The Journey of Natty Gann (Dir: Jeremy Kagan, 1985)
Dating from an era when Walt Disney Pictures were pursuing edgier family entertainment, The Journey of Natty Gann is a road movie drama set during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
In her movie debut Meredith Salenger stars as the titular Natty. Separated from her father (Ray Wise), she travels the length of Chicago to Washington to find him, accompanied by an unusual travelling companion in the shape of a wolf. She also strikes up a friendship cum chaste romance with a young drifter (John Cusack).
On the surface The Journey of Natty Gann appears to be a female spin on the staple 'boy and dog' theme of earlier Disney movies Old Yeller (Robert Stevenson,1957) and The Biscuit Eater (Vincent McEveety, 1972). In truth, it is a somewhat different beast.
Director Jeremy Kagan delivers a thoughtful, intelligent movie with considerably more grit than those earlier films. It pulls no punches in its believable and affecting account of the hardships caused by poverty and mass unemployment. It also touches, albeit lightly, on subjects such as union activism and police brutality. Unusual themes for a family movie, not least one from a studio whose release schedule had, until recently, been dominated by a seemingly endless stream of lightweight, formulaic comedies such as The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (Vincent McEveety, 1979) and Herbie Goes Bananas (Vincent McEveety, 1980).
The movie treats its subject matter seriously, yet the tone is never too sombre and its uplifting moments offset the gentle melancholic mood which runs through it. Certainly, it is sentimental but it is never sticky and the sentimentality never seems false, while its female lead gives it a feminist slant not usually found in family films of the era.
While the performances are uniformly excellent, the standout is undoubtedly Salenger. Age just 14 during filming, her performance is both moving and charismatic. How she did not become a massive star is anybody's guess. John Cusack also impresses in an early role as Natty's drifter friend Harry. He, of course, did go on to make a name for himself in Hollywood. The movie is beautifully shot by cinematographer Dick Bush, capturing the crisp Canadian wilderness (standing in for the US) and the grimy back alleys with a cinematic grace rare in 80s Hollywood. This is indeed a film better suited to widescreen HD than 1980s issue pan and scan VHS.
Although The Journey of Natty Gann won admiration from critics it was not, initially, a hit with audiences. In a year when families were flocking to glossy blockbusters Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985) and The Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985) it is perhaps not difficult to understand why; a downbeat Depression set drama was probably a hard sell to the Spielberg generation. Its qualities were rewarded with the prestigious Gold Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival and it would eventually find a more appreciative audience on the burgeoning home video market. Still, the movie seems vastly underrated today. An unusual family picture marking the end of era when Disney were trying to inject a little more grit into their movies. It is among the studio's best live action releases and one of the most artful major Hollywood releases of the 1980s.
On the surface The Journey of Natty Gann appears to be a female spin on the staple 'boy and dog' theme of earlier Disney movies Old Yeller (Robert Stevenson,1957) and The Biscuit Eater (Vincent McEveety, 1972). In truth, it is a somewhat different beast.
Director Jeremy Kagan delivers a thoughtful, intelligent movie with considerably more grit than those earlier films. It pulls no punches in its believable and affecting account of the hardships caused by poverty and mass unemployment. It also touches, albeit lightly, on subjects such as union activism and police brutality. Unusual themes for a family movie, not least one from a studio whose release schedule had, until recently, been dominated by a seemingly endless stream of lightweight, formulaic comedies such as The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (Vincent McEveety, 1979) and Herbie Goes Bananas (Vincent McEveety, 1980).
The movie treats its subject matter seriously, yet the tone is never too sombre and its uplifting moments offset the gentle melancholic mood which runs through it. Certainly, it is sentimental but it is never sticky and the sentimentality never seems false, while its female lead gives it a feminist slant not usually found in family films of the era.
While the performances are uniformly excellent, the standout is undoubtedly Salenger. Age just 14 during filming, her performance is both moving and charismatic. How she did not become a massive star is anybody's guess. John Cusack also impresses in an early role as Natty's drifter friend Harry. He, of course, did go on to make a name for himself in Hollywood. The movie is beautifully shot by cinematographer Dick Bush, capturing the crisp Canadian wilderness (standing in for the US) and the grimy back alleys with a cinematic grace rare in 80s Hollywood. This is indeed a film better suited to widescreen HD than 1980s issue pan and scan VHS.
Although The Journey of Natty Gann won admiration from critics it was not, initially, a hit with audiences. In a year when families were flocking to glossy blockbusters Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985) and The Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985) it is perhaps not difficult to understand why; a downbeat Depression set drama was probably a hard sell to the Spielberg generation. Its qualities were rewarded with the prestigious Gold Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival and it would eventually find a more appreciative audience on the burgeoning home video market. Still, the movie seems vastly underrated today. An unusual family picture marking the end of era when Disney were trying to inject a little more grit into their movies. It is among the studio's best live action releases and one of the most artful major Hollywood releases of the 1980s.
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