Dir.
Charles Sturridge, US/Ireland, 2005, 104 mins
Cast:
Peter O'Toole, Samantha Morton, Peter Dinklage, Jonathan Mason, John Lynch, Lassie
For those of you who, like me, grew up watching the Lassie TV series (one of the longest running shows in television history with 675 episodes), this new version will seem a far cry from the cheesy and melodramatic kid's show of yesteryear.
Young Joe (Mason), the nine-year old pet owner, never once claims to understand dog language and nobody is rescued from a well. Director Charles Sturridge (Brideshead Revisited, Shackleton) who also wrote the screenplay based on Eric Knight's 1938 book 'Lassie Come Home' (which was made into an Oscar nominated film starring a young Elizabeth Taylor in 1943) has brought the film back to it's working class Yorkshire roots. The 1943 original may have been set in Yorkshire but was filmed in the US and ever since the yanks have appropriated the beloved four legged franchise for themselves - until now, that is. Yes, boys and girls, Lassie has come home!
The film begins just days before the outbreak of WWII in a small Yorkshire mining town. The working class Carraclough family are in dire financial straits, a situation further exacerbated when the failing local coal mine closes, leaving the sole bread winner unemployed and struggling to put food on the dinner table. Reluctantly Sarah Carraclough (Samantha Morton) and her husband are forced to sell their beloved family pooch to the aristocratic Duke of Rudling (O'Toole), a painful but necessary action which leaves their nine year old son Joe (Mason) heartbroken. The Duke gives the majestic collie to his granddaughter in an attempt to buy her happiness after she is separated from her parents and evacuated to the countryside from soon to be war struck London. The Duke and his young ward take of to the highlands of Scotland with their new, but morose and homesick, pet in tow but it isn't long before the legendary ingenuity of the canine lead kicks in and soon Lassie is off on a 500 mile cross country trip of a lifetime across the British countryside with the single minded and dogged (pardon the pun) determination of being reunited with his kin for Christmas.
The mystery of the Lassie legacy has surrounded the promotion of this new interpretation of a classic tale. The most famous dog in cinema has been paraded through press conferences (although of course, not participating in the Q&A's), performing tricks and crawling on her belly to drum up interest in the film. However, a great deal of confusion surrounds the star. Billed as Lassie, said pup seems to have an impressive resume and is credited on IMDB as having made a cameo on a US TV show as far back as 1957. What a long career for one so nimble. Hope I am that agile when I am in my fifties. Filmmakers insist that the star is indeed a direct descendent of the original Lassie (a male called Pal) but rumours persist that the cunning collie is in fact an impostor - a rumour which caused an uproar amongst die-hard Lassie fans who threatened to boycott the film. Regardless, the three dogs (Carter, Mason & Dakota - the latter had to have her roots done to match the other dogs) who play the part do so with conviction and emotion that is rarely demonstrated by some A-list Hollywood stars.
Set in the midst of pre-war rural Britain the film raises issues of privilege and poverty with just a hint of contemporary foxhunting commentary thrown into the mix. In early scenes the burly coal miners urinate down a coal- mine to throw the raging hounds of the scent of a evasive fox and a protective Lassie too does her/his bit to deter the bloodthirsty hunters from their prey. The film paints a more rugged and earthy depiction of working class life, that is significantly less glossy and sanitized that its Hollywood predecessors, and the grittiness and ugly reality of life on the breadline works in the film's favour allowing the more tender moments of bonding between Joe, his parents and his best friend - his beloved dog - more of an emotional punch. When Joe leaves school after being singled out, humiliated and caned for virtually no reason by his shrewish schoolmistress he finds Lassie waiting at the gates to comfort him and lick his welt covered palms.
A film with a lesser budget than the other family focused holiday films flooding the multiplexes this Christmas but what it lacks in budget and special effects it makes up for in skill, heart and good old fashioned family values.
Lorna Allen
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