TV REVIEW : CBS’ ‘Yearling’ a Worthwhile Remake

CBS’ remake of the beloved 1946 Oscar-winning movie “The Yearling” is ample evidence of the lingering lure of the agrarian myth and the myth of the rural family in the American imagination.

Everything about this production--its primitive, addictive environment, its uncomplicated characters, its wild animal kingdom--harks to a past that is not so much romantic as it is isolated, lonely and, not least, wondrous.

Co-starring Peter Strauss and Jean Smart as a hardscrabble husband and wife farming a swampy patch of scrub forest in the spectacular Everglades in 1920s Florida, the movie will not disappoint fans of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel or of the old MGM movie (which starred Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman and Claude Jarman Jr.).

Nearly 50 years later, the appeal of “The Yearling” is not only unchanged, it’s probably stronger.

The impossible-to-pin-down Smart (whose every dramatic performance seems wildly different from her last) is particularly affecting as a stern, laconic mom whose no-nonsense approach to her lot in life masks swamp waters that indeed run deep.

Like Peck before him, Strauss’ good looks initially seem wrong for the role of the dirt farmer plowing the marshes. But (also mirroring Peck’s achievement) Strauss’ easygoing style goes on to create a sturdy, becalming figure who warmly balances the flinty Smart.

The couple has already lost three children; their only surviving child is a pre-adolescent son (the convincing Wil Horneff) who is compelled to become a man before his time. In a shattering decision, the youth must decide the fate of his pet fawn, the entitled yearling (captured by a combination of clever intercutting and some remarkable animal training).

But make no mistake, this is not Bambi territory.

The harshness of nature is unflinchingly depicted and keeps the movie, briskly directed by Rod Hardy from a solid script by Joe Wiesenfeld, free of cheap sentiment. On the contrary, the picture’s sentiment is earned, as in the young boy’s bedside vigil over the corpse of a boyhood friend or a later, lovely scene in which Strauss reduces Smart to tears with the magical gift of a black lace dress.

For a movie in which hunting and communing with exotic flora and fauna are so basic (and richly lensed by cinematographer David Connell), the pace never flags.

* “The Yearling” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS (Channels 2 and 8).