the yearling

Director: rod hardy

Actor: peter strauss,jean smart,wil horneff,philip seymour hoffman

Data Published: Sun Apr 24 1994

Genres: Adventure,Drama,Family

Key Words: killing a pet,florida,1870s,pet deer,rural setting

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111792/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yearling_(film)

Description: The Yearling is a TV movie starring Peter Strauss, Jean Smart, and Wil Horneff. In 1870s Florida, a rural family struggles to survive. A lonely twelve-year-old son, Jody (Wil Horneff), the lone surviving child, against his mother's...

Plot: Ezra "Penny" Baxter, once a Confederate soldier, and his wife Ora, are pioneer farmers near Lake George, Florida in 1878. Their son, Jody, a boy in his pre-teen years, is their only surviving child. Jody has a wonderful relationship with his warm and loving father. Ora, however, is still haunted by the deaths of the three other children of the family. She is very somber and is afraid that Jody will end up dying if she shows her parental love to him. Jody finds her somewhat unloving and unreasonable. With all of his siblings dead and buried, Jody longs for a pet to play with and care for. Penny is sympathetic and understanding, but Ora is disgusted. One day, when a rattlesnake bites Penny, they kill a doe and use its organs to draw out the venom. Jody asks to adopt the doe's orphaned fawn. Penny permits it but warns Jody that the fawn will have to be set free when it grows up. When Jody goes to ask his only friend, Fodderwing, to name the fawn, Jody finds out that Fodderwing has just died. However, Buck Forrester tells Jody that Fodderwing had said that if he had a fawn he would name him Flag because of its white tail. Soon, Jody and Flag are inseparable. One year later, Flag has grown up and becomes a total nuisance to the household and farm; he eats newly-grown corn, destroys fences, and tramples on tobacco crops. After Penny is injured while trying to clear another field to make up for lost crops, Penny informs Jody that he and his mother have agreed that for Jody to keep Flag he must replant corn and build the fence around the field higher. Jody works hard and even receives help from Ora with the fence. During the night, Flag manages to jump the high fence and destroys the new corn crop. Penny orders Jody to take the deer out into the woods and shoot it. Jody takes the deer out but does not have the heart to kill it. Instead, he orders the deer to go away and never return. But Flag comes back to their property and devours crops again. Ora (whom Jody believes had always hated his pet) shoots Flag with a double-barreled shotgun, discharging one of the barrels but only wounding the deer. Penny orders Jody to put the deer out of its "torment". Rather than let his pet deer suffer an agonizing death, he follows his father's orders and kills Flag with the remaining shell. The loss of Jody's beloved pet deer proves too much for him to handle: overwhelmed with anger and despair, he runs away from home. Three days later, he is rescued, unconscious adrift on the river in a canoe, by a friendly boat captain and returns home. He and Penny quickly reconcile, but Ora is still out searching for him. Just before Jody goes to bed, Ora returns and sees that he is back. She becomes filled with happiness and emotion, knowing that her huge fear of losing her last child is now over. She happily runs into Jody's room and showers him with more affection than she ever gave him. She is no longer afraid to show her parental love to him.[5]