|
|
Films that Promote Peace & Nonviolence |
|
|
|
Films that Promote Peace & Nonviolence |
|
Also in DVD
Format: |
Adapted from the best-selling novel by Jessamyn West, Friendly Persuasion is set in Southern Indiana in the early days of the Civil War. Gary Cooper plays Jess Birdwell, patriarch of a Quaker family which does not believe in warfare. Birdwell's son Josh (Anthony Perkins) wishes to adhere to his family's pacifism, but is afraid that if he doesn't sign up for military service, he'll prove to be a coward. Josh joins the Home Guard, which disturbs his mother Eliza (Dorothy McGuire). But Jess Birdwell realizes that his son must follow the dictates of his own conscience. Josh proves his courage to himself when he is wounded during a Rebel raid, while the elder Birdwell is able to stay faithful to his religious calling by not killing a Southern soldier when given both a chance and a good reason to do so. Allegedly, writer Jessamyn West nearly scotched her deal with producer/director William Wyler and distributor Allied Artists when Gary Cooper, taking his fans into consideration, insisted upon including a scene in which he forsakes his pacifism and takes arms against the Rebels. If true, then wiser heads prevailed, since no such scene exists in the final release print. Though uncredited due to his status as a blacklistee, Michael Wilson wrote the screenplay for Friendly Persuasion--and even won an Oscar nomination! Also nominated was the film's chart-busting theme song, "Thee I Love" (by Dmitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster). The story was remade as a 2-hour TV pilot film in 1975. Hal Erickson
Friendly Persuasion
Presents the lives of Jess and Eliza Birdwell and their
children, Irish Quakers who lived by the banks of the Muscatatuck.
The really crucial scene, in which the father has the chance to shoot the young man who is on the other side of the war and has been caught nearby, and doesn't--which is treated as the crucial scene, with slow pauses, long shots of agonized faces and decision-making, etc.--is completely vitiated by the fact that the young man IS UNARMED and the QUAKER HAS THE GUN. True, it is nice he chooses not to use it, but there have been many examples (at least I believe there has) in which an person NOT religiously devoted to pacifism has refused to shoot his enemy, some even in situations in which that person is in real danger, as the Quaker in the movie is not. If this is all that pacifism means, well, that is still better than non-pacifism, but it trivializes the more serious philosophical questions, and makes Quakers look especially marginal, though charming.
TV Guide Review:
Long and a tad preachy, FRIENDLY PERSUASION recounts the story of a peaceful Quaker family in Indiana whose sanctity is disturbed by the Civil War in 1862.Cooper and McGuire play the parents of Josh (Perkins), who listens to a Union officer make a plea for young men to take up the Blue cudgel. Although morally opposed to war, Josh fears that he's using his religion to mask a cowardly streak. When the news comes that the Southern band known as Morgan's Raiders is nearing his town, Josh joins the local militia and prepares to fight. He is hurt in battle, and his father goes into the war zone to save his son and find a pal (Middleton) who's been ambushed.
There's humor galore in this picture, especially in a scene with Main and her three lonesome daughters. There are many tearful moments too and several incisive looks into the lives of the "Society of Friends." Aiming for a collage effect, director Wyler deals lovingly with McGuire's ongoing battles with Samantha the goose as well as a little boy who suddenly yells "God is love" in a crowded church. A shorter running time would have helped but, as it is, FRIENDLY PERSUASION ranks as one of Wyler's best comedy-dramas.
Wide
Screen / Mono
