This is a movie that truly showed the talents of Richard Harris and a newer actor, Jenny Agutter. I used this in a class I taught in high school. The tape did not survive, and I too would like to see this on DVD if at all possible. When I taught this, I used it in a unit called "Love, Loneliness, and Alienation." All three elements of the unit are evident in this story First, the loneliness of Richard Harris's character, the alienation he felt from his community, and the love that develops because of the snow goose.The heartbreak that is the ending cannot be described in words, but the powerful message that is sent is worth the deep sadness that the viewer feels.

This was my very favorite movie as a young kid. It had something to do with making me a lifelong bird watcher. Awesome movie.It is a beautiful story to share with children. It has a strong message about tenderness, love and appreciation for all God's creation. I have found that there are many of us out there who still remember this film. I hope someday Hallmark can settle the legal issues with the author's estate so they can release this on DVD for future generations to love.Watching Richard Harris in this is a real lesson in acting. Wow, it's one of his best roles I think. And the scenery along the Essex coast is haunting and beautiful.One note: Lots of people are looking for a copy of this, but they are hard to find. I just got a copy of this movie dubbed from an old video tape someone made when it aired on TV. Here is not the place to give you all the details. Go to the message boards under the thread "I have The Snow Goose" for details.

The Snow GooseOften the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of mushy greeting cards, Hallmark is a veteran producer of classic films. For instance, look for a release this year of Homer Hickam's (author of October Sky/Rocket Boys) Sky of Stone.I was not even born when this film version of Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose first appeared on the BBC in 1971, and it is only through my Uncle's affiliation with the Post Office that I was able to secure a copy of this film much later (British television comes under the supervision of the General Post Office). This is an award-winning made-for-TV movie that affected me like no other, a black and white film set in the dismal east-coast marshes of Essex in the late 1930s.There are only two characters, really: a misshapen, scraggly, dark-haired man who had taken up residence in an abandoned lighthouse from whence even the sea had retreated, and a smudgy-faced waif from the nearby Saxon oyster-fishing hamlet of Wickaeldroth.In what I consider to be his best film role ever--though I am sure a younger generation will forever remember him as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films--a very young Richard Harris takes on the personality of Gallico's dark hero Philip Rhayader, assisted by a young Jenny Agutter as Frith.We learn that Mr. Rhayader, a painter, has come to this desolate lighthouse to escape pity and the uncomfortable reactions that his physical deformities seem to engender. At 27 years of age, he buys the lighthouse and the land around it to be his haven from commerce with others, and creates a small artist's studio and a sanctuary for wounded fowl.One day, he detects a small form approaching on the sea wall. His visitor is a young girl from the nearby village, and as she draws near, he sees that she carries a bird which has been shot by the fowlers in a nearby marsh.I said earlier that there are only two characters of any import in this story, but there is indeed a third if we count the wayward Canadian snow goose who has miraculously survived a terrible storm. Blown nearly three thousand miles off her migratory course, upon her weary approach to the marshes, she is greeted by a shot from a hunter's gun. Rhayader tells the apprehensive girl, Frith, that this bird comes all the way from Canada, so he calls the snow goose La Princesse Perdue, the lost princess. Frith begins to visit the recovering bird regularly, but once it has healed and flies off in response to its migratory instinct, her visits cease. It is then with even greater loneliness and sadness that Rhayader awaits the fall, which signals the return of the snow goose and his curious female visitor. Meanwhile, he recedes again into his sequestered life, only seeing the world twice a month when he deftly sails his boat to the village of Chelmbury for supplies.Seasons pass and Frith grows to be a young woman, La Princesse Perdue returns every fall, and war continues to scar the face of Europe. One day, the government calls upon every able-bodied man on the east coast of England who owns a tug, a fishing boat or a power-launch, to sail to Dunkirk and save an army of British soldiers who are trapped on the beach, awaiting destruction at the hands of the advancing German army. When Frith comes to visit, she finds Rhayader in his boat, ready to sail across the channel to do what he can to help, a gleam in his eye at the challenge that awaits him. It is at this point that Frith becomes aware of the feelings that have grown in her heart for this man, and she offers to go with him. To say more would indeed spoil this film, or should I say the story. Unfortunately, even though Paul Gallico wrote the screenplay for this classic, he stipulated in his will that the movie should never again be screened, so sure was he that the message he wished to convey was to be found in the 53 pages of his novelette of the same name. Few films created in the century since the dawn of the moving-picture medium deserve a perfect ten. This is one of them.Reviewer's Note: This film is based upon the actual event known as `Operation Dynamo'. June 2, 2004, marks the 64rd anniversary of the evacuation at Dunkirk, wherein 338,000 stranded men were shuttled to safety by a flotilla of rag-tag vessels that would have been an embarrassment to McHale's Navy.

It was in June 1972 when this movie was shown on German TV entitled as: Schneegans! I just found out who was the writer of the movie minutes ago after 30 years! I had absolutely no idea who made the movie and in which country it was produced. My god the picture had such a great impact on my little soul, I was just 4 years old, and was watching it with my mother, that until now this movie is the most important in my life! Not only did my mother mention it in her diary, as we both were crying and I just could not recover after the movie, so exciting was this picture, but now I found out, that Rhayader was played by Richard Harris, one of my most favourite actors! This Picture is so full of true love, mystery and devotion, it makes a human being very sensitive for the relationship of humans and animals, that I recommend this picture to all teachers as a lesson on this terms.If a BBC Official is reading this, please reconsider the Will of Gallico and try to obtain the rights for a reissue on DVD (with the Screenplay as a Bonus!) As this movie was not repeated in our Country either (to my knowledge!) since it first aired and after reading all this similar entries I m sure he would reconsider it himself.