The Red Fury (1984)

People are voting emotionally.

A Major Disappointment

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The Red Fury is presented as a family film, and it sort of is. Frankie (the Indian boy) faces prejudice in a small town, with only a drunk (John) and a schoolteacher (Amelia) on his side. He fell off a train, so he's staying with John until his father comes for him.I didn't like this movie at all. There are many problems with this film: it's very slow-paced and yet it rushes everything (how it managed that I don't know), it takes on more than it can handle, and it never really follows through on any of the threads it begins. The title horse is tamed within the first half hour, so there's no suspense there. Frank is very annoying for the first twenty minutes because he refuses to speak. John keeps asking him questions and getting no answer--it's very rude. What's worse is that the first thing the boy does when he opens his mouth is demand John give him his stallion. That only becomes less rude when Frank saves John from being kicked & trampled to death by Fury a few minutes later.And here's the spoiler--the horse dies. That's what makes it *not* a family film, in my opinion. If you liked Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows, that might be okay with you, but tread carefully if you have small, horse-loving children.

The Red Fury refers both to an unnamed stallion that rancher Will Jordan owns and a young Indian boy played by Juan Gonzalez works to tame. The kid is a passenger on a train with his father and falls off the train and on to the Jordan ranch. Jordan's a crusty old cuss who's lost his wife and family years ago and lives alone and miserable on his ranch. The boy and the rancher don't take to each other right away, but when the kid saves the old man during a fire, they bond completely.Bonding with the rest of the people in the neighborhood's another proposition all together. They've got typical western prejudice against Indians, led by rival rancher Cal Bartlett who also sees Jordan's Red Fury as a rival to his own horse that he's breeding to race. His daughter Wendy Lynne leads the kids in school into not accepting young Mr. Gonzalez.There are two prominent female roles in the cast, former Warner Brothers television starlet Diane McBain, now a forty something storekeeper and Katherine Cannon as the schoolteacher from the east who tries to help the young Indian lad. In a small role is the skipper, Alan Hale, Jr. who plays the town doctor.The Red Fury is not a bad family film, it's got some decent moral values in it, but the pace is way too slow, it drags considerably in the telling of its tale.

This is an excellent film for family viewing because it embodies the "old fashioned" values of honor, honesty, duty, fearlessness,and standing tall. It follows the mythological storyline of life, death and rebirth or resurrection. A young Indian boy sacrifices the thing he loves the most, his horse Fury, so new life may be born into the world, and in so doing he kills the prejudice surrounding him, opening the eyes and heart of his greatest enemy. I happened to attend the opening of this film in Salt Lake City. The theater was filled with children and their parents. There were not many dry eyes when the film was over. The film is slow paced like an old fashioned novel, but as you come to know and care for the characters you become a part of their story. There is one swear word in the film "s**t." It was added because the producers wanted a "PG" rate not a "G".

An young Indian boy falls off of a train and winds up in the care of a drunkard man. The boy shows the man his talent with horses and the man takes to him. The local people do not like the boy (because he is Native American) and they try their best to get rid of him, but the drunkard man decides to give up his booze and stand up for the boy! Very much like "Little house on the Prairie" (and you can take that as a compliment)!This is a very slow moving movie, but well worth watching! In fact, very good Christian value worth watching!!!!!!!!!