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Inherit the WindRating:
Release Date: 11 December, 2001 Retail Price: $14.94 OUR Price: $10.99 You SAVE: $3.95! Cast: Complete Cast (8 total) |
Inherit the Wind Reviews
Inherit the Wind
A classic movie - however, the facts are distorted and doesn't reflect the real story. It needs another part - the rest of the story about an ACLU case using a part-time teacher who never taught biology/evolution in the first place. The movie turns out to be a hatchet job on religion.
Great flick, great acting, bad logic
It's heartwarming to see that this fine old chestnut can still get some religious folks really riled up. No, this "fiction" is not an accurate rendering of the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial, but it does capture the spirit of H.L. Mencken's extraordinary dispatches to the Baltimore Sun and I'd guess that was the intention. Mencken is the Hornbeck character played by Gene Kelley but many of his thoughts, and certainly his philosophy, are given to Spencer Tracy's character. That he's made out to be a mere glib and shallow cynic in this movie is more injustice than Christians have ever suffered here. Mencken was passionate about the greatness man was capable of.
If any offended party took time to read Mencken's full take on the proceedings they'd find this movie pretty tame...and Mencken was there, as a journalist. His legendary obituary for William Jennings Bryan was the prototype for the scatological one Hunter Thompson wrote for Nixon.
Spencer Tracy is excellent but Frederic March is truly astounding. Some reviewers find his performance a bit over-the-top but they are clearly young 'uns who have no recollection of the legend of Bryan, who was over-the-top to begin with. What March managed to do was convey that P.T. Barnum quality while fleshing out the character, giving him depth, and making him believable. People need to understand that some historical characters had tremendous presence.
The only problem I have with the film is with the logic of some of the arguments. There's a lack of tautness and a vague fumbling at ideals that may reflect the real events. I haven't read the full transcript, which is or was available.
For Christians who may be offended by their depiction as mindless fanatics, take heart in the fact that they're not alone--the most recent groups I've seen act this way were a bunch of politically correct militant feminists back in the 90s and more recently some other religious types from a part of the world with a lot of sand. This movie never really loses its relevance, sadly.
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