Main Cast: Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman, Jr., Chill Wills, June Lockhart, Forrest Tucker
Release Year: 1946
Country: US
Run Time: 128 minutes
MPAA Rating: G
Plot
Based on the novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling is set in post-Civil War Florida. Claude Jarman Jr. plays Jody Baxter, the lonely son of just-getting-by farmers Pa and Ma Baxter (Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman). With all of his siblings dead and buried, Jody yearns to have a pet of some sort. When Pa is forced by circumstances to kill a doe, the animal's fawn-the yearling of the title-is adopted by Jody. The boy's love for the animal does not alter the fact that the fawn is eating all of the Baxters' crops. Sadly, Pa tells Jody that he must kill the yearling before all their crops are destroyed. Jody can't bring himself to do this, so he sets the animal free in the wilds. Time and again, however, the yearling returns to the farm. Finally, Ma Baxter, who'd been against having the fawn on the property in the first place, shoots and wounds the animal. Now, Jody has no choice: rather than see his beloved yearling writhe in agony, he kills it. Though this results in a rift between himself and his family, Jody at last realizes that, by taking the responsiblity of saving the farm at the expense of his own feelings, he has also taken the first step towards manhood. He himself is a "yearling" no more. MGM had intended to film The Yearling in 1941 with a different cast and director, but a series of personality clashes delayed production for five years. Watching the inspired performances of Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman and Claude Jarman Jr., it is nearly impossible to imagine the film with its originally intended cast of Spencer Tracy, Anne Revere and the unknown Gene Eckman. The studio had also intended to lens the film on location in Florida, but in the end it proved more practical and expedient to shoot in the studio and its environs. Oscars went to the Technicolor photography of Charles Rosher, Leonard Smith and Arthur Arling, and to the art direction/set decoration work of Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse and Edwin B. Willis. Originally released at 128 minutes, the film was reissued in a butchered 94 minute version; steer clear of this one and opt for the still-available original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The Yearling, based on the award-winning novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, is a touching coming-of-age drama set in late nineteenth century rural Florida that explores difficult emotional issues within the context of a struggling frontier family's life. The naturalistic imagery, which underpins the growing drama of the storyline beautifully, is captured in magnificent Technicolor by Academy Award winning cinematographers Arthur Arling, Charles Rosher and Leonard Smith. The internal and external loyalties and relationships that pull and push young Jody (Claude Jarman Jr., who won an Academy Award) provide the story with its powerful conflicts. As we make allegiance with the sensitive child (and the faun) against his impoverished parents, our growing realization of the hopelessness of the situation and the ultimate importance of familial ties make for wrenching moments of self-awareness. Gregory Peck as the father is his typically sympathetic self, while Jane Wyman is coolly efficient and believable as Jody's mother. Director Clarence Brown knows how to push the audience's emotional buttons (it isn't all that hard, drawing on Rawlings' heartbreaking novel as his source), and the film teeters on the brink of sentimentality at times, but the honesty of the performances and the beauty of the photography procure a place for The Yearling in cinematic history. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, the film was winner of three. ~ Dan Jardine, All Movie Guide
The Yearling is a timeless Pulitzer Prize winning story with earthy dialect about the Baxter family set in the south in the middle of a slew of southern escapades. The Baxter son, Jody Baxter, asks for something more than their comfortable home, a pet, in fact a fawn named Flag.
Penny Baxter, once a Confederate soldier, (Gregory Peck) and his wife, Orry (Jane Wyman), are pioneer farmers near Lake George, Florida, in 1878, 13 years after the American Civil War. Their son Jody (Claude Jarman Jr.), a boy in his pre-teen years, is their only surviving child. Jody has a wonderful relationship with his warm and loving pa. Orry, however, is still haunted by the deaths of the three other children of the family; she is very somber and hard-hearted and is (strangely) afraid that Jody will end up dying if she shows her parental love to him. Jody finds her somewhat unloving and unreasonable.
With all of his siblings dead and buried, Jody longs for a pet to play with and take care of. Penny is sympathetic and understanding, but Orry is rather disgusted. One day, when a rattler bites Penny, they kill a doe and use its organs to draw out the poison. Jody asks to adopt the doe's orphaned fawn; Penny permits it but warns Jody that the fawn will have to be set free when it grows up.
Jody goes to ask his frail friend Fodderwing to name the fawn only to find he has recently died. However Fodderwing's brother says he always said that if he had a Fawn he would name him Flag, for the critter's waving white tail.
Soon, he and Flag are inseparable. One year later, Flag grows up and becomes a total nuisance to the household and farm; it eats newly-grown corn, destroys fences, and tramples on tobacco crops. Penny orders Jody to take the deer out into the woods and kill it with a rifle. Jody takes the deer out, but does not have the courage to kill it; he orders the deer to go away and never return instead. But Flag comes back to their property. Finally, Orry (who Jody believes had always hated his pet) takes the gun and shoots it but only wounds the deer. Penny orders Jody to put the deer out of its misery. Rather than let his pet deer be in agonizing pain, he follows his father's orders.
Trailhead of the Yearling Trail.
The loss of Jody's beloved pet deer proves too much for him to handle; overwhelmed with anger and despair, he runs away from home. Three days later, he is rescued by a friendly boat captain and returns home. He and Penny quickly make up, and Penny tells him that Orry had been out searching for him. Just before Jody goes to bed, Orry returns and sees that he is back. She becomes filled with happiness and emotion, knowing that her huge fear of losing her last child is now over. She happily runs into Jody's room and showers him with more affection than she ever gave him. She is no longer afraid to show her parental love to him.
The movie was filmed on location in the Juniper Prairie Wilderness. A hiking trail in the area ("The Yearling Trail") is named after the story and gives access to sites where the family whose stories inspired the novel lived.
