It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I do know the true story so it lives me disappointed to see that most of the movies make it a happy end while it should be a very sad ending. The story should tell an other morality then that the romantic version does. But yes that is what we've come to expect from Hollywood productions. In the real story the boy Nello Dies with his Dog Patrasche in front of the painting they visited many times before since it provided them with hopes for life and his painting aspiration. They died in a cold and harsh time because of things like: no income (selling milk was made impossible since he was accused of setting fire to a mill), no food and no one who could or cared to help. So the lessons to be learned from this and similar stories remains merely an echo and are quickly forgotten. Like all the real important ones. Yes it's hard to deal with real live and to be confronted with the truth. But like once said; if we pretend to be searching for the truth we also should be ready to hear it or be willing to listen.

Maybe it is a tad old fashioned, but this film still can knock one on one's ass with its simple and powerful story. If only films today could be as simply endearing as this one. The acting is not award winning, yet it is heartfelt,honest and straightforward. The score is fantastic as it is truly an organic part of the film's fabric and the photography is breathtaking as it should inspire a visit to Antwerp and leave one in wonder when one realizes how beautifully the camera has captured it's energy, it's town square,it's gorgeous cathedral and especially the Peter Paul Reubens paintings. Classic may be an overused and well worn word but it perfectly describes this film. Small, honest and completely unpretentious it still stands as one of the most perfect children's stories that all ages can enjoy,weep and rejoice at.

Here is the classic Flemmish version of the "boy and his dog" tale as young Nello, apparently about 11 or 12, struggles to establish his identity as an artist amidst adverse circumstances. David Ladd, Alan Ladd's son, plays the protagonist: he was 13 at the time, but somehow managed to play an 8-year-old in his next film! Anyway, this is the real story, without all the silly, sappy and frankly unbelievable stuff and coincidences gratuitously added in the Disney version of 1999. Even the dog is more convincing! David Ladd is quite good, though his emotions seem a bit forced at times and he's certainly not "one of the greatest child actors of all time" as his filmography touts. Donald Crisp as the grandfather and a so-young Theodore Bikel as the temperamental artist both offer excellent performances. Perhaps life was indeed harder then, and as the late Douglas Adams would point out, digital watches had not been invented, but children were still considered PEOPLE: they could work for a living, enjoy the fruits of their labor, and even live alone if they chose -- or with a dog. All that is gone now. Am I the only one who questions that this is "progress"?

I went to see this movie in 1961, when I was fourteen, and it became one of only four movies seen during my life that actually moved me to tears in the cinema (for the record, the others were LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING; THE PROUD REBEL and THE STORY OF RUTH). A DOG OF FLANDERS is a superb tear-jerker, filmed on location in Holland and Belgium in 1959, but set in 1900. It stars the then twelve-year-old David Ladd as the orphan Nello and veteran actor Donald Crisp as his elderly and infirm grandfather. Although devoted to one another, they live a very poor life selling milk from a hand cart they pull around Antwerp. Nello is an artistic, intelligent and sensitive little boy who wants to paint like his idol, Peter Paul Rubens, but he has no money to enable him to study or to buy proper materials to paint with. They find a badly treated dog, left to die at the roadside by his heartless owner and take him home and care for him. Because he's been so badly treated, it takes time for him to accept them as his friends. But eventually, they gain his trust. Nello names him Patrasche...the name that Rubens had given to his dog...and he becomes part of the small family, even pulling the cart when grandfather is unable to do so any more. One day, Nello has just finished a sketch of the old man dozing in a chair outside their one-roomed hut and goes to show him the finished drawing. But he cannot awaken him and slowly, he comes to realize that his beloved grandfather is dead. Completely bereft and unable to keep up the rent on their home, Nello and Patrasche are evicted by an uncaring landlord in the middle of winter. Somehow, they have to learn how to survive without his grandfather in a harsh and bitter world. A DOG OF FLANDERS, from the 1872 novel by Ouida, had been filmed previously, notably in 1934, but never so well as this. It really is beautifully done all round and everyone connected with it should feel very proud of the result. The music score by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter is very haunting and David Ladd, who had previously given such a truly wonderful performance alongside his father Alan in THE PROUD REBEL (1958), is superb. David and I shared the same Christian name, were both the same age and had similar looks, which made it easy for me to identify with him in A DOG OF FLANDERS, which became one of my all time favorite movies. Theodore Bikel has a good character role in it as an artist who befriends Nello, eventually adopts him and helps him to realize his dreams. Beautifully filmed in CinemaScope and Color by De Luxe, this is a wonderful film and you really would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by it. I give it ten out of ten.