The Free Movie of the Day on the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel today is the documentary Willard: The Hermit of Gully Lake
On the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel, we will be posting one full movie every other day throughout the week, giving viewers the chance to watch them entirely free of charge. The Free Movie of the Day we have for you today is the documentary Willard: The Hermit of Gully Lake. You can watch it over on the YouTube channel linked above, or you can just watch it in the embed at the top of this article.
Directed by Amy Goldberg, Willard: The Hermit of Gully Lake has the following synopsis: In the 1940s, American-born Willard MacDonald jumped his troop train heading to World War II. Fearing authorities, he lived as a hermit deep in the northern wilderness of Nova Scotia, Canada for more than 60 years, inspiring folklore for generations.
Willard: The Hermit of Gully Lake was the first film directed by Goldberg… and so far, she hasn’t directed anything else since this documentary first made its way out into the world in 2007.
So take a look at Willard: The Hermit of Gully Lake – it’s free! – then let us know what you thought of it by leaving a comment below or on the YouTube page. If you’re left wanting to dig even deeper into the unique life of Willard MacDonald, there’s also a book about him called The Hermit of Gully Lake: The Life and Times of Willard Kitchener MacDonald, written by Joan Baxter. A description of that book says, “For sixty years, MacDonald endured hardship and extreme isolation, living as recluse in a cave-like shelter six feet by nine feet in the deep woods wilderness of northern Nova Scotia. He moved far into the woods after jumping from a troop train that would have taken him to Halifax and on to Europe for World War II. In the past thirty years, as his legend grew, many people began to seek him out, squeezing into his tiny shelter to play fiddles and guitars with the man they call Kitchener, marvelling at his wisdom, his wit and his intriguing views of events in the wider world, which he chose not to be part of. Even when his friends urged him to sign up for his old age pension in the 1980s, he steadfastly refused to sign his name to any document, even a government cheque. He was reluctant to speak about his past, saying only that he had refused to go and fight in World War II because the Bible told him, “Thou shalt not kill.” When he died, however, there was enough national interest in this unique individual that both the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star sent reporters to cover the event.“
The movies that have previously been featured as the Free Movies of the Day can be found at THIS LINK, and also on the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel.
