Marianna S. (Angeloudi) from HOLIDAY, FL
Reviewed on 4/7/2013...
I have loved this movie ever since I saw it years ago on the Disney Channel. It came out in 1990, so I thought my two young children (at that time ) would love it as well. The film is set in 1903, in Nova Scotia, Canada, at a settlement inhabited by both Scottish and Dutch settlers. James Mackenzie, the main character, is heavily prejudiced against his Dutch (Boer) neighbors, the Hooft family, due to the fact that his only son, Alec, was killed in the Boer War in South Africa. Alec's wife also had died from some fever, and their two orphaned sons are travelling on their own to live with their "granddaddy". The boys are the cutest tots you will ever encounter in any movie, dressed like little men in their kilts and name tags pinned to their shirts. Harry, age 8, and Davy, aged 5 (or so) are at times sweet, mischievous, funny, endearing, rebellious, etc. Little Davy wants so very much to have a dog, but his gruff grandfather, played by Charlton Heston, forbids it. A frugal, bitter man full of hatred and unbreakable rules, he quickly alienates most of the settlers. The movie is interesting, poignant, and heartwarming. My only sadness is that my own children (including my now adult daughter), did not find this movie as moving as I did, but rather old-fashioned.
