The Tillamook Treasure

Having lived in Oregon, I am familiar with the legend of the Tillamook gold. I also trekked over, up, down and around Neahkahnie Mountain several times. But I wasn't looking for treasure. It is part of the Oregon Coast Range and has some wonderful hiking trails. They wind through rain forest, along deep woods ridges, and along paths that lead to outstanding views of the Oregon Coast from up high. The coast highway, U.S. 101 runs through Oswald West State Park that encompasses the mountain. The town of Manzanita is below the most spectacular view that includes Nehalem Bay and Tillamook Bay in the distance.

The premise for this story could lead to the making of a good film. But, unfortunately, this one falls far short. The script jumps all over the place, and there's little coherence in the plot. The acting is fair by some of the cast, but Suzanne Doyon in the lead role as Julie is flat. Too many diversions and subplots are in this. The attempted humor with Richard Doyon and Mary Stein, playing Clyde and Billie Stahl, misfires throughout. The family problems and subplots only add to the incoherence of the plot and distractions from the story.

My four stars are for the scenery, the location shots, and the exploration of the legend that dates to the early 17th century. Unlike the implication of this movie, the treasure has never been found. That is, to anyone's knowledge. But some people believe it may have been found in the early 1800s by Thomas McKay. If he found it, he never let on that he did; but this outcome has considerable credence because McKay disappeared for a time after looking for the treasure, and then appeared years later in Oregon, independently wealthy.

At best, this is a fair movie about a search for treasure. But it gets sidetracked so often that it's hard to sit through. It seemed much longer than its 107 minutes. Only the most avid treasure enthusiasts may find this film of enough interest to sit through the whole thing.

My wife and I have a couple of children in grade school and middle school. We have difficulty finding movies that we can go to as a family which we would all enjoy. We heard about this film at the Newport Beach Festival of Films and thought we'd give it a shot. We were so pleased. It appealed to our whole family and on the way home was the catalyst for a discussion about what it means to find inner strength.

The production was great. I know it was a low budget so I didn't expect the production values of a big studio movie but I was pleasantly surprised. It was exceptionally well done and you would never know it was a low budget independent. The acting was great. We loved the young girl (Suzanne Marie Doyon). She's going places. And the native American influence brought real depth to the film.

Kudos to the filmmakers.

Len

(oh, yeah, the puppets were beautifully done. My youngest really got into them and even my near-high schooler thought they were great. They went far beyond a kids puppet show.

The Legend Of Tillamook's Gold aka Tillamook Treasure tells the story of a young girl- the daughter of a struggling writer- who has moved to Oregon, from California, when her family suffers from money problems.

One day, she happens upon a gold coin, of Spanish origin, on the beach.

Which she learns more about after querying her marionette making grandfather, and his indigenous friend, Standing Elk.

Standing Elk tells her a tale about how his ancestors had witnessed the Spanish land on their shores, with a slave, whom they forced to bury a cache of treasure- before killing him, so that his ghost would watch over the treasure.

Until the chosen one comes to find it.

After going on a vision quest, and, with the help of the slave's lost soul in the form of an elk, she works to crack the code of the treasure's location.

Despite having competition from the local historian, and her partner- who constantly attempt to stifle her efforts.

Eventually, she figures it out.

But it almost gets her- and her father- killed.

And she is forced to decide between fame and fortune...or their lives.

The whole thing is rather low budget, with very mediocre acting.

But the main actress is cute, and her character is endearing.

It all has a less-exciting Goonies sort of vibe.

Though it must be noted that this is more of a family film, with an adventure angle, than it is an adventure film, with a family angle, like The Goonies.

It's certainly not the best treasure hunting movie ever made.

In fact, it's probably among the worst.

But the little twist at the end is clever and heart felt.

That being said, it likely won't be enjoyed by most.

But I enjoyed the message it puts out there, on a personal level.

So I'd say it's worth a watch.

4.5 out of 10.

I saw this at the film festival in Toronto and just recently bought the DVD. I loved it on the big screen and love it just as much on the small screen. The lead actress was enchanting. Loved Floyd Red Crow Westerman. Saw a tribute to him recently at the Native American Music Awards where the flute player in this movie, Jan Michael Looking Wolf won best artist of the year. Very cool. The puppets added another layer to the film They were done by Philip Huber who I think did the puppets in Being John Malkovich. Some great talent for a small indie film.

Mostly the film touched me because of the respectful way it treated native American myth and also because it had a young girl lead who was strong and a good role model for my 3 young daughters. I watched it with my parents, daughters, nieces and nephews and it played well to all age groups.

Well done and beautifully told story.

Flicks like this are what give the term "family feature" a bad name, and I find all the positive reviews to be HIGHLY suspect. This film was aimed at tweens who cannot discern a quality story or cinematic production. That, or the bar is just too low for shows targeting families. It's just sad. Many of the actors in this movie seem to have experience limited to high school drama; the plot had potential as family fare, but the execution is difficult to watch. I gave it more than one star because kids up to about age 13 would probably watch this and enjoy it without laughing at it. However, for me, this was painful to watch: I was embarrassed for the actors in a lot of the scenes. Go ahead and see it if you want something to ridicule mercilessly, as it provides ample opportunity to do just that.