Product Description

A boy learns about responsibility, commitment and friendship while trying to rescue a beagle pup from mistreatment by its owner. Michael Moriarty, Rod Steiger, Scott Wilson and young Blake Heron, star in a wonderful all-family treat. Year: 1996

DVD Features:
Introduction:Roger Ebert Introduction
Other:Interview Gallery Public Service Announcement

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52236 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2001-10-23
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Georgian, Chinese, Thai
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 93 minutes

Features

• From the Newbery Award-winning book comes this inspirational story of a boy's love for a dog. Shiloh, an adorable beagle, runs away from his abusive owner and is found by a young boy named Marty. Marty knows that Shiloh belongs to someone else, but is determined to save him from more mistreatment. Against the wishes of the dog's owner and his own father, Marty risks everything to make the dog his

Amazon.com
When a mistreated beagle pup follows 11-year-old Marty Preston (Blake Heron) home one day, it sparks a passion in the boy that leads him into a web of moral and emotional turmoil. Marty knows the dog belongs to his irascible neighbor, Judd Travers (a spittin' mean performance by Scott Wilson); he also knows Judd breaks local gaming laws and abuses his hounds. But Marty's father (Michael Moriarty) is a stickler for the first rule of pet ownership: he who owns the pet rules the pet. Marty seeks advice from the wise Doc Wallace (Rod Steiger), who tells the boy about his own struggle to claim legal guardianship over his granddaughter following her parents' death. The story inspires Marty to fight for the creature he has come to love. With a believable blend of nerve, conviction, and a hint of fear, Marty works every angle to beg, buy, or (finally) strike a trade with Travers to save Shiloh. While its pace runs a bit slow, the film provides a thoughtful lesson in weighing right and wrong and should appeal to families with children under 12. Based on the Newbery Award-winning book Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. --Liane Thomas

Customer Reviews

Very good but doesn't follow book
We loved the movie very much...my 9 and 5 year old girls loved it, especially the ending. We didn't find it too scary at all.

However, both my 9 year old and I enjoyed the book far more...it gave such a deeper insight into Marty's heart, and into the world of a boy and his dog. We were both very affected by the book; it made an impression on us that the movie did not.

I especially did not like the addition of another child, a girl, into the story. It seemed Hollywood wanted to add a little childhood flirting to make the movie more sellable. That just served as a distraction from this fine story. There were many differences from the book, but this was the one that irked me.

It still was a very good movie with a heartwarming ending. If you haven't read the book, you'll like it even more cause you won't be comparing differences.

Expectations
This is a story of a boy who goes for a walk one day through his West Virginia town and a beagle, Shiloh, follows him home. The boy, Marty Preston, discovers that the dog has an abusive owner. The boy's own family is very poor and can not afford a pet; also, his father is a firm believer that, abused or not, the dog has an owner and he must be returned. They give the dog back but Shiloh escapes again, and when he turns up outside the Preston home, Marty hides him up a hill behind their house. If you've never read the novel by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, I suppose you might like this movie; however, I'm a fan of the book and I've read it a few times with my language arts classes, and in comparison, the movie is terrible. The family does not appear to be poor, an integral part of the story, and the main character, Marty, is often disrespectful, something he never is in the book. Both of these aspects are important to the story, because they help you to understand why the family can not keep a dog, why Marty has some difficulty in standing up for himself, etc. And then there's the ending: horrible! The novel has a complex, beautiful ending, one in which you begin to understand the mean dog owner, Judd, and why he is abusive. He and the main character's hostile relationship evolves into something almost like friendship, and it is so well written, it is believable. In the movie, instead of us seeing that, we see instead what some idiot director must have thought of as a more suspenseful ending. If you truly want a family treat, read the novel aloud to your kids!

FINALLY a movie that addresses the issue of animal cruelty!
I absolutely adored the "Shiloh" series of books, and was a little skeptical about watching this movie. However, the movie remained quite true to the book, and completely captured the message of the book as well. The acting is exceptional. I disagree with the previous reviewer's statement about letting young children watch this movie. I have a 2 and 1/2 year old boy, and he was having a problem with hitting our dog. I showed this movie to him, and though I'm sure most of it went over his head, he understood that hitting dogs is bad, and that dogs need love. He's been great with the dog ever since. Sounds simple, but it's a powerful message, and one that needs to be taught to the youngest of children. Animal cruelty among children in this country is at a shocking all-time high, and compassion needs to be stressed at a very early age. I highly recommend this movie to anyone, any age.