Featuring Jean-Pierre Cargol, François Truffaut, Françoise Seigner and Jean Dasté, it tells the story of a child who spends the first eleven or twelve years of his life with little or no human contact.

One summer day in 1798, a naked boy of 11 or 12 years of age (Jean-Pierre Cargol) is found in a forest in the rural district of Aveyron in southern France.

Living like a wild animal and unable to speak or understand language, the child has apparently grown up in solitude in the forest since an early age.

The term "noble savage" is derived from John Dryden's The Conquest of Granada and the Rousseauian idea of humans being basically good in their most primitive state that had long been championed by Romantics and hippies.

[7] In a publicity release for the film, Truffaut wrote: "From Romulus and Remus through Mowgli and Tarzan, men have continually been fascinated by tales of beast children.

[10] Truffaut had always felt a strong connection to children, especially outcasts and young people who reject the traditions of society, and frequently used this theme in films such as The 400 Blows and Small Change.

He first considered using either an unknown gifted child or the son of a famous celebrity, thinking that a younger version of someone like ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev would be perfect.

[8] Truffaut directed first-time actor Cargol by instructing him to pretend to be different animals or people during specific scenes, such as "be like a dog", or "like a horse", or even "like Harpo Marx.

"[24] Truffaut had scripted a sequence in which Victor is depicted struggling against the harsh weather conditions of winter in the wild, but budgetary limitations forced him to cut out the scenes.

In Les Quatre Cents Coups I showed a child who missed being loved, who grows up without tenderness; in Fahrenheit 451 it was a man who longed for books, that is, culture.

He wrote, "The story is essentially true, drawn from an actual case in 18th Century France, and Truffaut tells it simply and movingly.

It becomes his most thoughtful statement on his favorite subject: The way young people grow up, explore themselves, and attempt to function creatively in the world... Truffaut places his personal touch on every frame of the film.

So often movies keep our attention by flashy tricks and cheap melodrama; it is an intellectually cleansing experience to watch this intelligent and hopeful film.

"[29] The staff at Variety also praised the drama, and wrote: "This is a lucid, penetrating detailing of a young doctor's attempt to civilize a retarded boy found living in the woods in Southern France in the 18th century.

Though based on a true case [Jean Itard's Memoire et Rapport sur Victor de L'Aveyron, published in 1806], it eschews didactics and creates a poetic, touching and dignified relationship between the doctor and his savage charge...

[32] Robert Geller wrote that "...the child's humanity and pathos are not terribly removed from the increasing numbers of young teens and half-primitives who wander drugged and aimlessly, and sleep in alleys and doorwells throughout America in...Market Place, Sunset Boulevard and Times Square...[The film provides teenagers with meaty material for discussion of] what they themselves have to give up in order to get what they may no longer think is worth getting.

"[33] Ty Burr said: "Nearly four decades after its release, The Wild Child remains startling for its humane clarity, for Nestor Almendros's brilliant black-and-white photography, and for the sense that Truffaut is achieving filmmaking mastery on a very small scale.