Customer Ratings & Reviews

Johnny Tremain is a pre-Revolutionary War tale, filmed by Disney, and released in 1957. It is based on the 1944 metal winning children's novel about a teen age apprentice silver smith, who injures himself so bad that he will have to abandon his future carrier. So, he joins the Sons of Liberty who recruit him as a messenger. More tragedy is avoided when Johnny is falsely accused of a crime, but is fortunately exonerated. Afterwards he works more patriotically with the Sons of Liberty, as the adventure takes the story to the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's ride, and to the battles of Lexington and Concord at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. All's well that ends well, though, and that is what the end of this movie accomplishes. This film was originally made for the Walt Disney hour on television, but it was released in the theaters first and later on TV. It's actually on most best Revolutionary War films lists.

If you love history you will really enjoy this classic film

I like vintage Walt Disney movies. I also like the few revolutionary war movies on the market. So if you're equally fond of the above' you should buy it.

Bought this for my son he is into history movies so i grabbed it for him and he enjoyed it.

A great movie to bring to life what you learned in U.S. History class.

I love these old Disney movies that are family friend and based on actual events.

As a child, I would go to Colonial Williamsburg nearly every year on school breaks. I adored anything having to do with colonial history, and fell in love with Johnny Tremain (book first, then movie) instantly. Esther Forbes' classic novel tells the rousing tale of a haughty Boston silversmith's apprentice, Johnny Tremain, who, when maimed in an accident with molten silver, gives up his apprenticeship, hits all new lows as he is turned down for jobs because of his deformed hand, and is accused of theft by one of Boston's elite. He matures from boy to man as he joins up with the Sons of Liberty and participates in the planning of the American Revolution (along with some of colonial Boston's most brilliant minds). Disney's 1957 film adaptation starring Hal Stalmaster was made for TV but also shown in theaters. The costumes, music, and sets are fairly convincing at portraying colonial Boston. The film, at 81 minutes, cuts out a lot of backstory regarding Johnny's inner process of maturation and changes a crucial plot point near the end (presumably to make the film more child-friendly), but generally remains faithful to the spirit of the original book. The transfer is generally very clean and crisp, amazing for a movie of this age. Amazingly, we actually saw an old reel copy of Johnny Tremain in my fifth grade class ( this was in the early 1990s), and until now, the only copy I owned was a disintegrating VHS tape that'd I'd recorded from the Disney Channel. The DVD release features wonderful extras: Walt Disney talking about the making of the film, and the introductions that were played with each part (the original film was divided into two episodes), basically shameless marketing for other Disney films and a Liberty Square theme park experiment that never came to fruition, but fascinating nonetheless that these extras were saved and presented with the film. The only disappointment is that the excellent animated short "Ben and Me," about a mouse who shares a home with Benjamin Franklin, wasn't included (it's referenced in the two segments, but has never been released to DVD). A great little family film for history buffs and a real treat those who grew up on classic 1950's Disney live-action fare (Swamp Fox, Spin and Marty, Davy Crockett). Given, this is a Disney movie, and some of the danger and sacrifice from the book have been removed to make it more family-friendly, but it's still worth seeing.