a_chinn Review of My Side of the Mountain

My Side of the Mountain (1969)

Disney-like tale of a boy who decides to live like Thoreau

[7/10 · 5 February 2018]

Corny but enjoyable nature story about a young boy who decides to run away from his life in the city to live in the woods for a year like Thoreau. If you can get past the premise that there are 12-year olds out there who are into Thoreau, the film is compulsively watchable as we watch the boy learn how to make shelter, find food, train a falcon, and other survival skills to live off the fatted land. This is the film's main charm because the rest of the film was awfully trite, such as the boy visiting town and being teased by locals, or the kindly librarian who helps him research wildness skills, or his a friendship with a folk singing also living in with woods. However, most anytime a film shows someone making or learning something, it grabs an audience and is interesting to watch, whether it's Rocky chasing chickens to train for his big fight or Freddy Krueger building his clawed glove to do what he does, this is a filmmaker trick for sucking an audience in that always seems to work. Remember those Mr. Rogers segments where he show how crayons or boxes get made? Those are just inarguably fascinating to watch, but I digress. Overall, "My Side of the Mountain" could easily have been a Disney nature film, though less silly and cutsy than Disney, and if that sounds like a good thing to you, you'd probably enjoy this film.