Johnny Tremain
The Boston Tea Party makes for a fun Disney adventure!
Disney Tale: The story of Johnny Tremain, a young silversmith who becomes involved in the rebellion against English rule and taxes centred around the famous Boston Tea Party.
Disney Hero: Our eponymous hero is Johnny Tremain, an apprentice silversmith played by Hal Stalmaster. After far too many Fess Parker-fronted films, he is a breath of fresh air and infinitely more engaging. Young, ambitious, clever – he manages to, despite his youth, command the screen when he is present. His boyish enthusiasm for shooting redcoats is maybe a little too ‘boys own adventure’ but its the tone of the film – the US patriots are the goodies and the British redcoats and the officials who use them for their own ends, are the baddies. Johnny is a descendant of David Stollery’s Dan Thompson in Westward Ho, the Wagons! and a far more enticing lead character than anything Fess Parker has offered.
Within the true history of these events are some US ‘heroes’ who should be mentioned. Paul Revere, James Otis, Josiah Quincy, Joseph Warren and Samuel Adams all feature in various capacities but this is a tale told through the eyes of Johnny Tremain and as such each man is venerated and treated with respect and awe both by Johnny and the script. James Otis is played by Mike Fink himself, Jeff York, and is totally unrecognisable as the gruff lawyer.
Disney Heroine: Only after watching the film and researching it online, did I discover that the main female role in this film – Priscilla Lapham – is played by Luana Patten who has twice featured in my marathon as the lead female character in both Song of the South and So Dear to My Heart. Here she has matured into an almost unrecognisable, strong teenage girl who, bearing in mind the time the film is set and the time the film was produced, shows a steel not always present in female characters. Although she does spend a lot of the film looking at Johnny fondly and widely doe-eyed, she does have a great scene where she stands up for herself and Johnny’s honour in front of a judge after Johnny is accused of theft. Unfortunately she is absent from the film for large chunks – particularly the lengthy redcoat ambush scenes in the last part of the film, but what she does get to do, she does very well.
Disney Villain: Although the British are the antagonists in this film, the proper villain of the piece is Jonathan Lyte. A greedy, pompous local official who is also the Lapham family’s landlord. He accuses Johnny of theft with little to no evidence; he demands a piece of work be completed by Johnny’s mentor, Mr Lapham in the shortest timeframe possible; he blusters and spits protestations when the Sons of Liberty set about throwing the tea overboard whilst his colleague watches on vaguely amused. He is the nasty little man who has risen to a station which allows him to wield his relatively minor power over those with a lower social standing than him. Unusually, for a villain, we witness him receiving some comeuppance quite early in the film when his desire to get Johnny sentenced for theft crumbles before him when the judge decides to counter his arrogant, unjustifiable accusations. It’s a glorious scene when he walks away, lost for words and humiliated in front of the courtroom.
Disney Sidekick: Johnny as a character doesn’t really have a sidekick, as such, but is befriended by Rab Silsbee who works with Paul Revere and ultimately stands by Johnny’s side as they fight the redcoats. He has less character than Johnny and doesn’t really do much except provid a conduit for Johnny to meet the Sons of Liberty.
Disney Creatures: As with the majority of recent films (which aren’t True Life Adventures) the principal animal presence is good old dependable horses.
Disney Lands: The film is set in, and around, Boston. It’s not a part of the US I’m hugely familiar with beyond its appearance in various films and TV series and obviously in connection with the Boston Tea Party. The town is a convincing set bolstered by impressive matte paintings.
Disney Songs: There is one principal song, Liberty Tree (also known as Sons of Liberty) which is sung by the Sons of Liberty and their supporters. It’s a patriotic piece which is stirringly presented as the townsfolk hang lanterns from a large tree.
Disney Finale: For obvious reasons, Disney loves a bit of US history and this era of the Disney canon seems to churning out historically-focussed stories at quite a rate. After the three UK-focusssed Richard Todd films (which I enjoyed a lot more than I expected to), the House of Mouse shifted over to telling much more patriotic stories such as The Great Locomotive Chase and this story. Based on a children’s novel, it is a fictional telling of an event from US history even us Brits are fairly familiar with, being as it was very much the US against the English.
The strength of this film lies, I think, in its source material – a children’s adventure novel which gives the film an engaging young lead, a boys own ripping yarn identity and an audience-friendly trip into history.
I really enjoyed this film and although there are probably a few too many scenes of earnest men talking about politics and the redcoat ambushes become extremely repetitive at the end of the film, the strong performances and engaging story of Johnny Tremain make this a rare gem in what has been a sadly unengaging era of Disney live action films.