by truthseeker100 10 Replies latest social entertainment
Has anyone seen the movie inherit the wind? I just got done watching the 1999 remake of the original 1960.
It's about two lawyers arguing in court about the guilt or innocence of a school teacher, teaching evolution.
It's about as pertinent today as it was in 1999 or 1960. It's really a good movie.
I have seen the original.
It's amazing that creationists in America are still flogging the same dead horse.
I've been to that Rhea County court house in Dayton, Tennessee. My great-great grandfather lived in Dayton where the trial occurred and he and his second wife are both buried there after they drowned trying to cross the Tennessee River. My great-great grandmother lived and died in Athens, Tennessee, located directly across the River and to the east. While doing my family genealogy I discovered that several of my distant cousins still lived in the area between 1900 and 1920 and at least two had jobs in that court house at the time of the Scopes Trial in 1925.
The 1960 movie was based on a very successful stage play, as was the remake several years later. Very much like "Judgement at Nuremberg" made shortly afterwards, it was a fictional retelling of the original true story. The discussion of creation and Adam and Eve ("So where did Cain find Mrs. Cain? Over in the next county?") is a keeper. If you have never seen the original movie, please make a point to do so - you will not be disappointed. Some of the background story is a little boring and the histrionics of the crowds reminds me of "Music Man," but the court scenes are all show stoppers.
Here in the USA the movie shows at least a couple of times a year on Turner Classic Movie Channel, but it can be found on several streaming services as well.
And yes, the details of the ending were different - as was much about the movie. The whole thing was financed and stage by several major eastern USA newspapers and was financed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Wikipedia has a ton of information about it and there are several excellent books that cover the trial in grea detail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial
JV
I forgot to mention that in the late 1980s I was privileged to see a live performance in Dallas, Texas by George C. Scott ("Patton") in a one-man stage play as Clarence Darrow, the famed defense attorney in the Scopes Trial. Scott was an excellent and most accomplished stage and screen actor.
During the play he presented arguments from several of Darrow's trials, focusing on segments where his points were later incorporated into laws or reused by others in criminal cases. The Monkey Trial segment came near the end, as was the case in Darrow's real lifetime. The trial was in 1925 and Darrow died in 1938.
I remember that through the whole performance there was much applause, but the house came to its feet several times during the Scopes segment. The play was very well handled. Since it was a one man play, there was no William Jennings Bryan for Scott to play against, so he injected small additional dialogue, usually not more than 5 or 10 words, that would introduce his response (from the actual court documents). I was amazed that Scott playing back Darrow's actual words actually played better than the dialogue in the original stage play.
For me it was like seeing two geniuses on the stage at one time (Darrow and Scott) in the form of one man. Scott would have been about 60 at the time (Darrow was about 67 at the time of the trial). He wore only clothes that were appropriate to the period and had let his hair get a little wild and long, but he was totally believable in the part. It was truly a treat for me to see that.
So in the play I saw, Scott played the defense attorney, Clarence Darrow.
In the movies remake in 1999 (the same year he died), Scott played Matthew Brady, the politician and evangelical preacher who was the prosecutor..
What an amazing actor. My favorite George C. Scott movie, however, is the rarely seen "Islands in the Stream" (1977) that is based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway. Such a great movie to go unseen and unappreciated.
JV
Juan - so nice to read your experience seeing Mr. George C. Scott in that stage play in Dallas, Texas. That must have been a most enjoyable time. I too had a brief brush with Mr. Scott, although I was quite young and had no idea of who he was or how famous he was at the time.
My father was hired to work with the film crew of the movie "Patton" during the mid 1970s. I remember that we had to pack up and move to Spain for several months because they were filming in various locales around Almeria. I believe they were filming the desert battle scenes there and maybe some of the Sicily battles as well.
As
was often the case, if it was to be a short day of work, my father
would take the rest of us with him and we would hang back with the rest
of the support crew. I can not remember exactly what my father did, but I
think it had something to do with set construction. When the set shut
down for the day, he would take us to the beach or take an overnight
trip to Gibraltar. It was a wonderful, warm place to live and play.
Of course I had no idea of who Mr. George Scott was and my father had very little direct contact with the actors as he worked in the background. But one day when we drove over to Gibraltar, my father took us to a most fabulous outdoor restaurant. When we were seated at our table, my father noticed that Mr. Scott and several other actors in the movie were eating at a large table next to us. Apparently Mr. Scott recognized my father and got up and came over to say hello. All I remember was that he had a very gruff voice that frightened me somewhat. I remember that he said he would invite us to join his group. However there were no seats left and all of the adults were drinking a lot of alcohol and smoking. My father thanked him, but acknowledged that with children it would be better if we remained at our table. As I was sitting next to my father, I heard every word and thought he seemed to be a nice man. Before he left our table he reached over and scrubbed his hand on my head, a friendly non-threatening gesture that was very common for adults to do to children at the time.
So that was my very brief, but enjoyable brush with fame. In my work I often come in contact with celebrities, but have not really found many to be quite as appealing or interesting as Mr. Scott. I did not see the movie "Patton" when it came out in the late 1970s - my family rarely went to motion picture theatres, but I have seen it several times since. I mostly look for landmarks that were near where we were staying, but I rarely recognize anything. Things look so different in the movies than in real life.
NGD
