I first read this story when I was a girl, and was captivated by the Amazons, the Blackett girls, who were adventurous and bold in a very realistic way. The author, Arthur Ransome, had a dab hand with portraying children, and had a life filled with adventure as well, so perhaps he had a flair for that as well. This movie is a must have for anyone with children, and even those who used to be children.
The movie is a faithful recreation of the great strengths os the book, the loving descriptions of the English countryside, the realistic portrayal of actual children who actually relate, and are related to, as children. Unfortunately, the DVD is only available coded as Colour PAL for Region 2 (Europe, South Africa, and the UK) but is still readily available on the UK Amazon site. There are inexpensive DVD players which, if one buys them new, can be set to Region 2 and will automatically convert to NTSC (the North American television standard) or the disk can be played on almost any computer with the addition of a new, external DVD drive. This will also open up a whole world of European and UK films which never make it to the North American market. You can hardly go wrong.
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