The Swiss, despite Harry Lyme’s claims to the contrary in The Third Man, created valuable legacy to the world’s culture. One of such contributions was Heidi, 1881 novel by Johanna Spyri, which became the most beloved and most popular classic of children’s literature. As such, it also inspired countless adaptations in films on television. One of the more unusual among them was Courage Mountain, 1990 film directed by Christopher Leitch.
The film is actually less of a direct adaptation and more of a sequel, loosely based on Heidi Grows Up, 1938 novel by Spyri’s translator Charles Tritten. The plot is set in 1915, roughly a decade after the events depicted in the novel, with Heidi (played by Juliette Caton), now a teenager, still living with the Grandfather (played by Jan Rubeš) in his mountain home. After receiving invitation to attend boarding school in Northern Italy and receive proper education, she decides to leave. There she has trouble adapting her rural way of life to the discipline and mores of her more “refined” schoolmates like Ursulla (played by Joanna Clarke), but she gets help by headmistress Madame Hillary (played by Leslie Caron). Those problems, however, are dwarfed when Italy joins Entente in First World War and the area becomes battleground. Heidi’s school is requisitioned by Italian Army and the girls temporarily transferred to the orphanage run by Signor Bonelli (played by Yorgo Voyagis) and his wife (played by Laura Betti). The institution is actually a sweatshop and cruel treatment leads Heidi to escape, taking her friends and couple of orphans with her. Their plan is to cross the mountain into neutral Switzerland and find shelter at Heidi’s old home. They are pursued by Bonelli who fears that they might be witnesses to his misdeeds and wants to silence them. In the meantime, Grandfather asks Heidi’s old friend Peter (played by Charlie Sheen), now a soldier in Swiss Army, to try to bring her back to safety.
What makes Courage Mountain unusual for Heidi-related films is the script by Weaver Webb, which tries to combine Spyiri’s characters with the plot motives borrowed or inspired from other sources, like Oliver Twist or The Goonies. But even more unusual move is to push the plot two decades in the future compared with the original, only in order to conveniently coincide with the Great War that would add additional dangers and deprivation for titular character during her adventures in the Alps. This could have been a good opportunity to contrast destruction and senseless slaughter of seemingly civilised world with natural humanity of Heidi, but it was mostly missed and the script uses the war simply as a background and takes more conventional route of having Bonellis as more generic villains. Nevertheless, Christopher Leitch provides adequate although unremarkable direction, together with renowned Hungarian composer Sylvester Levay who provides adequate score. Cinematographer Jacques Stein puts French and Austrian locations to good use and film looks solid. The cast is also adequate, especially the young actresses that include Juliette Caton (best known as Angel in The Last Tempation of Christ) and their performances are well-matched by veterans Rubeš and Caron. On the other hand, Laura Betti, Italian actress who became famous by playing psychotic and monstrously evil characters, like Regina in Bertolucci’s 1900, is wasted in underused role, while Voyagis simply goes through the motions. But the most problematic part of the cast is Charlie Sheen, obviously brought simply to enhance box office prospects as big Hollywood star. While he does solid job, his refusal to discard American accent makes suspension of disbelief difficult, especially in the scenes where he has to interact with Caton and other European members of the cast. That probably wouldn’t represent much of an issue for the youngest of viewers, for whom this film can be recommended, while the adults would probably prefer better known adaptations of Heidi, like classic Hollywood film starring Shirley Temple or popular 1970s anime series.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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