Product Description

The year is 1764, when a peace treaty between the Delaware Indians and the British requires that all white captives be returned to their people. Johnny Butler (James MacArthur), kidnapped by the tribe when he was a child and renamed True Son, is forced against his will to return to his white family in Pennsylvania. His escort, frontiersman Del Hardy (Fess Parker) and Shenandoe, a beautiful servant girl (Carol Lynley, in her feature film debut), try to help the boy adjust to his new way of life. But the white man's injustice and cruelty drive him back to the Delawares, where even greater dangers await him!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4829 in VHS
• Released on: 1997-08-26
• Rating: Unrated
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Amazon.com
This surprisingly absorbing drama, based on Conrad Richter's novel, tells the tale of the re-assimilation of Johnny Butler, kidnapped as a child by Native Americans (in this 1958 film, of course, called Indians), into the "white man's world." Reluctant and unfamiliar with his biological parents (Jessica Tandy and Frank Ferguson), he's befriended by frontiersman Del Hardy (Fess Parker, basically looking handsome and playing his popular image), also raised by the Indians and now an Army man. Johnny also meets and fancies Shenandoe--his aunt and nasty uncle's indentured servant girl, (a positively luminescent Carol Lynley, 16, in her first role), whose family was massacred by another tribe. While this is an action film set in 1764, made in the still politically insensitive 1950s, it manages not to paint stereotypes. But Light in the Forest is, more than anything, a love story. Shenandoe, terrified of Johnny initially, grows to love him. Johnny, burdened by not feeling he belongs in either world, finds solace in Shenandoe's sweet friendship. (Ages 8 and older) --N.F. Mendoza

Customer Reviews

Does not resemble the novel it is based on.
The Walt Disney film version of "The Light in the Forest" has little in common with the message and tone of the Conrad Richter novel it is allegedly based on. I will not go into any details, but will state that this movie is a complete butchery of the classic story of a white boy raised by Indians and torn between the ties of blood and loyalty. If you love the novel then avoid this movie. If you're trying to cheat on an English exam by watching this movie instead of reading the book then you will fail your test.

If you have not read the book or are ambivilent towards it then you just may enjoy this movie as a mild piece of Disney escapism similar to "Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier" or "The Parent Trap."

The Light In The Forest
I have seen the movie and read the book. I liked the book better. The reason is because the movie was not like the book. I liked the book because the book does not have any love scenes in it. The movie has Shenandoe instead of Gordie. And in the book Cuyloga seems younger than he looks in the MOVIE. And Aunt Kate seems nicer in the movie than in the book. I would think that people should watch the movies then read the book.

Aftermath of the French & Indian War
I think that this movie was well done and would be good for children to see to help them to understand F&I and life on the frontier.I would like to see it released on DVD.