Shepherd of the Hills [VHS]

Shepherd of the Hills [VHS]
by Henry Hathaway

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Product details

Actor: Betty Field, Beulah Bondi, Harry Carey, James Barton, John Wayne
Director: Henry Hathaway
Edition: VHS Tape
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 98 minutes
Release Date: 1998-02-17
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Universal Studios
Studio: Universal Studios

VHS Movie Reviews of Shepherd of the Hills [VHS]

Movie Review: A travestry!!
Summary: 1 Stars

Recently, I wrote a review of this movie. Unfortunately, at that time I could only find it listed here on a VHS with three others. This movie bears NO RESEMBLANCE whatsoever to the book on which it is laughingly and loosely based, except in name only. It's a wonder to me that Harold Bell Wright didn't file a lawsuit against the movie makers. The book is a true classic. It's wonderful!! Why Hollywood thought they could improve on that is beyond me. But, unfortunately, as is often true, they butchered a wonderful plot. If you've read the book, The Shepherd of the Hills, and love it, then don't waste your time buying or renting or borrowing this filmed version. It's no fault of Mr. Wayne's that it's such a travesty, but a travesty it is nonetheless.

Movie Review: Read the book
Summary: 3 Stars

The book is a classic. A wonderful story. ... However, in regard to the movie, outside of the same locale and characters, any similarity is purely coincidental. ... Read the book.

Movie Review: Nothing like the movie
Summary: 3 Stars

I too would highly recommend the book over the movie. Except for the title and the names of the characters this movie has little to do with the book.

Movie Review: The Shepherd of the Hills
Summary: 2 Stars

I watched this movie after having read the book. Unfortunately, the movie twisted the whole story around and was not true to the book at all. I felt that the book was an uplifting story and the movie was much darker. I guess the movie is okay, if you haven't read the book, but I would have loved to see the story told as it was in the book. I would highly recommend the book "The Shepherd of the Hills" over the movie.

Movie Review: UNKNOWN CLASSIC
Summary: 5 Stars

This film is one of the finest low profile American films I have ever seen. It deserves a much wider audience. Visually it is absolutely stunning. The scenery, especially that of Moanin Meadow, always makes me yearn for summer in the Adirondacks. The color is rich and lends perfectly to the visual landscape. The narrative realizes the haunting quality of its story. Every performer in this film lends exceptional support to the drama. Beulah Bondi was never better and the always enjoyable Marc Lawrence is an absolute suprise, perfect in a part you would not associate him with. The theme music, later heard as a song sung by Fuzzy Knight, has a wonderfully sentimental quality. Sadly, this film is not available on dvd as of this writing. Get the vhs copy; it is worth it. Harry Carey, John Wayne, Betty Field, Marjorie Main, the whole cast all hit the target. It just renews my spirit every time I watch it.

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Summary of Shepherd of the Hills [VHS]

Director Henry Hathaway never hesitated to return to a picturesque location that had served him well. There's no more striking example than his sequel-in-spirit to the enchanting early-Technicolor Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936). This time, the enchantment is darker, just as Charles Lang Jr.'s stunning cinematography represents a quantum leap in sophistication over Trail's pleasant pictorialism. The long-running Appalachian feud of the earlier film is replaced by a spooky familial curse that has almost literally poisoned one Ozark household and could perpetuate a tragic cycle of violence and vengeance in another.

John Wayne would win an Oscar under Hathaway's direction three decades later (for True Grit), so it's all the more noteworthy that his performance in this singular yet neglected film--as a son sworn to kill the father he has never met--was his most complex to date. Perhaps Wayne was challenged by the company he was keeping, including New York stage veterans Betty Field (as his tomboy love), James Barton, and Marc Lawrence (cast against type as the mute, lightning-struck cousin who dotes on Wayne's every move). Or maybe it was the prospect of sharing the screen with that old lion and premier Western role model, Harry Carey. There's also powerful work by Beulah Bondi, who as a matriarch from hell all but gives off sulfur fumes, and by the amazing Marjorie Main, playing a blind woman who sees for the first time on a mountaintop above the clouds. Get ahold of this movie, and it will get a hold on you. --Richard T. Jameson

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Genres > Drama
Family Life > Fathers & Sons

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