Vernonia

Red Sky at Morning is a 1971 American drama film based on the 1968 Richard Bradford novel of the same name. Directed by James Goldstone, it stars Richard Thomas, Catherine Burns, and Desi Arnaz, Jr.

Plot

The film follows Josh Arnold, whose family moves to Corazon Sagrado, New Mexico during World War II. The title of the book/film comes from a line in an ancient mariner's rhyme "Red sky at morning, sailor take warning".

Cast

Richard Thomas as Joshua Arnold
Catherine Burns as Marcia Davidson
Desi Arnaz Jr. as William 'Steenie' Stenopolous
Richard Crenna as Frank Arnold
Claire Bloom as Ann Arnold
John Colicos as Jimbob Buel
Harry Guardino as Romeo Bonino
Strother Martin as John Cloyd
Nehemiah Persoff as Amadeo Montoya
Pepe Serna as Chango Lopez
Joaquin Garay as Ratoncito
Joy Bang as Corky
Alma Beltran as Excilda Montoya
Gregory Sierra as Chamaco

Reception

In The New York Times, Roger Greenspun wrote:

Set in New Mexico during the academic year of 1944‐45, the movie concerns a fine young lad who moves to a new town, enters a new school, makes new friends and new enemies, falls in love, loses his virginity, loses his dad, becomes a man, sets his mother's house in order and enlists in the Navy... rites of passage to end all rites of passage, “Red Sky at Morning” also contains valuable material on race relations, human dignity, doing your own thing, the Odyssey of Homer, and the corruption of the Old South.
I am inclined to attribute this range of illustration less to great ambition than to a ticklish urge to please everybody... [The] plot of “Red Sky at Morning” is so predictable that it might be chanted, without rehearsal, as Ancient Ritual of the Movies...^[2]