Lots of coming of age movies are set in some wilderness, probably so the character count can be kept to a minimum and to provide more natural obstacles for the character(s) coming of age. Some place south of a tiny town a long bus ride out of Sydney, Australia, in 1979 probably fits the bill all around.
So you won’t be surprised that director Peter Collinson makes heavy use of the scenery, sounds and wildlife in 1980’s The Earthling, in which a very young Rick Schroder sees his parents die as their minibus slides off a cliff and is rescued by William Holden, hiking through the area on his way home to die. Both actors, alone onscreen for most of the film, do decent jobs.
There are too many cliches and glossed over bits to make this memorable, though, and the horrific death of Schroder’s parents probably puts this out of bounds for the younger children who’d otherwise make this a perennial. Collinson was an experienced director–this was his last movie and he died of cancer shortly after the release–but the screenplay by newbie Lanny Cotler (an environmentalist from Mendocino) really doesn’t give him enough material to work deeper.
not recommended
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