The Education of Little Tree

1997
PG
1h 56m

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

1.9K

YOUR RATING

Little Tree is an 8-year-old Cherokee boy who loses his parents during The Great Depression and begins living with his Indian grandparents and learning the Cherokee way of life.

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Little Tree is an 8-year-old Cherokee boy who loses his parents during The Great Depression and begins living with his Indian grandparents and learning the Cherokee way of life.Little Tree is an 8-year-old Cherokee boy who loses his parents during The Great Depression and begins living with his Indian grandparents and learning the Cherokee way of life.Little Tree is an 8-year-old Cherokee boy who loses his parents during The Great Depression and begins living with his Indian grandparents and learning the Cherokee way of life.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

1.9K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 wins & 2 nominations total

Wilburn
(as Chris Fennell)

Graham Greene

Willow John

Leni Parker

Martha

Rebecca Dewey

Dolly

Bill Rowat

Henry
(as William Rowat)

Robert Daviau

Ralph

Norris Domingue

Mr. Jenkins

Mark Jeffrey Miller

Preacher

Gordon Masten

Politician

HoJo Rose

Calf's Owner
(as Howard Rosenstein)

Tedd Dillon

Revenuer #1
(as Teddy-Lee Dillon)

James Rae

Revenuer #2

Alain Goulem

Revenuer #3

User reviews26

7.11.8K

Featured reviews

10geoff-262

Education of Little Tree

Despite comments that the author of the book from which this film comes may have had racist tendencies the tale sets out to show the prejudices in us all. The actors, particularly, Joseph Ashton (Little Tree) are adorable as if they are right out of a patchwork quilt. I don't mean to diminish the impact of this film by that comment. James Cromwell and Tantoo Cardinal as the grandparents set out to bring up the young by letting him learn by his own mistakes. The State, as always, has to interfere and its perhaps here that the boy's education really begins. The Appallachan scenery is jaw dropping and adds to the atmosphere that pervades from start to finish. THis a story to curl up with on the sofa on a cold, wet afternoon. It pulls at your heart strings and also has you smiling at tender moments. There is even one great belly laughing scene. I first saw this on U.K. TV and immediately ordered it on video. It's certainly in my top ten films of all time.

10plum-6

Highly recommended, 4 thumbs way up

It is too bad that movies like this are not more widely publicized and seen. This movie has far more redeeming qualities and is better for the soul and heart than any blood and gore action packed swear and nudity fest flick. I would even go one better and recommend the book, because although the movie is fairly true the book has alot more that cannot be covered in a 2 hr movie.

The actors are very good, Graeme Green is wonderful as always.

This movie should be nominated for an Oscar, but of course it won't because stories about Native Americans are not nominated, or seen by the movie going public.

jtur88

Read it!!!

I didn't even know that this book had been filmed, until I stumbled across it on cable. The movie is hokey, mostly, but the story is so incredibly powerful that it is worthwhile, no matter how it is conveyed. The book is on my all-time top-20 list. The film is not. But it is still worth seeing, for it does represent the social facts of life encountered by Forrest Carter, as described in this autogiography.

10dxndmom-1

A mixed race child faces challenges growing up in the South in the 1920's

My husband had told me about this movie for years, and when he rented it I was skeptical, at best since he's not known for his taste in films, television, or music. The movie takes place in the Applachian Mountains where I live. It's almost the story of my husband's family, they are a mix of Blackfoot, Crow, Cherokee, and several other tribes. After seeing the film, I truly understand what they've had to endure over the years. It also makes me think of the crimes that people commit on other people, all in the name of making a group "fit in". The young boy, "Little Tree" did not ask to be born into a family who has both white and Cherokee parents. In the 1920's this was a crime that was beyond forgiveness. The grandparents are also a "mixed" couple, they raise the boy and he is wise beyond his years thanks to them! This move will make you cry, laugh, think, and rejoice. I have to say, that it's even better than MY all time favorite, The Wizard Of Oz! RENT IT, BUY IT, LOVE IT!!!!! THE very best movie I've seen in years!!!!!

P.S. Have PLENTY of tissue on hand!!!

8elo-equipamentos

A clash of two different vision of life!!!

A touching and compelling story from the native ethnicity Cherokee in the 20', letting us to think about this magnificent people who lived on the Tennessee's mountains and were forced to migrate to a dry land, many thousands died on the way, others on the destination, slowly they were back, but just a few them, this accurate story was told along the picture, the young "Little Tree" was raised by his grandfather, a white man and together with your grandmother a gentle Cherokee woman, nearby has a wise uncle called Willow John, I' won't talk about the movie itself, just those apprenticeship, how they choose a secret place to stay accordant, how they look the sky and talked with the stars, and how they feeling the death about to come, in this two opposite kind of vision of life, one harmonic with nature that surround them, another greed and offensive, what kind do you want to choice??? Stay a question that needs an answer!!!!

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First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.5

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Trivia
The book on which this movie was based was originally published in 1977 under the title and subtitle "The Education of Little Tree: A True Story," with the author's name given as "Forrest Carter." However, after the publication, it was revealed that the book was not really a true story, the author was not really Native American, and "Forrest Carter" was actually a pseudonym for Asa Earl Carter. Asa Carter was a Ku Klux Klansman and the alleged author of George Wallace's 1963 "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" speech. He is widely understood to have been the leader of a Klan lynch mob that nearly killed the Black musician Nat King Cole during a 1956 concert in Birmingham, Alabama. Even aside from the author's white supremacist past and his total falsification of any personal Native American heritage, his representation of Cherokee life, lore, and culture was also invented out of whole cloth. In a 2012 NPR interview, historian Dan T. Carter says that "the Cherokee words that [Asa Carter] used in the memoir weren't Cherokee - they were just made up." The fact that the author was a vicious racist and a known grifter had been revealed multiple times by various historians and journalists before this adaptation was in production.

Goofs
The film takes place in the 1930s. At that time The Pledge of Allegiance did not include the words "Under God" . It wasn't until 1956 that those words were added to the Pledge of Allegiance.

Quotes
[first lines]
Older Little Tree: [narrating] It began at the Jericho Mine, Jericho City, Tennessee, in the year 1935, the day after Ma died. She'd lasted only a year after Pa was killed in the army. And that's how I came to live with Granma and Granpa when I was eight.
Older Little Tree: One time, Granma told me that when you come on something good, first thing to do is stare it with whosoever you can find. That way, the good spreads out, we're no telling how far it'll go. Which is right. So I'm telling the story of them days, and how Granma and Granpa got me away from Aunt Martha, and took me to live in their mountains, where they'd raised my pa before me, and which I know now was the secret heart of the world.