Shiloh ~ the bond between boy and dog

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The last few weeks have found our family combing through the On Demand selections for our current cable channels.  Our first month of Starz was free and there was quite a selection of older and newer selections.

 

One of the movies that we watched is Shiloh .

I’m not sure how we managed to never watch this film before now.  Honestly, I think the boys would have enjoyed it more when they were a bit younger.

 

The basic story ~ a puppy who’s owner is abusive runs away and finds this young boy.  The dog takes a shine to the boy and repeats the running away from his legal owner to seek out the boy.  The boy (Marty) then decides he must do everything he can to protect the dog from the owner.

 

There were a few parts of the story that I liked. Marty sets his sights on a goal (buying Shiloh from the crotchety man) and works towards that goal.  Tenacity is a virtue that so few youngsters seem to have in this age of instant gratification.

 

Marty was able to spot an injustice and did not fear speaking up to those in authority over him.  However, like other kids before him, Marty seems to struggle with balancing the need to be a voice for those who can’t speak for themselves and respecting authority.  Marty’s decision to harbor Shiloh and outright lie about knowing where the dog was to both the owner and his parents was an example of a bad choice in how to handle the situation.

 

Now, my boys would be prone to argue that Marty’s idea of abuse is not true abuse, but rather one person’s idea of how to train a hunting dog.  However, I can’t say any of them are experts in training a dog as we remain dog less since our Irish Setter, Amber, died in 2007.

 

Along with some ‘bad attitude’ by Marty and his nemesis, Judd, there isn’t much offensive in this film.  I was hoping we’d have time to watch the first sequel while it was still available.  We missed the opportunity, but might find occasion in the future to watch it. 

 

After a vote of the boys, we’d give this film ONE thumbs up.  It’s family friendly, but not action packed enough for them to give it two thumbs up.

 

This post has been submitted for inclusion in The Christian Home carnival ( Issue 31) hosted @ A Day in the Life this week.

As the featured columnist for the Movies and Music category, you can be looking forward to weekly posts on what we are watching or music we’ve enjoyed. Feel free to leave suggestions for me as well that are family friendly or uplifting for adults.  While I have movies and some music selections in mind, I’m always on the lookout for other great choices.