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Inherit the Wind is originally a thought provoking play,
written by Robert E. Lee and Jerome Lawrence, that works as a
play and is successful in saying some significant things. This
film adaptation fails to be as effective.
Inherit the Wind tells us about Bertram Cates (Tom Everett
Scott), a schoolteacher in the 1920’s South, who has begun
teaching his students about evolution. This is against the law
and so brings about a major trial with Henry Drummond (Jack Lemmon)
as Cates’ defending attorney and Matthew Harrison Brady
(George C. Scott), a former presidential candidate, on for the
prosecution. The greater part of the story is spent in the science
vs. religion debate between these two men.
Inherit the Wind is weakened by its low production level
and simple sets. It never achieves the transformation from play
to film as it frequently feels like a school play that someone’s
filming. There’s some unnecessarily bad sound, such as in
the case where a group of people are singing “Old Time Religion”,
yet it’s obviously a choir singing as per voiceover and
not the actual audience singing. The acting is bad on the part
of pretty much everyone except for Lemmon and Geroge C. Scott,
who are really the only ones carrying the film.
The real failure in Inherit the Wind, however, is its
constantly heavy-handed nature. The adaptation goes to the extremes
to make its points. The conservative townspeople are idiots, Cates
is almost anti-god, and the town minister is a certified wacko.
Cates and Drummond are the only sane people in the town and seem
to be just trying to survive in the midst of violently fanatical
zealots. Everything is pounded in so heavily, it loses any effectiveness.
Thus, an originally profound play becomes an only mildly stirring
production that leaves us fairly empty handed at the end of the
whirlwind trial.
Made for TV/Direct to Video
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