doncilla Review of Mustang Country

Mustang Country (1976)

William Holden and Ricky Schroder Move Over !!!

[10/10 · 15 February 2006]

I can't get over it. I thought "The Earthling" would never receive a decent competitor, but here it is. "The Earthling" takes place in another UK-founded country, Australia. And the boy is an orphaned son of a couple of tourists. Here, in "Mustang Country", the boy is a runaway Native American teen and the old man is an aficionado of horses since earlier than 1925. (The film starts as the two meet in a meadow while the old man is licking his chops to snare a black stallion.) Canada and its neighbor, Montana, are the venues in this one. But those are basically the only differences. Both stories tell of an old salt who decides to take a wayward young man in the wilderness under his arm. In each story, the old salt teaches the youth how to survive in the wilderness while teaching him essential characteristics of getting along well in life. Hmmm. Am I the only one who sees a tie-in to our contemporary "Challenger Program", where adults take real-life youths into the wilderness for the same purpose? The scenery would be like a National Geographic travelogue, if it weren't for the grand way the producers have brought together two great Thespians for the roles. (The Native American youth reminds me a lot of my 9-year-old grandson, as we visit the wilderness together in Utah.) I'm here to tell you, the teenagers and pre-teens are as clever and co-operative as the youth was in this film. As I have already indicated, I give it 10 of 10. Having taught in schoolrooms before I retired, I would suggest it as a three-day section of any middle-school or junior high school wilderness course. And, yes, we do offer those courses in Utah's secondary schools.