Seven Alone (1974)

A pioneer family heads out west. All of them are likable enough except for the oldest boy, John Sager, whom, if I were working on this family's farm, he would be found hanging from the nearest tree by nightfall.A perennial bully, John Sager isn't worth the stink of the farts he pushes out. His lazy, lying, loathsome presence wouldn't make good fertilizer, but the parents (Dewey Martin and Anne Collings) haven't quite given up on the little sonuvabitch yet.Other poor souls who must contend with John's evil and hateful self are Billy Shaw (James Griffiths) and Kit Carson (Dean Smith). Most of the children in the film are real-life siblings, but the best actress of these is the non-related little girl, Debbie Van Orden.Passable family fare. Good performances by Martin, Collings, and Smith.

Really a great family film for the whole entire family. As saw this as an fifth grader at school. Really a touching movie about a family that is wanting to have a really better life over in Oregon.But things really in the middle get very complicated. As both parents die on the way to Oregon. The father over a blood illness after an Indian attack and the mother from pneumonia.As the oldest brother John, described as worthless and lazy from not just his father but the other adults on the Oregon trail. As the other people in the wagon train go back to Missouri feeling that going to Oregon is only going to make it worse.And they do not get or want the kids along with them. As John takes the lead and tries to make the dream a possibility despite butting heads with other siblings. But still, really a good family film!

I have no idea why it is rated so poorly. My whole family was glued to the TV. It was very emotionally moving. Yes, some of the acting may be a bit sub-par, but what an inspiring, invigorating tale. If you've got children, they will love it.And it's not Just For Children. I'm in my 40's and love films including Pulp Fiction and Fargo, but I was totally engrossed by this tale of seven children who refused to give up on their father's dreams. Near the end, I was close to tears as the story got more and more dramatic. What makes this story so compelling is that it's based on fact. It's great to have a beautiful story that doesn't rely on huge budgets, phony story lines, expensive technology, and computer graphics. This is old fashioned movie making: based on a good story! Be sure to see if you enjoy wholesome, family oriented, adventure.

Afte the explosion of sex and violence in movies, even more the twisted amorality of in the late 60's, there was a predictable backlash. By the early 70's, Hollywood had found a market for "nice" stories such as The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie, not to mention a bunch of other knock-offs that failed. This family-oriented counter-revolution extended to film, with Disney putting out lots of cheap, dumb-but-funny Kurt Russell movies and cheaper American International-like studios doing Grizzly-Frontier-Adams-Fremont in the Rockies productions. Some sucked pond water and some were even worse. Maybe the worst I've ever seen is Seven Alone, a story of a flock of 1840's era kiddies fighting their way along the Oregon Trail after their folks die (a blessing if human worth is based on acting ability). I grabbed this flick off the shelf at the local library, figuring it would be digestible cheese for my family to watch. Sure enough, my wife is enjoying it and my 9-year-old is loving it. Because I'm a pain-in-the-keister critic, I'm bleeding profusely from biting my tongue in order not to turn family movie night into Mystery Science Theatre 3000 with me playing all three parts of the audience. I try to be a good dad. This is so awful. I feel sorry for Dewey Martin and Aldo Ray, two accomplished and successful actors from the 40's through 60's. They must have been so very desperate for parts that they took the offer to do this hopelessly underfunded, underacted, and badly produced mess.And yet . . . There is some small bit of accuracy in this gunk. While another reviewer on this site had a small scale hissy over the movie being politically incorrect in its treatment of American Indians, I remind you that when a principal character refers to the natives as "dirty redskins," that's the least of the insults that were hurled at Indians by Caucasian settlers. They were hated and feared, and to our ancestors, the natives were a pestilence. Doesn't make it right or wrong, just accurate. My recommendation would be to skip this dull nonsense (even if the book it was based on was a good work of history) and stick with the tasty cheese put out by the Disney dairy. The most you'll get is gas. Seven Alone gave me a splitting headache.