A Brilliant Conflict

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Great Disney sequel to the first Disney movie on Davy Crockett. I enjoyed the characters, particularly Mike Fink, who gave the film a lot of humor. I particularly liked the scene when Mike Fink had to eat his hat after losing the keelboat race. Meaning, in Disney fashion, the "sort of" villain was actually a tough guy with honor. Of course, at the end, the King of the River and King of the Wild Frontier part as friends. Excellent plot, good story, good action and a lot of good humor.

Capitalizing on the popularity of the Davy Crockett phenomenon, Disney produced a story that had to take place at an earlier time. Mike Fink is a keel boater (boats that are pushed with poles), the best around. Georgie Russell (Buddy Ebsen) makes a bet with Fink, banking on the ingenuity of Crockett who has never pushed a keel boat. If they don't win the race, they will lose several month's work. The race is fun with Fink using every method he can to take away Davy and Georgie's chances of winning. The two manage to endure and the first half ends. What the heck. But what happens is an alliance among the three men. River pirates have been robbing the hard working people who depend on the waterway for their business. They must find a way to stop them for everyone's benefit. If this phenomenon had been in more recent times, we would have had a series, starring Fess Parker, that would have lasted a long time. It was a different time, obviously.

Wow.Sometimes a film is powerful because it WAS powerful.This is an amazingly dumb movie but perhaps no dumber in extremes than today's. The reason it might be on your radar is because of how influential it was.It was the first movie with multimedia tie-ins. You could buy Davey Crockett hats and weapons. And lunchboxes — stuff like that. That wasn't all that extraordinary then. But this was also the first movie that was also a theme park ride. So it is the beginning of a food chain that leads us to the Depp pirate projects. That Davey Crockett ride lasted 40 years! (Incidentally, students of film will see blocking similarities between Depp's boat ride in the bayou and Parker's.)Its also one of the movies most obviously designed for boys. Here you have guys pretending to be Indians and dying by falling down. You have water play. You have racing. You have tricksters.And most of all, you have a juvenile version of that John Ford/ John Wayne meme: real men achieve honor through recreational fighting.Seeing it again fifty years later is very strange. Young people watch movies more closely than adults I think. I remembered the smallest details, like the lettering on barrels, which incidentally was inspired by the Our Gang/Little Rascals cosmology that things become props by labelling them.There are no "girls;" this is strictly boy's play. The only time girlie stuff appears is when the pirates try to attract Mike Fink's crew to an ambush. They do this by dressing up as floozies, which of course he cannot resist.And its also an influential film in melding a certain collection of values to a certain collection of cultural carriers.The values are honesty, plainspokenness, insight outside of book-larnin', loyalty (at least among men). The cultural carriers today are what's been labelled as "country" music (and its advertising affiliate, NASCAR).Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

This film is a lot of fun. It originally played on the Disney TV show as a two parter. Fess Parker plays Davy, and Buddy Ebsen plays George Russell, his friend and traveling partner. They run afoul of Mike Fink and his crew; Mike is played by the wonderful and boastful Jeff York. George mistakenly bets all their winter's fur inventory that Davy and he can beat Mike to New Orleans. Mike tries all kinds of devious and underhanded ways to win, but in the end Davy manages to beat him. Mike is contrite, and he and Davy become friends. In the second part, Mike and Davy take on the river pirates from the title, who've been posing as hostile indians and killing settlers coming downstream. Of course, they win.Mike's crew is played by veteran Hollywood actors; Kenneth Tobey plays Mike's right hand man, and believe me, if you've seen Ken as the staunch commander in the original "The Thing", you won't recognize him in this. He's a natural comedian, and with his expressive face he's a source of constant amazement.Don't miss this movie; kids will love it. It's fast paced, and filled with lots of stunts and explosions. And Mike Fink's song is catchy and memorable. In all, a great family film. I still watch it and love it.