 | |
List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 52183
Released: August 24, 2004 |
| Our Price: $3.45 |
| Used Price: $2.62 |
|
MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)
Media: DVD |
|
| Features:
Closed-captioned Color Dubbed DVD Subtitled Dolby NTSC | |
Editorial Review:
No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film Family
Rating: NR
Release Date: 24-AUG-2004
Media Type: DVD
Description of Courage of Lassie:
Peril lurks behind every scene resolution in the 1946 hit Courage of Lassie. After an odd, peaceable-kingdom beginning, Lassie is shot by Carl Switzer, the kid who used to play Alfalfa (really!), and rescued by Elizabeth Taylor. She inexplicably names Lassie "Bill" (maybe in revenge because Lassie got on the movie's title) and trains him to be a sheepdog. Bill gets hit by a truck, then impressed into service in the U.S. war effort in the Philippines. Presaging Rambo, Bill becomes a war hero, yet returns home from the front a broken dog and is considered a menace to society. The war scenes are a bit too grueling for a family film (at least with very young children). Bill gets shot (again) and has to do a reconnaissance mission that Joseph Conrad would admire. Taylor doesn't so much act as sob and gush, and only Frank Morgan, the actor known best as the Wizard of Oz, comes off as well as the collie. That collie, though, is pretty wonderful and fans of the first film won't be too disappointed. --Keith Simanton
Courage of Lassie Reviews:
Love Never Fails 
2009-09-10 - I've seen this movie at least three times and never grow tired of it. It is not as charming as it's predecessor, but still engaging. Elizabeth Taylor as a teenager is lovely and she makes you feel the love she has for this dog she names Bill. Although her acting is somewhat limited to lots of sobbing, and exclamations of "oh Bill", even so you feel the chemistry between girl and dog. The story is maybe a bit of a stretch of the imagination with girl finding dog that has been shot, nursing dog back to health, losing dog to the war, getting dog back (with post-traumatic stress syndrome which he snaps out of quite quickly), and then the prospect of losing the dog again. The best performances are by Frank Morgan and of course Bill or Lassie or who ever he/she was.
Delightful and Relevant Film! 
2009-09-08 - This movie is plain and simply described as . . . fantastic! It centers around the dog "Bill" who is portrayed by Lassie. And let me say, if there were an Academy Award for animal actors, Lassie would be the champion. What fabulous acting! Lassie outshines many human actors in terms of expression and convincing acting. I don't know how they were able to film it. Elizabeth Taylor is simply beautiful in this movie, young, but already a phenomenal beauty. She portrays the girl who first rescues Bill and trains him to be a sheepdog. He gets run over and through a series of events becomes a war dog. Who then suffers from post-traumatic war syndrome. Even though, we all know it is a movie with a happy ending, I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat when Bill's trial is on. As Bill turns into quite a primitive animal after his war experience, but I don't want to reveal the entire plot. Suffice it to say, it is a lovely family film (although I do wonder about the anti-Church attendance message) and it is relevant to today with the exploration into post-traumatic war syndrome that affects returning soldiers. Anyone watching this movie, will cheer for Bill all the way through. And will admire Elizabeth Taylor's role as the caring young girl. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. And whole-heartedly recommend it!
Heartwarming Adventure!
2007-08-07 - In an age where we have graphic brutality, sex and violence on both the small and big screen how refreshing it was to watch this movie released in 1946. It was made a year before I was born and it took me back to a time in America when Hollywood produced clean, wholesome, decent entertainment that appealed to all ages.The wildlife sequences at the beginning of the film are priceless and one wonders how they could be coordinated with such precision and Elizabeth Taylor's performance is emotionally endearing. If you can watch this movie without tearing up at least three or four times you must have ice water flowing through your veins! Well worth the price and the DVD transfer is excellent considering the vintage of the the film! Three thumbs up!
Best use of Technicolor
2007-01-31 - While this film really can't compare with the story line of the original Lassie Come Home, it is cetainly one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. Is there really a place so beautiful? Then I read from the cover notes of the two disc,three film version, that it was filmed in Canada during the Second World War. That country is gorgeous! It must have more pristine scenery packed into it than anywhere else on earth.
Liz is again the overwrought, ecstatic child... 
2006-12-24 - In "Courage of Lassie," the dog gets top billing, but a pretty teenager (Liz Taylor) has plenty of crying and hugging to do as a supremely devoted mistress...
Another heart-warming story, filmed in the wilderness of Washington State, the movie (which begins with a long, curious, wild-life sequence) mixes farm-family folksiness with an unusual dog story: Lassie goes to a training school for war dogs, is shipped to the front and performs heroically... Returned to America, the dog suffers a nervous collapse, becoming a menace to society...
As the willful farm girl who finds a dog, loses a dog, and regains a dog, Liz Taylor is again the overwrought, ecstatic child, lavishing her attention on Lassie...
Because her greatest fame came later, as a young woman, most people forget what a skillful child actress she was... Less burdened than at any later time by her beauty and fame, she is at her least self-conscious in these early performances... Untouched, she reveals in these animal stories her natural flair for tears and hugs--the paraphernalia of an emotional female...
