Set in the Depression Era Ozark country, the Coleman family has it pretty tough as most did in those years. But they are a wholesome lot without getting too sticky sentimental. The parents are Jack Ging and Beverly Garland and their oldest Stewart Petersen a slightly pre- pubescent adolescent has only one thing in mind. He's a country kid who has his heart set on getting and training a pair of hunting dogs for coon hunting and on the advice of his grandfather James Whitmore works like a dog to get the money to buy a pair of puppies to train.Coon hunting is both a profession and a labor of love for those who get into it. We see young Petersen train his canines to be the best. But it comes at a tragic price.Where The Red Fern grows is a fine family film that most likely never played in the cosmopolitan east during its release. Stewart Petersen was a Mormon Kid who did a bunch of these of varying quality during the 70s. He comes across as a real and not a Hollywood kid and he gets good support from the veteran cast. Note the Osmonds as producers. Petersen did films for the LDS church itself as well as other family features in the 70s.Where The Red Fern Grows holds up well today. Dig the Quo Vadis type ending which explains about the significance of the Red Fern.

In the movie Where the Red Fern Grows a young boy named Billy goes on an adventure with nothing but determination and the hope God will met him half way in his journey to get two hunting dogs. Along his journey he meets a few people who antagonize him along the way and a few moral dilemmas. I enjoyed it for the most part I don't usually get too into older movies before my era such as this one my generation is pretty spoiled with our pointless easy access to everything killing most of if not all imagination. This movie was a emotional journey following the life of this young boy who's goals are set achieved and destroyed in the end you can really feel for his character with his dogs dying if you've ever owned a pet who's passed away or been put down I feel like the acting could have been a little better but for a child actor he was stupendous I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't even have a southern accent in really life. I'd watch this movie once but the end was a little anticlimactic I feel it could have had more emotion. As a child I'd probably have eaten this movie up and wish I could have enjoyed it then rather then so much later.

I thought that this was a good film in the time period that it was made and the story was great also, it was a nice family film and the acting was okay but the actors sometimes were not convincing like when the dogs died.The movie was not like other movies that require special effects and action while this movie relied on story and the relationship between the boy and the dogs.The film's story was sad in some parts especially when Dan was killed by the cougar during the hunting competition,another sad part was when Anne died of heartbreak after Dan died.The movie inspired me because the kid worked hard for money to purchase the dogs and billy also bought things for his parents and his sisters.

this movie was very old when my students and i watched it in the fourth grade after reading the novel. The first few minutes go really slow and then about thirty minutes in the movie it starts to get really great. I believe the only thing wrong was that some of the acting was poor. I give this movie a **-out of-*** !!!