What's the name of this movie?

[Poohstyx]

A couple of years ago, while doing quality assurance for Cox Cable, I kept catching a small part of a movie, either at the front, in the middle or at the end. I never did find out the name but I would like to see the entire movie. I asked the movie expert at Block Buster but he just stood there and gave me the blank expression. So now I ask the people who can answer everything. The movie starts out with a family going out into the Australian outback in a motorhome. The motorhome goes over a cliff and the family dies except for a young boy. The boy starts walking and meets an older man who doesn't want anything to do with him, but soon starts teaching him how to survive in the outback. Turns out the man was going back to his boyhood home to die, because he has a terminal illness. The last sceen shows the boy walking in the direction the old man showed him before he died.

 

[6_Time_Momma]

The Earthling (1981)
Starring: William Holden, Ricky Schroder
Genre: Drama
Order this movie

"A touching and thoughtful portrait of two reluctant survivors, one a life-worn fifty something seeking to reclaim his history before terminal disease claims him first; and the other, a young boy, played by Ricky Schroder, violently thrust from a sheltered childhood. The two are brought together when the boy's parents are killed in a fearsome accident while on vacation in the remote Australian wilderness; the older man, played by William Holden, is the only witness for many miles around. Preoccupied with his own demise and his own demons, Foley (Holden) must take the boy with him and teach him the survival skills he learned as boy living in the same wilderness many years before. He does not have time to walk the boy out himself, so he much teach him what he needs to go on alone. While both characters are derailed by fate from their anticipated courses, both end up with what they truly needed because of one another. To take a moral from a much more recent movie: Life, as always, finds a way."
Summary by Cory Burt

"This movie is a little slow but well worth the time. Beautiful scenes of the Australian wilderness. Neat physical and spiritual aspects of Australian Aboriginal culture shown."
Comments by Chuck Kritzon

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Boy, you're good, Kristy!!

Hi Poohstyx! (I just told "Just Dave" that I was responding to your thread, and he said, "Tell her I said hello, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again in December." I think he just assumes you'll be there when we go...of course, I hope you are!)

 

[Poohstyx]

Thanks Kristy, that's fast work finding the title so quickly! What site had the info? Might need to look up something else sometime.

Hi Mare, Hi Just Dave! Good to hear from y'all. We're talking about being there in December, just haven't figured on what dates yet. Hope to see y'all then.

 

[browneyes]

I've never heard of it. Sounds really, really sad.