'Shiloh' is no adult-crossover phenomenon like 'Babe' it's a simple morality tale for children, with more sentimentality than sharpness. But while audiences hear the thud of a rifle butt hitting Shiloh and are told in another scene that the dog 'sure is bleeding,' neither act One concern in a film about abuse is that children might have to see that abuse on screen. The middle of the night and teaching Marty about fighting for someone you love. And who knew Rod Steiger had such gentleness in him? He makes a wonderful kindly town doctor, stitching up Shiloh in Michael Moriarty and Ann Dowd, as Marty's parents, are three-dimensional, loving but firm, smart but not omniscient.

Judd says things like 'If he does run off, I'll shoot him,' 'I'll whoop the living daylights out of him' and 'Animals ain't got no other purpose - or feelings.'

HisĬharacter is drawn too broadly for adults to buy it, but only a little, and it's drawn clearly, by repetition, for children. Pure behavior (in Frannie's case, face licking, tail wagging, looking up adoringly).Īs Judd, the dog's owner, Scott Wilson is so convincingly, thoroughly mean that it may take parents a long time to recognize his face as the painfully vulnerable one of the garage owner in 'The Great Gatsby' 23 years ago. She's also about three semesters and a little eyeliner awayįrannie, the talented beagle who plays Shiloh, must be the dog equivalent of Chief Dan George, the kind of low-key 'real person' actor who conveys such intensity and specificity playing himself that the audience falls in love with Madison Wright), who does not exist in the award-winning Phyllis Reynolds Naylor novel on which the film is based, is likable and an obvious flirt. Rosenbloom, a first-time director, has pulled some memorable performances from his cast.Īs Marty, Blake Heron sometimes looks like Macaulay Culkin, only sincere, yet he's especially convincing when fibbing to his parents, being sullen or looking guilty about secretly keeping Shiloh and feeding him. 'Shiloh' follows Marty Preston, the boy, and his bittersweet, sometimes morally confusing campaign to make the mistreated dog his own. Title character of Dale Rosenbloom's new film, 'Shiloh.' The beagle, who has fled because his hunter-owner kicked and hit him, is the

The bridge, in timeless small-town West Virginia, looks as if Andy and Opie might be crossing it any second now, fishing poles in tow.

T's not immediately clear why an 11-year-old boy who is practically an animal-rights activist is carrying a hunting rifle when he meets a little runaway beagle on aīridge, but there he is.

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