“He’s just a little kid, you know,” says an unidentified man in the opening moments of the upcoming movie Lost on a Mountain in Maine.

The screen shows us a series of aerial shots of Mount Katahdin — the highest mountain in Maine, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail and the site of one of the most challenging nontechnical day hikes in the country.

The scenery is gorgeous, but the ominous underlying musical score warns us that trouble awaits.

“Twelve years old,” the man continues. “Scrawny. You try to guess what they might do, but there’s no way to predict what a kid will do.

“In fact, by nine days, we were looking for a body.”

Lost on a Mountain in Maine is the true story of Donn Fendler, the boy who, in the summer of 1939 at the age of 12, got separated from his hiking partners and became lost on Katahdin with no supplies. No one ever found a body, because Fendler eventually stumbled out of the woods into a hunting camp — dehydrated, covered in bug bites and 16 pounds lighter — but otherwise remarkably OK.

The story captured the attention of the entire nation — his rescue made the front page of The New York Times— and inspired Fendler to write it all down in a book first published just a few months after the incident.

Now, after a yearslong struggle to obtain the rights, the story is coming to the big screen.

The film’s producers were kind enough to let me view a screening of the movie, and I’m happy to report that Lost on a Mountain in Maine is a thrilling, engaging and moving depiction of Fendler’s experience.

I’d suggest that the movie is appropriate for families and kids of all ages, with the caveat that being lost in the woods for that amount of time was obviously a terrifying experience for Fendler, and the movie isn’t afraid to show that.

Thankfully, this is a story of perseverance, faith and survival. I think it’d be OK if you feel the need to break the tension and spoil the ending for more sensitive viewers. After all, the fact that Fendler made it out alive is what allows the book and movie to exist in the first place.

The tension mounts

Before the first frame of footage, the movie shows us five words of text: “This is a true story.”

Director Andrew Kightlinger told me this was intentional. The film is not “based” on a true story, nor was it “inspired” by a true story. It is the true story, Kightlinger says.

The man who speaks about the search for Fendler in the opening moments is later identified as Junior York, a member of the massive search party that combed the mountain and the surrounding woods for days after Fendler’s disappearance.

York is not played by an actor. This is the first of several segments of footage taken from decades-old, real-life interviews with searchers, members of Fendler’s family and, eventually, Fendler himself. (Donn Fendler died in 2016.)

The film’s opening scene depicts Fendler and his twin brother, Ryan, playing in the woods as their father returns from a long business trip. Both boys want to rush up and hug their dad, but the elder Fendler is hesitant.

Through a series of interactions with other members of the family, we learn that their father feels like he needs to toughen up his sons. We are reminded that this was an era in which it seemed that the Great Depression would never end, and much of world was anxiously observing signs of an emerging conflict that would later be known as World War II.

“The world is not going to give them a break,” their father says. “Neither should I.”

When the elder Fendler has to cancel a fishing trip that he had planned with his boys, he tries to make it up to them with a hastily organized hike up Katahdin.

We know where this is going, and all the parents out there will find it heartbreaking and more than a little stressful as they watch Donn try to prove his toughness to his father by making it to the top of the mountain, even though the group was not properly prepared for such a strenuous hike.

When a dangerous thunderstorm appears out of nowhere, Donn panics and becomes separated from the group. For about an hour of screen time, the movie alternates between scenes of Donn making his way through the wilderness and scenes of his family trying to keep their sanity as the search turns up nothing day after day after day.

Scouting survival skills put to use

Fendler was a Scout, and for decades after his ordeal, he would tell audiences at libraries, schools and Scout meetings that his Scout training helped him keep his cool.

In fact, when Fendler was found safe, The New York Times led with: “Using nature lore he learned as a Boy Scout, 12-year-old Donn Fendler of Rye, N.Y., emerged today exhausted and almost naked from the Mount Katahdin wilderness … .”

Though we do see a photo of Fendler in his Scout uniform during the closing credits, Fendler’s experience as a Scout is not mentioned in the film. Kightlinger told me the original script contained a line in which Fendler’s father talks about the skills Donn had learned as a Scout, but the creative team behind the movie could not find a way to make that bit of dialogue work with the larger narrative.

Otherwise, the movie does an excellent job of telling a factually accurate story in its tight 98-minute running time.

I think it’s important to note that several online descriptions of the Lost on a Mountain in Maine novel say that Fendler became lost on Katahdin when he stepped away from his Scout troop.

This is incorrect.

Thankfully, the movie shows what really happened — Fendler is shown hiking with his father, twin brother, younger brother and a friend of the family who had guided multiple trips up and down Katahdin.

For such a harrowing story, the movie is not without humor. At one point, Fendler prays, “Dear God, I promise I’ll be the best kid in the world.” Later, as he walks mile after mile on feet shredded by the rough terrain, he prays again, “Just to be clear, I think I’m going to have to trespass.”

Ultimately, Lost on a Mountain in Maine is about a boy who misses his family, and the way the film depicts the reunion with his loved ones does not disappoint.

The movie is rated PG for thematic elements, peril, language and some gnarly images of the injuries Fendler suffered during his ordeal. It is in theaters this weekend.

Full article here

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