Inherit the Wind
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Movie Reviews of Inherit the Wind
Movie Review: Spellbinding dual performances!
Summary: 5 Stars
There are many reasons to watch this movie, one of the essential films of the past 50 years. But the primary motivation is to see the greatest screen actor of all, Spencer Tracy, deliver a performance for the ages. Watch this master emote with movement, voice and nuance. He steals the picture (as he usually does), but there is another brilliant performance as well. This is delivered expertly by the underrated Fredric March, in one of the meatiest roles ever handed to an actor. March is at turns witty, cunning, over-the-top, hammy or contrite, depending upon the demands of the scene. His scenes on the witness stand with Tracy are among the best written and beautifully acted pieces in movie history. It's impossible not to be on the edge of your seat as Tracy quizzes March about various passages from the Bible.I won't bother with the details of the plot, which is well known to most movie fans. Don't expect real or truthful history, and accept that Kramer's direction is sometimes limited and even claustrophobic. Watch this film because there has never been such an array of spellbinding performances as were delivered by Tracy and March. An astounding display of acting talent.
Movie Review: What a Gem
Summary: 5 Stars
I first viewed this film in college (1970) when it was already ten years old but foolishly didn't appreciate it until recently. Since my college days, western society seems to have become even more polarized with many people from the religious-right scorning everything coming from science (I do not perceive an equivalent attack on religion coming from science). After watching the 2007 PBS program "NOVA: Intelligent Design on Trial" I began thinking about "Inherit the Wind" and so ordered it.
Now I need to point out that "Inherit the Wind" is not a documentary: it is a fictionalized account of an actual 1925 Tennessee trial where the people supporting the side of evolution "lost". I'm not sure why the producers went with a fictionalized account but can only assume that it was done this way so as to not offend the family names of the trial participants even though the film was made 35-years later. Why did evolution lose? It seems to me that the members of that particular jury didn't possess the requisite scientific knowledge to understand the presented facts. They did appear to be sensitive to the bible-centric emotional arguments.
Movie Review: stereotypes?
Summary: 5 Stars
i have seen this movie twice,once years ago as a basically believing Bible chrismatic,and just recently as a believer accepting evolution.(the two are not incompatible).at the first viewing i was offended,the second time i could still see some of the biases , but i was more open to it.concerning the vancouver review,some info on the fiction was helpful,but i have this to say,about the stereotyping of southern christians,i have lived in the area near the real trial town,and i hate to dissappoint you,but many of the christians here ARE ignorant and narrow-minded(there are a few exceptions).come here and live a few years and you will see for yourself.i'm sorry,but the truth is the truth,and some people are what they are no matter how you white wash it.i had two people here tell me i was going to hell because i drank a glass of beer and did work on the sabbath.who's hateful now?that being said,i close with this,you can still believe in God,the bible and still be open to evolution.sometimes the bible is looked at narrowly and without knowledge(from both sides) derekMovie Review: Great theater, poor history
Summary: 5 Stars
I give "Inherit the Wind" five stars for dramatic power and force of acting. It's a terrific film, which I have seen at least 5 times. Bombastic, verbally brawling Spencer Tracy and the deliciously snide Gene Kelly are at their very best. It's a thumping great show, with clear heroes and villains, just like in the silent movies.
But I give it only one star for historical value. Here is a reminder that theater has always served its own purposes, and truth is not one of them.
Go to the newspaper archives and history books to get an understanding of what really happened in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925, and why. Surely PBS still offers its TV program called "The Monkey Trial".
Sadly, the voice of Fredric March -- portraying a character based on one of the greatest of orators, who even as an old man could be heard a mile away without sound enhancement -- is no match for the glorious boom of Claude Akins, as the town preacher.
Movie Review: A curious artifact from the bygone era in which the U.S. was a secular state
Summary: 5 Stars
The quote from the movie which best illustrates the continuing relevance of this movie comes from Gene Kelley's character: "I've been a lawyer long enough to know that nothing is ever completely settled."
I think other reviewers here have very ably described the aspects of this movie relating to evolution. So I'd like to give an alternate reading of the movie: not as an agument for evolution, but as an argument for tenure.
Here in California, we just voted down a ballot initiative which would water down tenure. The arguments pro and con were both, in the opinion of this reviewer, off the mark. Why should teachers get tenure? After all, nobody else, from doctors to fast-food cooks get tenure, so why teachers? This movie provides an excellent example of why tenure is necessary for teachers. The process of illuminating minds is so risky, that the practitioners thereof need extra job insurance.