The Education of Little Tree

"The Way" teaches that when you come upon something good, share it with whosoever you can find, so "the good spreads out no telling how far it will go." Unfortunately, despite calls for quality family films, this breathtakingly photographed adaptation of Forrest Carter's celebrated book did not go very far. It deserves, with reservations, to find its audience on video. James Cromwell, the Oscar-nominated star of Babe, and the wonderful Tantoo Cardinal star as the white grandfather and Cherokee grandmother of an orphaned eight-year-old, whom they raise in their wilderness Tennessee mountain home. Graham Greene co-stars as Willow John, an Indian who teaches the boy about his people's tragic past. When Little Tree is sent away to a boarding school, he gets a further education in prejudice. Eventually, Little Tree learns valuable lessons about his heritage and nature (not to mention moonshining from wily Grandpa), but the anti-government screeds and the heavy-handed portrayals of the white characters (all either bigoted or intolerant) are a bit tiresome. Too, my enthusiasm for this film is admittedly tempered by the source material's well-documented checkered history. Not only was it revealed that the story was fictional, not autobiographical, but also that the author was actually Asa Carter, a former white supremacist. Recommended, with reservations. (K. Lee Benson)