stupefying greed worked to integrate the newcomers to this country with the natives that were here, I have little doubt our country would be better for it, and the facts of the country's history would not include the genocide of those people we deemed to be in our way.
Don't Buy This Read The Manuel Instead
Excellent experience!It has very nice sections explaining how to drive as well as 3D illustrations where they show parallel parking etc. I really liked the ability to be able to watch at different angles etc. It is well worth the price. The only reason for 4 stars is that it misses 3 point turns but so does the state's driver's manual.
Effective, and cheaper than auto repairs and hospital billsI struggled with whether to give this 4 stars or 5. The user interface (UI) is a bit clunky, but the content and instruction is worth of the 5 stars.
The DVD tries to be interesting -- and it is interesting -- although it is borderline cheesey in the process. The important thing is the viewer won't bore easily with repetitive viewing which is important when you are getting something instructional like this.
At the end of sections, the DVD has a small quiz. That is a good idea, but the quizes are a little obvious and easy.
I guess the most appealing thing about this is it is easily increasing her abilities while she does what she does best: watch TV. That helps keep insurance costs down, I guess. ;-)
Great Movie, horrible reproduction
Average movie... poor quality audio!I never saw this movie before I purchased it. I was expecting something like Cooley High. I did not, and still, do not know much about Sonny Carson. The film ends right at the turning point of his life!
If you sat down in the theater in 1973/4 and watched this film, knowing nothing about him, after the film you would have walked out wondering why they made this film at all.
He gets out of prison and finds that all of his friends have either been killed, succumbed to drug addiction, or are incarcerated. The movie ends here.
We see nothing of the positive changes that he made. We don't know why he joined a gain in the first place. What motivated him? His parents seemed loving and he supposedly got good grades in school. It didn't appear that everyone in his school was in a gang either. Another enigma is his girlfriend, who appears to be clean-cut when we first meet her. When he gets out of jail, she's strung out on heroine. How did this happen? No explanations given in this film.
Instead the movie wastes valuable time showing long scenes of people dancing and other scenes of people singing gospel. This appears often in blaxploitation films... why? I don't like watching people dance and sing, it wastes time, and hurts the flow of the movie. If there was some purpose for the gospel singing i.e. Sonny had an apparent interest in church, that would be ok... but he didn't. And have you ever seen a parade where they allow street gangs to march in them?!?!?! Well you'll see it here!
As for the DVD: the video quality is good but the sound is a real joke! As noted by an earlier review. The synchronization is off by a fraction of a second and it is quite noticable. Think of a bad dubbing on a low budget kung-fu movie.
Buy this only if you are a die-hard collector of blaxploitation films, like me... otherwise steer clear of this one!
Very Moving Film
