[This review was originally published at Amazon.com on Wednesday, May 18, 2005]
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INHERIT THE WIND
starring Spencer Tracy
1960
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I recently rented INHERIT THE WIND to see for myself if it was really as bad as I'd heard. It was. I am astounded to find how many reviewers have excused its massive deviation from fact under the banner of "entertainment." Has our capacity to evaluate information diminished to the point that we are no longer able to differentiate between simple entertainment and pure propaganda? When a movie presents a supposedly intellectual argument, and paints EVERY SINGLE MEMBER on one side of that argument as a buffoon maroon, but shows the other side as thoughtful, open-minded and humanitarian, you can bet the farm that you're being propagandized!
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Some reviewers have equated the movie with an indictment of the horrors of "McCarthyism". These folks have been twice-bamboozled! Obviously they don't do any independent research, but just ingest whatever gets fed to them. Click HERE if you want to learn the truth about Joseph McCarthy and "McCarthyism".
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INHERIT THE WIND pretends to portray the famous 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" with a little dramatic license. This movie strays SO FAR from the facts that even saying it is "based on" the actual event renders that term so elastic as to be meaningless!
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John Scopes is renamed Bert Cates (Dick York), Clarence Darrow becomes Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy), William Jennings Bryan becomes Matthew Harrison Brady (Fredric March) and Dayton, Tennessee, becomes Hillsboro, Tennessee. The playwrights, Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee, did not alter the names because they thought they could improve on them, but so they could legally reinvent history. The idea was to twist the truth and present it as entertainment "based on" a true story, knowing that over time, the drama will become accepted as factual by the masses. And it worked! Look how many of us grew up thinking that INHERIT THE WIND was an essentially accurate account of the "Monkey Trial."
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All of the Christians (believing in "Creationism") in the movie are portrayed as emotionally-overwrought, brain-dead bigots. Paint any other group with such a broad brush and you'll be in court for the rest of your life, but here in Amerika, it's always "open season" on Christians. Hardly sympathetic to both views, in reality, Darrow called Christianity, Bryan's "fool religion".
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Contrary to some opinions, the acting does NOT make INHERIT THE WIND worthy of your time. Fredric March and Claude Akins are mere caricatures, but they're not to be blamed as Brady and Reverend Brown were written as cartoon blowhards. Tracy's naturalistic performance is enjoyable, as usual, but Tracy was ALWAYS Tracy from film to film -- there's nothing new here. Gene Kelly was fine as the cynical, MENSA-Donkey newspaper reporter, but it was a simple part to play. The best, most sympathetic performance was actually turned in by Florence Eldridge as Mrs. Sarah Brady. Now her I believed.
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If you're interested in comparing the events portrayed in the movie INHERIT THE WIND with the REALITY of the 1925 "Monkey Trial", to see just how far the playwrights deviated from truth, click HERE and go to my guide titled "WOULD YOU LIKE TO... STOP FALLING FOR SPENCER TRACY'S MONKEY BUSINESS?" You'll be surprised -- no, SHOCKED at how seriously the movie distorted the facts in order to condition people to the dogma of Darwinism!
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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Stephen,
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of this movie but that's not surprising, though. I believe this gal has lived under a rock most of her life or somethin'. I loved your quote...All of the Christians (believing in "Creationism") in the movie are portrayed as emotionally-overwrought, brain-dead bigots. Paint any other group with such a broad brush and you'll be in court for the rest of your life, but here in Amerika, it's always "open season" on Christians. Hardly sympathetic to both views, in reality, Darrow called Christianity, Bryan's "fool religion". I learned whether I understand what's going on or not if the Left is glorifying something, then I know something doesn't smell right. If they shovel their garbage long enough as you pointed out the masses will buy into it every single time as truth. I'm gonna check out your other article you wrote now. Thanks for sharing!
Dear CATHY ~
Delete>>... "I learned whether I understand what's going on or not if the Left is glorifying something, then I know something doesn't smell right."
HA!-HA! That is so true. It ain't Rocket Science. It ain't even Laundromat Science (separate the whites from the colors; don't leave 100% cotton in the dryer too long, etc.) If the Left loves it, thou shalt HATE it!
Life really isn't all that complicated after all. Know yer enemy. The rest is easy to figure out.
Great comment. You gave me plenty to work with. Thanks! :o)
~ D-FensDogG
[Link:) Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Al Bondigas here. I remember when you were in the play INHERIT THE WIND in high school. If you knew then what you knew now, you could made a pretty good scene straightening them out. Just joking of course but it could have been very Frasieresque.
ReplyDeleteJUDGE AL ~
DeleteRight, right!
I remember being in that play. Of course that was in '76 or '77 -- back when I was a dope because I was believing "all the crap I learned in high school".
True though. If I knew THEN what I know NOW, I really would have refused to perform (like an organ grinder's "monkey") in 'INHERIT THE WIND'.
'Youth' is wasted on the wrong people!
~ D-FensDogG
[Link:) Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Beware the truth twisters! Or, to each his own. Intriguing title, imaginative plot. Was it billed as a science fiction? Guess I don't have to ask what they will think of next ;-)
ReplyDeleteWrite on, Reno!
Aww, yes, dIEDRE, the truth-twisters, the Scripture-twisters, the naked Twister-playing twisted. (I confess to being a bit twisted myself, but NOT "naked Twister" twisted!;^)
DeleteThe movie most certainly SHOULD be filed under "SCIENCE Fiction". (Terrific play on words, my friend!)
~ D-FensDogG
[Link:) Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends