“Alone Yet Not Alone” a one-sided telling of a true story

“Alone, Yet Not Alone” is inspired a true story based on the 2012 fictional biography, “Alone Yet Not Alone: Their faith became their freedom” by Tracy Leininger Craven. The story is about two of Craven’s ancestors Barbara and Regina Leininger who were captured by indigenous people in Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War (1754 – 1763).  The girls and their family had come to America from Germany. The Delaware Indians took the girls (and other captives) over 300 miles into Ohio.

The film has rather good production values though the acting is unrefined. The movie is rather slow moving and stretches out the plight of the girls as they grow into young women, holding onto their Christian faith the whole time.

If you can manage to sit through the entire film, with a snub toward Catholic Christians at the beginning that really could have been left out and the perpetuation of stereotypes about Native Americans (such as the sexual threat to the captives; saying the women hadn’t bathed in years when this was highly unlikely since indigenous Americans were very clean and the Europeans the ones afraid of bathing; check out the critique on Last Real Indians), the very last few moments prove inspiring. It is a very human ending enfolded by the theme song sung by Joni Eareckson Tada, an Evangelical minister who is a quadriplegic and has been inspiring people for decades.

You may recall that the film’s theme song “Alone Yet Not Alone” was nominated for an Oscar. However,  the nomination was rescinded when Bruce Broughton, the song’s writer and a former Academy governor and current member of the music branch executive committee, contacted members of the music branch of the Academy to let them know the song had been nominated. This was in breach of Academy rules according to The Hollywood Reporter.