The Shepherd sees a British Air Force pilot flying to his home on Christmas Eve when his aircraft suffers from technical failures and radio communication gets cut off. The short is available to stream on Disney+.
Story
On Christmas Eve, Freddie Hooke, a young Royal Air Force pilot takes his aircraft to fly home across the North Sea. The weather conditions are perfect for a flight so he gets the green light from his superior.
Mid-flight, a sudden compass failure irks him. It only gets dire as he loses radio communication. So many technical failures at once render the situation bleak, which only gets worse as the aircraft runs very low on fuel.
He needs a miracle and that’s exactly what happens when a good samaritan flying a de Havilland Mosquito guides him to land.
Freddie lands his Vampire on the runway of RAF Minton instead of RAF Miriam St. George, as he initially thought.
Sergeant Joe Marks welcomes him and tells him that this hasn’t been an operational station for years and is now a storage depot.
Joe drives him to the Officers Mess and Freddie talks of his late father. He then spots the photograph of the Mosquito pilot who just saved his life. Joe tells him it’s John Kavanagh who used to shepherd lost pilots during World War II and died in 1943.
Freddie comes out and sees two officers coming out of a car and greets him. He tells them how Joe turned on the runway lights for him, as the two officers look at him perplexed, before telling him that the building shut down years ago at the end of the war.
Freddie looks behind and sees a tattered, decrepit building and a car in a similar state parked outside, which was the fully functional car that Joe drove him in moments ago.
Freddie shortly takes off with the officers, to his home, thankful to the benevolent spirits who saved his life, as The Shepherd concludes.
Performances
Ben Radcliffe is a charming young officer who plays his part well, although it’s a bit disappointing to not see him emote more, which may make one wonder as to why the characters stay mostly stoic in the short.
John Travolta plays the helpful spirit of a Mosquito pilot who still helps all lost pilots by shepherding them to nearby land airfields. He’s not given much to do but he’s very believable as a kind spirit.
Positives
The Shepherd captures the Christmas spirit really well, even if it’s running low on the jingles and the bells, with a select few characters who take center stage for most of the runtime.
The effects are not the best but it only adds to the charm of the whole thing.
Negatives
It feels like the potential here is somewhat wasted as things are kept pretty low-key whereas some drama and excess could have breathed a new life into it.
Verdict
The Shepherd is a short and sweet Christmas miracle story, one which captures the spirit of the festivity well and also pays respect to the real-life shepherding pilots in the Second World War, who saved many lives.
The Shepherd
Director: Iain Softley
Date Created: 2023-12-01 12:30
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