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Bless the Beasts and Children is a 1971 film adaptation of the novel of the same name, by Glendon Swarthout, that was directed by Stanley Kramer, featuring Bill Mumy and Barry Robins. The story follows a group of six teenaged boys, who share a cabin at a residential summer camp in the western mountains. Each of the boys is a misfit in one way or another; the group is ostracized by the other boys at the camp, and form a bond based, in part, on this broader social isolation. After being taken on a field trip to see a captured herd of bison that is being slaughtered by local hunters, the boys... MORE

Bless the Beasts and Children is a 1971 film adaptation of the novel of the same name, by Glendon Swarthout, that was directed by Stanley Kramer, featuring Bill Mumy and Barry Robins. The story follows a group of six teenaged boys, who share a cabin at a residential summer camp in the western mountains. Each of the boys is a misfit in one way or another; the group is ostracized by the other boys at the camp, and form a bond based, in part, on this broader social isolation. After being taken on a field trip to see a captured herd of bison that is being slaughtered by local hunters, the boys resolve to sneak away from the camp and set the penned bison free. The film is presented partially out of sequence; the primary narrative of freeing the bison is interspersed with flashback scenes showing the boys' troubled lives both at the camp, and at their homes. A bidding war broke out over the film rights, eventually won by Stanley Kramer. Kramer negotiated with Columbia Pictures for the right to produce and direct the film, which made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in August, 1971, as the United States' entry in the international competition. Kramer later commented on LESS