Review Inherit the Wind

Inherit the Wind Best Review

Too many have dissected this true classic, loosely based on the Scopes "Monkey" Trial in Tennessee back in the 1920s. Spencer Tracy plays a brilliant variation on Clarence Darrow. Therefore, I have only a couple of (I hope) fresh observations:

1. This film really breathes life. I wish I had some idea of where and how it was filmed. The thoughtfulness of it is Kurosawa-esque.

2. Frederic March as Brady-the-weird-politician is most annoying. Like most politicians, one cannot really get a feel for this man's motives, or decide whether one likes or hates him.

3. I wonder how many people realize Frederic March was the first actor to make a huge splash as Dr. Jekyll...and about a decade later, Tracy took a shot at the role too.

4. The addition of Gene Kelly as the obnoxious newspaper reporter is most unnecessary and takes away from this film. He makes pathetic attempts at Groucho Marx one-liners in certain parts of the film. Awful. Otherwise he does a great job in this film as the representative of America's true conscience.

5. I believe every person in America should watch this film...especially the younger audience who knows nothing about anything. The nasty Christian right-wing in this country is clearly nothing new...kids should see this behavior for themselves, and this film does a grand job. What is most frightening is Tracy's character is so accepting of it, and the young teacher (a nice early performance by Dick Sargent) is himself a (moderate) Bible-thumper.

Very pertinent to today is the trial itself: creationism vs. evolution (or, rather, Darwinism, which I always liked better as a term anyway). I'd be willing to bet that the modern Christian right hates this film today as much as they probably did when it was first released.

6. I wonder if the death scene of Ole Man Brady is based on a real event during the Scopes trial.

Enjoy this masterful, never-to-be-repeated cinematic marvel.

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Inherit the Wind Overview

Two-time Best Actor OscarÂ(r) winners* Spencer Tracy and Fredric March go toe-to-toe in this thrilling re-creation of the most titanic courtroom battle of the century. Garnering four Academy AwardÂ(r) nominations**, including Best Actor (Tracy), and featuring Gene Kelly in a rare, critically-acclaimed dramatic role, Inherit the Wind is powerful, provocative cinema and "a heaping measure of entertainment" (The Hollywood Reporter)! The controversial subject of evolution versus creation causes two polar opposites to engage in one explosive battle of beliefs. Attorney Clarence Darrow (Tracy) faces off against fundamentalist leader William Jennings Bryan (March) in a small Tennessee town where a teacher has been brought to trial for teaching Darwinism. Let the trial begin...and watch the sparks fly!

Inherit the Wind Specifications

Two of the juiciest roles in the American theater fall at the feet of Spencer Tracy and Fredric March, and both men make a meal of it. Inherit the Wind, based on the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is a slightly fictionalized account of the Scopes Monkey Trial, that galvanizing legal drama of the 1920s. When a young Tennessee teacher is prosecuted for teaching the theory of evolution in a public school, he receives unwanted public attention as well as the legal advice of a giant. Tracy plays the role based on Clarence Darrow, the eloquent defense attorney, and March storms his way through a part based on Williams Jennings Bryan, the failed presidential candidate (and famed orator) who prosecuted the case. Gene Kelly plays a character based on the acid-penned H.L. Mencken, reporting on the trial and caustically commenting on the absurdity of the human animal. Stanley (Judgment at Nuremberg) Kramer's direction is not especially subtle, but the verbal fireworks unleashed during the trial sequences are still stirring. Even the different styles of the actors are intriguing: March is all mannerism and false padding around the belly, while Tracy does his patented naturalistic grumbling. It would be nice if this story were a quaint period piece, but its issues and arguments keep reemerging in the headlines with each new generation. --Robert Horton

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Customer Reviews

Improves with age - Jacob A Trujillo -
Inherit the Wind - As a classic, it improves with age. I now live within a short drive to the town of Dayton TN, where the trial took place. We will visit the courthouse soon.



Totally A Classic. A Must See For Young And Old - Stuart J. Winter - Los Angeles, Ca.
Inherit The Wind has to be one of the best acted movies i have ever seen. Frederic March and Spencer Tracy give performances that are not seen on the screen today. This movie not only entertains, but delivers social commentary for both sides of the fence. The performances are so subtle, you really feel that you are there in the courtroom with them. A must see. Highly recommended.



What a Gem - Neil S. Rieck - Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
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.

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