Old Yeller
The film based on that episode of Friends where Phoebe learns about Old Yeller's fate...
I have, for the past few years, been working my way, slowly through the entire Disney film canon. This includes both the animated and live action releases. As a sample of my reviews, I thought I’d share my review of Old Yeller here - the most recent film I watched. I may post some of my older reviews too - particularly of the more familiar animated canon.
A Disney Tail: A family living on a ranch adopt a stray dog.
Disney Hero: As the film opened, my heart sank. A family is introduced and the father is played by Disney’s favourite leading man of this period – Fess Parker. I have not warmed to Parker in any of his many appearances in films of this period and I wasn’t sure I could sit through another one of his bland leading man performances. But, Disney be praised, he is packed off on a cattle drive for four months leaving his wife and two boys on the ranch.
Pretty soon after the family adopt a stray dog and name him Old Yeller. The two boys approach the dog with different attitudes. The youngest, Arliss, instantly adores the dog but Travis, the oldest – and the man of the house in his father’s absence – more or less outright hates the dog.
Travis is our film’s hero. It is he who drives the narrative. He has a gentle romance with the only other female character apart from his mother and he actually goes through a bit of a character arc as he goes from hating Old Yeller to bonding with the dog and, ultimately, having to perform the horrifically difficult task of putting the dog down when he contracts rabies.
Disney Heroine: As is typical of the live action films of DIsney in the 50s and 60s, female characters are few and far between and, more often than not, struggling to rise above secondary status. In Old Yeller the only women are Travis and Arliss’s mother Katie and their neighbour’s daughter, Lisbeth who, quite clearly, has a bit of a crush on Travis. Dorothy McGuire as Katie is a strong woman, unfazed by her husband’s lengthy absence. She is, however, seemingly quite reliant on Travis to help run the ranch. Local men are constantly dropping by and Katie tolerates them with a wry smile, especially neighbour – and obvious jack-the-lad – Bud (played with comedy and charm by Mike Fink actor, Jeff York (who like Fess Parker, seems to be popular with DIsney casting during this era – although he’s far more watchable than Parker).
Lisbeth only has a few scenes but she almost seems to become part of the family at the end of the film when Old Yeller is buried and she provides emotional support to Travis. Weirdly, her father, Bud, is nowhere to be seen at the end of the film, and she seems almost like a sister to Travis and Arliss.
Disney Sidekick: Arliss is the character who drives some of the incident in the film, particularly the initial adoption of Old Yeller, but also the dramatic bear attack partway through the film. He is the typical headstrong young boy who charges into situations with little awareness of the consequences.
Disney Creatures: Central to the film is, of course, the stray mutt himself, Old Yeller. Characterised as protective and loyal, it really is a wrench when he contracts rabies and has to be put down by Travis. He isn’t the most cuddly or cute dog but as a stray the casting of Yeller fits.
But I can’t avoid mentioning the one, rather central aspect, of this film which made me rather uncomfortable – the frequent animal attacks. Old Yeller lurches from one animal attack to another – Yeller chasing a horse; Yeller confronting a bear; Yeller herding wild pigs and then attacking them when they attack Travis; a climactic confrontation with a rabid wolf which leads to his untimely demise.
I cannot for the life of me work out how these sequences were filmed without injuring any animals and, I suspect, horribly, that animals were harmed during the making of this film. This was a different era of filmmaking and rules and guidelines for protecting humans from harm were far less stringent, let alone those for animals.
Disney Villain: The villains of Old Yeller are, similar to the True Life Adventures, nature’s predators: wolves and bears. Wild pigs also cause trouble but the ultimate villain is a virus. Rabies is what finally defeats the hero of the film. In fact, Old Yeller is essentially a tragedy. The title character who is responsible for rescuing other characters from danger, ends up dead at the hands of a boy who wasn’t always hugely fond of him. His death isn’t even that honorable. Yes, Yeller is fending off the rabid wolf to protect the family but the rabies is a side effect of this battle. His demise is drawn out with Travis tying Yeller up in the stable hoping, in vain, that he hasn’t contracted rabies from the wolf. It’s not an heroic death – it’s a truly tragic one.
Disney Land: Old Yeller is set in Texas. The landscape is much as we would expect but, actually, much of it seems quite claustrophobic and not as expansive and sweeping as one might expect. The ranch that the family live on seems quite small and many of the scenes such as with the pigs happen in tight areas.
Disney Songs: The only song is the title song played over the credits. It left little impact on me to the point where I can’t even remember the tune.
Disney Finale: Old Yeller is a film which I have seemingly always known of without ever actually knowing that much about it. My principal knowledge comes from the Friends episode, The One Where Old Yeller Dies. In it, Phoebe finds out that her mother never showed her the endings of sad films to protect her. When this is revealed to her, the gang sit down to watch Old Yeller and Phoebe is exposed, for the first time to the traumatic shooting scene at the climax of the film. Probably due to rights issues, the film itself is not shown in the episode but this was my main understanding of what the film was about – a boy and his dog. I’m pretty sure I knew, before seeing Friends, that Old Yeller was a film about a boy and his dog but I’m not sure how or from where.
Now having watched the film, I find myself with very mixed opinions. On the one hand, it was, more or less what I expected. But also there were quite a few elements that surprised me and, ultimately, I did find it entertaining. It does become a bit repetitive with animal attack followed by animal attack but the ending is rightfully iconic and quite brave for a family film.
