A Tiger Walks
Instead of telling the big-time editor of the town paper the simple
facts of the incident, wanna be reporter Bob Evans reads his news report instead.
"A tiger walks the streets of Scotia today while residents cower within
their homes gripped by the primitive fear that jungle people have known through
the centuries."
How did this Tiger come to walk the streets of Scotia? Because the very drunk handler of the tiger
kept poking it with a stick and taunting it. He also thought it would be macho
to open his cage in order for him to prove who was the bigger bad-ass. Of
course the Tiger took advantage of the open cage and jumped out scaring all the
kids nearby. It chased a few of them down this alley. Julie Williams (Pamela Franklin) trips and is helpless on the ground. The
camera zooms into her beautiful blue (I think they were blue) eyes as she looks
at the camera with silent terror. Her best friend Moochie tries to pick up a
piece of wood to shoo the hungry tiger away. Despite her first encounter with
the tiger, she becomes his biggest supporter.
How did this Tiger come to this town in the first place? A circus truck
breaks down in the little town and needs it’s tire fixed. The owner goes off warning his two handlers
to take care of mattes and to stay out of the bars. One of the handlers is the legendary boy
actor Sabu (Arabian Knights, Jungle Book) in his last film role before he died
un unexpected young actor death. One incident flows into another. One decision
leads to others having to make life or death decisions. Everything happens for a reason, making it a
strong script.
Johnny Shiloh (in his last Disney film) takes a back seat in his
interaction with other characters. He has hit puberty and is less appealing
then he was as a cute little mousecater.
But of course Superstar Disney actor Brian Keith takes center stage as
Julies Dad, the Sheriff of the town, who just happens to be running for mayor.
He takes the mantle and leads the tiger hunt. Conveniently the fog settles in,
making a mysterious and disquieting atmosphere.
The film deals with politics, the power of the media and the deadliness
of pride. The drunk tiger handler puts the whole town in danger because of his
ego. The young army cadet who wants to be on TV shoots a person instead of the
tiger as he is so eager to prove himself capable of hunting down the beast. The
rest of the army wants to capture the Tiger and wants to hang it’s head on the
wall of one of the higher ups. Bob Evans takes the opportunity to show off his
newspaper skills instead of just reporting the incident. The Govender running
for re-election wants to use this tiger opportunity to show how he can handle a
situation. The film also pictures rather well the principle of subsidiarity.
The sheriff wants to handle things with the townsfolks, the Gov wants to call
in the national guard, thus risking the tiger running off into the hills. \
The film also handles graphic situations non-graphically. The killing
of one character is rather brutal and is left to the imagination. There is no good reason to show blood and
guts other then shock value. This also leaves the film wide open for a family
audience. It doesn’t’ dumb down the story for kids but doesn’t it make it
complicated for them either It’s a simple premise that plays out from beginning
to end with a strong script, good cinematography, and good and memorable
characters with fine acting. And lastly it has another catchy Disney tune. It started out as Shoot that Tiger and ended
with Save That Tiger, Save That Tiger.
You can let A Tiger Walk into your DVD home library. I should have
returned the DVD sooner then I did as I ended up paying $16 in late fees for
it.
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