Courage Mountain (1990) Juliette Caton, Charlie Sheen, Jan Rubes, Leslie Caron Movie Review

Courage Mountain (1990)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Juliette Caton and Charlie Sheen in Courage Mountain (1990)

Putting a Sheen on Goat Peter

Having come in to a sizeable inheritance Heidi (Juliette Caton) finds herself having to choose between staying in the mountains with her beloved Grandfather (Jan Rubes) or head to Italy to attend a school which is what he would like. When goat Peter (Charlie Sheen) announces he is joining the army it helps her make up her mind and decides to go to the school. Whilst there, Heidi initially finds it difficult to fit in having been use to the mountain ways. But when World War One breaks out and the Italian army take over the school Heidi and her friends ends up forced to live in a workhouse where they become slave labour, pushed till they drop. With their survival slim Heidi and her friends must try and escape and make it across the Alps to Grandfather, not so easy when they are being hunted down.

I have to be honest, whilst I rarely turn down the chance to watch a movie the reason I willingly watched "Courage Mountain", a sequel to the story of Heidi, is because Charlie Sheen is cast as Goat Peter. I have no idea how this casting came to be as Charlie Sheen as goat Peter is simply wrong and sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. But there are other familiar faces in "Courage Mountain" with both Jan Rubes and Leslie Caron blending in a lot more believably. In fact a young Nicola Stapleton, many will remember for going on to play Mandy Slater in Eastenders, is a lot more convincing as a friend of Heidi's than Charlie Sheen is.

Nicola Stapleton in Courage Mountain (1990)

Aside from the questionable casting of Charlie Sheen what you have in "Courage Mountain" is a nice little adventure movie for Heidi as she ends up with the other girls being used as slave labour in an orphanage run by a dubious pair and then staging an escape, leading her friends through the alps to the safety of her grandfather. Of course nothing is that simple so we have some danger for Heidi and her friends to contend with but it all combines to make an entertaining distraction, especially for a young audience.

What this all boils down to is that "Courage Mountain" is an okay little adventure movie for young children who will be familiar with Heidi. But whilst there is some good acting and attractive scenery as well as some classic villains there are also some casting issues which just leaves me to mention the casting of Charlie Sheen as goat Peter again, something which still leaves me a little dumbfounded.


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