best movie i've ever seen.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

WE'VE HEARD THAT the procurers wanted to do a DAVY CROCKETT Series. Plans called for using former Walt Disney contract player and star of DISNEYLAND TV's DAVY CROCKETT Saga. There were, we believe, 5 hour long episodes telecast in 1955-56.LEGAL PROCEDURES AND "the Suits" intervened on behalf of Disney and the law prevailed against the proposed new CROCKETT Series. So, would the production company's misfortunes would now number an unwanted Surplus of Buckskin Coats & Pants, Coonskin Caps and Flintlock Rifles? ALAS, THEY WERE saved by a simple but effective change of venue and moving back a few decades in American History. Instead of Tennessee in the years circa 1820-36, we were now in Kentucky during the 1770's and the American Revolutionary War! TO THEIR CREDIT, other than the Frontier setting and the plethora of deer hide and furry headpieces, the series is far different from the DAVY CROCKETT Saga on the DISNEYLAND Show.THE EPISODES WHICH we have seen are more family oriented, widely constituted in subject matter and still action-full.THIS SERIES GIVES us a more diverse cast of characters in the credits. In addition to Fess Parker (Daniel) and Patricia Blair (Rebecca Boone, wife) we have Darby Hinton (Israel Boone, son), there is great support from several top performers. In recurring roles we have Dal McKinnon (Cincinatius), Abel Fernandez (Little Turtle), Veronica Cartwright (Jemmima Boone), Roosevelt Grier (Gabe Cooper, Black Free Man) and Albert Salmi (Yadkin).AMONG OTHERS WHO had multiple appearances as the same character were: country singer, Jimmy Dean and a young Curt Russell.BUT FOR OUR money the most unique and scene stealing character was that of Ed Ames. In a sort of reversal of the Civilized Man's returning 'back to nature', as suggested by Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli (JUNGLE BOOK) or Edgar Rice Burroughs' TARZAN, Ed Ames' Mingo is a Native American Indian, who has been given a college education in England, before returning to the North American wilderness.

DANIEL BOONE was star Fess Parker's production company's project to recapture the success and popularity of the DAVY CROCKETT episodes he did for the Disney anthology series of the 1950's. However, the Davy Crockett franchise was owned by Disney, and Disney was unwilling to sell their rights, so they had to come up with something else along the same lines, and thus DANIEL BOONE was born. Basically they recast the earlier character and much of the light-hearted, folk-tale-inspired stories and feel of the earlier show, and even appropriated the coon-skin cap he had made so popular in DAVY CROCKETT (I suppose Disney didn't have a monopoly on that mode of headgear). Then they updated the story concepts and themes to mid-1960's. Once you realize this (and assuming you've seen DAVY CROCKETT, OLD YELLER, or any of the standard Disney weekly television fare of the era) you'll understand where this series was coming from. In terms of story themes, it was mid-60's morality play TV, where good always ultimately triumphed over evil, the ending was generally a happy one, and traditional American idealistic values as well as some newer ones, like opposing racism, were upheld. Thus, it was no different than anything else of that era -- BONANZA, THE RIFLEMAN, THE BIG VALLEY, THE HIGH CHAPARRAL, you name it, and it was just as popular, with a rendition of the theme song expanded and sung by Fess Parker himself being played on Top 40 radio. What was uniquely fun about this show, though, was the 1950's Disneyesque TV humor, some of which revolved not the least around Fess Parker's sidekicks, in particular, the inimitable Mingo, played by baritone singer Ed Ames. Styled as a Cherokee (and therefore, "friendly") Indian, Mingo was actually half-English and educated at no less an institution than Oxford, after which he returned to resume his Cherokee lifestyle while communicating with whites in the King's English. This became a running joke in the show, for when the pair met up with any of the vast population of guest stars portraying various strangers from week to week, Daniel or the other white frontiersman would say something like, "downright happy t' know ya", while Mingo, looking from head to toe like any Indian from James Fenimore Cooper, would in crisp, perfect English and a deep sonorous voice, intone something like, "the pleasure and honor are all mine, sir," often to the stunned amazement of the stranger. Moreover, he was not only an expert Cherokee tracker with a store of knowledge of other tribes, but a true classically-educated intellectual aware even of much of the latest scientific knowledge. Don't be surprised to see Mingo respond to some down-home philosophical question with a Latin metaphor, in Latin. He's practically the original Mister Spock (a whole year before Star Trek debuted).Fess Parker himself was perfect in this, doing a classic portrayal of an easygoing, exceptionally cool-headed, and slow-to-anger backwoodsman who also has no problem decking somebody with a crashing right or mowing them down with "Ticklicker", his Kentucky long rifle, once events escalated to that level. Thus, he is most often able to defuse a situation and prevail by disarming his opponent in a competition of wits, avoiding bloodshed with down-home wisdom, wilyness, and manly eyeball-to-eyeball negotiating, true to the DAVY CROCKETT tradition. (For the uninitiated, Crockett was also played by John Wayne in THE ALAMO where Crockett's death at that battle in real life is portrayed.) Here Parker is the living embodiment of Theodore Roosevelt's admonition, "speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far." In this sense, he might remind the 60's TV aficionado of Andy Griffith in his show of the same name (even if the latter character and the show were typically better written. In this regard, the reviewer who attacks Parker's masculinity so prominently in this string is difficult to comprehend in her remarks.Probably the worst thing about this show were some fairly contrived, not entirely plausible plot devices and even whole story lines at times, as well as a pace that was sometimes a little slow even by the standards of the day. Also trying to the modern viewer are the 1960's production values, which while perfectly standard then still didn't convey the outdoor sequences that made up most of the scenes in this show as well as one would prefer today, being that they were mostly shot indoors on a sound stage.That said, I have a season of this on DVD and it really takes me back to my childhood to watch it. In fact, I still remember the Saturday night I was in church (the show was still current right about the time the Catholic Church decided you could go to mass on Saturday night instead of Sunday morning, your option) where the priest caught somebody looking at his watch and announced, "don't worry, everybody, I want to get home in time to watch DANIEL BOONE, too". Today I enjoy it very much as a classic example of mid-60's American action-drama TV.

Beginning with one of the worst opening title sequences in TV history, this show is really a mess. The catchy title song started out fine but was needlessly revamped and ruined by the third iteration.On the TV show, Boone starts out with two kids and after season 2, the daughter suddenly disappears and then he has just one son. The real Daniel Boone had 10 kids. Some of the scenes are very violent - especially for a show aimed at kids.Although this series ran from 1964 through 1970, I didn't watch it much as a kid. Now, after seeing a dozen episodes on RTV, I know why. The writing is uneven and sometimes hard to follow.The stories are often lousy and attempt to promote liberal social agendas of the 1960s rather than deal with historical facts of the era in which Boone lived.Other issues: The Ed Ames and Rosey Grier characters are highly implausible and neither lasted through the run of the series.Daniel Boone was 5'8" not 6'5". He never wore a coonskin cap (and certainly not purple pants) as he does in this show. Kids watching this series who think they're seeing a slice of American history are being sadly misled.

This is a generally well acted version of the famous frontier explorer . Fess Parker (he starred similar character in ¨Davy Crockett¨ ; in fact, he portrayed Boone wearing a Coon Skin Cap , a carryover from his portrayal as Crockett) is well cast in the title role , he's an idealized Daniel Boone who takes on outlaws , mean settlers and tangles skirmishes with Indians . As frontier hero Daniel Boone conducts surveys and expeditions around Boonesborough , running into both friendly and hostile Indians , just before and during the Revolutionary War . There appears Boone along with family , his wife (Patricia Blair) , children : Israel (Darby Hinton) and Yemima (Veronica Cartwright : future passenger in Alien) ; furthermore , his friends : the Indian Mingo (Ames) and Yadkin (Albert Salmi) . This is an enjoyable series produced by 20th Century Fox and famed producer Aaron Rosemberg , including gorgeous outdoors and stunning musical score by Lionel Newman . Entertaining action adventure detailing chapters in the stirring life of legendary pioneer , notorious for his leading some settlers from North Carolina into Kentucky . Throughly agreeable and full of kind of boyhood images and finely performed by all involved . There is also a compilation of various episodes that appeared originally on TV and were released theatrically . Other cinematic renditions about this historical character are the followings : ¨Daniel Boone (1936)¨ with George O'Brien and ¨Trail Blazer¨ with Bruce Bennett .The episodes are adapted on fictitious deeds but someone based on true events , these are the true facts : Daniel Boone (1734-1820) , who wore a beaver hat with flat brim , was a long hunter , Indian fighter and trail-blazing pioneer . Daniel was born in Pennsylvania . Moving to North Carolina he settled in the Yadkin Valley , supporting his family by hunting , often making long trips for profitable animal skins. Boone was impressed by the Indians hunting grounds of Kentucky and determined to make his home in this unsettled, fertile land rich with game . In 1773 he left Yadkin with his own and several families and headed west. The journey was thwarted by hostile Indians who killed six of the party including Boone's elder son . Boone, however, vowed to complete the emigration and with a band of hardy woodsmen , he set forth and blazed a trail, through the Cumberland Gap of the Appalachian Mountains to the Kentucky River, where they built a fort named Boonesborough . The Wilderness Road became the main pioneer over which poured the first waves of migration to the West. In 1778 Boone was captured by Shawnee Indians but he escaped to warn Boonesborough of an impeding Shawnee attack . Later he moved on to Missouri, then part of the Spanish territory of Louisiana, but the purchase of 1803 by US deprived him of this land . He died aged eighty-six in his son's farmhouse in Missouri.