TV Movie  1994
The Yearling      Back      Home
Ezra "Penny" Baxter: That's why I hate a bear. You look right in their face, and they got no remorse.

Jody Baxter: Pa, am I a man now?
Description
Life abounds in the 1870s Florida scrubland that's home to young Jody Baxter. There are bears to hunt, cash crops to plant, evenings of storytelling with Pa and Ma... and there are timeless lessons of love and letting go that Jody learns from Flag, the orphaned pet fawn that follows him around with devotion.

Amazon.com
Child actor Claude Jarman Jr. won a Special Oscar for his lead performance as the boy hero of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' novel, which concerns a lad's love of a fawn in the post-Civil War era. Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman are memorable as his parents, their emotions divided in the aftermath of so much tragedy and their lives affected by the boy's passion for his yearling. Clarence Brown (National Velvet) directed this 1946 heartbreaker, which will not leave a dry eye in the room. A handsome, leisurely drama at more than two hours, shorter versions simply don't cut it. --Tom Keogh