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Education Of Little Tree, The
Paramount // PG // March 12, 2002
List Price: $24.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
If the title The Education Of Little Tree rings a bell, it's more than likely not because of this film. If its entry on the Internet Movie Database is any indication, the movie opened on a piddling number of screens to a disinterested audience in 1997, just breaking the six figure mark before disappearing entirely from theaters a week or so later.
The film is based on Forrest Carter's book of the same name, which was first published in the Fall of 1976. Carter, who also penned The Rebel Outlaw Josey Wales that too was spun by Paramount into a feature film, passed The Education Of Little Tree off as an autobiography. That same year, its success and Carter's ensuing fame led to the revelation that the author was really Asa Carter, a former klansman and a writer for infamous racist George Wallace. Carter was a man who, for crying out loud, co-founded an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan because he felt the KKK had gone too soft. Those interested in learning more on Carter's life and the controversy that erupted after his novel's release may be interested in reading related articles at Salon and NativeWeb. The Education Of Little Tree managed to sell several million copies in hardcover and paperback, despite the controversy and deservedly so. Carter may have been a repugnant individual, at least for a considerable portion of his life, but his work severely outclassed himself as a man. The Education Of Little Tree garnered armfuls of awards, charted on bestseller lists in more than one decade, and found itself beloved by innumerable entranced children and adults throughout the world.
The film stars Joseph Ashton (who later went on to star in an adaptation of another English class mainstay, Where The Red Fern Grows) as the titular Little Tree, an eight year old half-Cherokee orphan taken in by his grandparents in the 1930's. Granpa (James Cromwell) is a white moonshiner that has embraced the Cherokee ways with his full-blooded Indian wife (the near-ubiquitous Tantoo Cardinal). They, along with family friend Willow John (Graham Greene), eschew a formal education and teach Little Tree themselves, mixing nature, Cherokee history, and running whiskey along with the usual reading, 'ritin', and 'rithmetic. The state, unfortunately, gets wind of Granpa's still, courtesy of a jealous aunt. Little Tree finds himself torn from his family and carted off to the white-run Notched Gap Indian School that, despite its name, seeks out to strip every trace of Indian heritage from its students. Between these two very different sources, Little Tree learns more about life, death, love, family, race, religion, and nature than most people can claim nowadays.
The Education Of Little Tree doesn't follow the traditional Hollywood formula and isn't centered around any single event or hurdle its lead character has to overcome. It is about, as the title suggests, the development of a young boy torn between two worlds. A film creeping in just under two hours with 'education' in the title may leave some recoiling in horror, but it's paced quite well. The Education Of Little Tree avoids dull expanses of any length and, at the other end of the spectrum, feeling rushed. The typical oversentimental schmaltz that generally litters these sorts of family movies is nowhere to be found. Given the caliber of the established actors that make up the majority of the primary cast, the high quality of the acting shouldn't be a monumentous surprise. Even if names like Graham Greene and Tantoo Cardinal don't sound overly familiar, most viewers will immediately recognize them from the moment they first appear on screen. Joseph Ashton is perhaps the biggest surprise, and it's rare to find someone of his young age talented enough to carry a movie like this. I can't recall a single scene in the span of 112 minutes in which the character of Little Tree is not present. Ashton is natural and convincing as the innocent Little Tree, and his performance doesn't ever seem artificial or as if he's overwhelmed by the material.
Forrest Carter's The Education Of Little Tree is adored by millions, and understandably so, if the film adaptation is any indication. This is not the usual Blockbuster fodder that some parents rent so that they can dump their kids in front of the television for ninety minutes. The Education Of Little Tree is a wonderful film that can (and should) be watched and enjoyed by the entire family.
Video: Paramount, unlike an increasing number of other studios, seems willing to present its family films in their theatrical aspect ratios. The Education Of Little Tree is enhanced for 16x9 televisions and presented at an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1. The fact that the cover art bears the Paramount logo should be enough of an indication that this DVD looks good. There are just a scattered handful of speckles, and there is no excessive haloing or print damage of any sort. The level of detail is nothing remarkable, though the image doesn't appear to be unusually sort or anything along those lines. Detail is particularly murky in more dimly lit scenes. The light film grain visible throughout a fair portion of The Education Of Little Tree seems to be a conscious decision on the part of the film makers. Given the length of the film and the presence of bitrate-starving grain, I'm curious how the DVD would've looked if given the opportunity to spill over onto a second layer. The bitrate remains fairly low throughout, and though there are no blatant signs of artifacting or banding, that faint glimmer of curiosity about having this sort of film on a single layer remains.
I also noticed that somewhere around the 1:38:10 mark, just after Granpa breaks open the gate, a strange ghost image of James Cromwell flickered on-screen. I was going to capture a still for this review, but I couldn't duplicate this on my DVD-ROM. I'm not sure if that image is due to my DVD player or my television set (a Toshiba SD-3109 and a Sony VVega KV-36FS12 in 16x9 mode, if you're wondering), but I replayed that moment several times, each accompanied by the same effect. This is certainly nothing that would make any sort of difference in a purchasing decision, but I feel obligated to keep my reviews as unnecessarily comprehensive as possible.
As lengthy and probably whiney as all of that may have come off as sounding, it's not because I feel that The Education Of Little Tree looks terrible or anything. The visual presentation won't curl any toes, but even though it's not quite up to the exceedingly high bar Paramount typically sets for its catalog titles, the overall quality is still nothing to scoff at. The film was likely shot on a very low budget, and what may seem like shortcomings in its presentation may very well be a factor of limited time and money.
Audio: Given the sort of movie that The Education Of Little Tree is, the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is about what one would expect. Surrounds are almost entirely limited to reinforcing Mark Isham's score and providing ambiance, the latter being particularly effective in the number of scenes that take place in the woods. There isn't much activity in the lower frequencies. I have one of those exciting energy conserving subwoofers that can turn off after lengthy spells of inactivity, and I couldn't help but laugh at one point when I could hear the distinctive click of the subwoofer preparing to roar back to life immediately after a kid farted. Maybe I'm too easily amused. Dialogue is consistently crisp and clear, always discernable and not overwhelmed for a moment by other elements of the soundtrack. Though the mix isn't flashy or bombastic, what's here is perfectly serviceable. Also included are English subtitles and stereo surround tracks in French and English.
Supplements: Nothing, not even a trailer or bland filmographies.
Conclusion: The phrase 'family movie' is generally associated with dismal one-note comedies or ABC Afterschool Specials, invariably marred by bad acting and even worse writing. The Education Of Little Tree is a family movie in the literal sense. Little Tree is not accompanied by a dancing animal sidekick prone to bursting into song at regular intervals, and there are no pratfalls or lengthy duels with bears and wolves. This intelligent, well-crafted family drama is well-worth seeking out as a rental or purchase.
The film is based on Forrest Carter's book of the same name, which was first published in the Fall of 1976. Carter, who also penned The Rebel Outlaw Josey Wales that too was spun by Paramount into a feature film, passed The Education Of Little Tree off as an autobiography. That same year, its success and Carter's ensuing fame led to the revelation that the author was really Asa Carter, a former klansman and a writer for infamous racist George Wallace. Carter was a man who, for crying out loud, co-founded an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan because he felt the KKK had gone too soft. Those interested in learning more on Carter's life and the controversy that erupted after his novel's release may be interested in reading related articles at Salon and NativeWeb. The Education Of Little Tree managed to sell several million copies in hardcover and paperback, despite the controversy and deservedly so. Carter may have been a repugnant individual, at least for a considerable portion of his life, but his work severely outclassed himself as a man. The Education Of Little Tree garnered armfuls of awards, charted on bestseller lists in more than one decade, and found itself beloved by innumerable entranced children and adults throughout the world.
The film stars Joseph Ashton (who later went on to star in an adaptation of another English class mainstay, Where The Red Fern Grows) as the titular Little Tree, an eight year old half-Cherokee orphan taken in by his grandparents in the 1930's. Granpa (James Cromwell) is a white moonshiner that has embraced the Cherokee ways with his full-blooded Indian wife (the near-ubiquitous Tantoo Cardinal). They, along with family friend Willow John (Graham Greene), eschew a formal education and teach Little Tree themselves, mixing nature, Cherokee history, and running whiskey along with the usual reading, 'ritin', and 'rithmetic. The state, unfortunately, gets wind of Granpa's still, courtesy of a jealous aunt. Little Tree finds himself torn from his family and carted off to the white-run Notched Gap Indian School that, despite its name, seeks out to strip every trace of Indian heritage from its students. Between these two very different sources, Little Tree learns more about life, death, love, family, race, religion, and nature than most people can claim nowadays.
The Education Of Little Tree doesn't follow the traditional Hollywood formula and isn't centered around any single event or hurdle its lead character has to overcome. It is about, as the title suggests, the development of a young boy torn between two worlds. A film creeping in just under two hours with 'education' in the title may leave some recoiling in horror, but it's paced quite well. The Education Of Little Tree avoids dull expanses of any length and, at the other end of the spectrum, feeling rushed. The typical oversentimental schmaltz that generally litters these sorts of family movies is nowhere to be found. Given the caliber of the established actors that make up the majority of the primary cast, the high quality of the acting shouldn't be a monumentous surprise. Even if names like Graham Greene and Tantoo Cardinal don't sound overly familiar, most viewers will immediately recognize them from the moment they first appear on screen. Joseph Ashton is perhaps the biggest surprise, and it's rare to find someone of his young age talented enough to carry a movie like this. I can't recall a single scene in the span of 112 minutes in which the character of Little Tree is not present. Ashton is natural and convincing as the innocent Little Tree, and his performance doesn't ever seem artificial or as if he's overwhelmed by the material.
Forrest Carter's The Education Of Little Tree is adored by millions, and understandably so, if the film adaptation is any indication. This is not the usual Blockbuster fodder that some parents rent so that they can dump their kids in front of the television for ninety minutes. The Education Of Little Tree is a wonderful film that can (and should) be watched and enjoyed by the entire family.
Video: Paramount, unlike an increasing number of other studios, seems willing to present its family films in their theatrical aspect ratios. The Education Of Little Tree is enhanced for 16x9 televisions and presented at an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1. The fact that the cover art bears the Paramount logo should be enough of an indication that this DVD looks good. There are just a scattered handful of speckles, and there is no excessive haloing or print damage of any sort. The level of detail is nothing remarkable, though the image doesn't appear to be unusually sort or anything along those lines. Detail is particularly murky in more dimly lit scenes. The light film grain visible throughout a fair portion of The Education Of Little Tree seems to be a conscious decision on the part of the film makers. Given the length of the film and the presence of bitrate-starving grain, I'm curious how the DVD would've looked if given the opportunity to spill over onto a second layer. The bitrate remains fairly low throughout, and though there are no blatant signs of artifacting or banding, that faint glimmer of curiosity about having this sort of film on a single layer remains.
I also noticed that somewhere around the 1:38:10 mark, just after Granpa breaks open the gate, a strange ghost image of James Cromwell flickered on-screen. I was going to capture a still for this review, but I couldn't duplicate this on my DVD-ROM. I'm not sure if that image is due to my DVD player or my television set (a Toshiba SD-3109 and a Sony VVega KV-36FS12 in 16x9 mode, if you're wondering), but I replayed that moment several times, each accompanied by the same effect. This is certainly nothing that would make any sort of difference in a purchasing decision, but I feel obligated to keep my reviews as unnecessarily comprehensive as possible.
As lengthy and probably whiney as all of that may have come off as sounding, it's not because I feel that The Education Of Little Tree looks terrible or anything. The visual presentation won't curl any toes, but even though it's not quite up to the exceedingly high bar Paramount typically sets for its catalog titles, the overall quality is still nothing to scoff at. The film was likely shot on a very low budget, and what may seem like shortcomings in its presentation may very well be a factor of limited time and money.
Audio: Given the sort of movie that The Education Of Little Tree is, the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is about what one would expect. Surrounds are almost entirely limited to reinforcing Mark Isham's score and providing ambiance, the latter being particularly effective in the number of scenes that take place in the woods. There isn't much activity in the lower frequencies. I have one of those exciting energy conserving subwoofers that can turn off after lengthy spells of inactivity, and I couldn't help but laugh at one point when I could hear the distinctive click of the subwoofer preparing to roar back to life immediately after a kid farted. Maybe I'm too easily amused. Dialogue is consistently crisp and clear, always discernable and not overwhelmed for a moment by other elements of the soundtrack. Though the mix isn't flashy or bombastic, what's here is perfectly serviceable. Also included are English subtitles and stereo surround tracks in French and English.
Supplements: Nothing, not even a trailer or bland filmographies.
Conclusion: The phrase 'family movie' is generally associated with dismal one-note comedies or ABC Afterschool Specials, invariably marred by bad acting and even worse writing. The Education Of Little Tree is a family movie in the literal sense. Little Tree is not accompanied by a dancing animal sidekick prone to bursting into song at regular intervals, and there are no pratfalls or lengthy duels with bears and wolves. This intelligent, well-crafted family drama is well-worth seeking out as a rental or purchase.
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