Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Too much of everything

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The pacifist attitude of a Quaker family is tested as a result of the American Civil War.The worst thing about this movie: the strange rear-projection during buggy scenes, although I will let it slide as a strange relic of the time. Best thing about the movie: Dorothy McGuire was cast as Cooper's wife after Wyler's choice, Katharine Hepburn, declined. Not only was McGuire very good, but it kept that useless hack Hepburn out of a good film.What I appreciate most is the story of the film's production. Writer Michael Wilson told HUAC in 1951, "I feel that this committee might take the credit, or part of it at least, for the fact that 'The Friendly Persuasion' was not produced, in view of the fact that it dealt warmly, in my opinion, with a peace-loving people." Although it took a couple years, a slight name change, and Wilson's name removed, the film did still come out.There were some other changes: "What happened to Wilson's pacifist script after Capra dropped it," notes film historian Joseph McBride, "reflected the political climate of the Cold War. When William Wyler directed the film for Allied Artists in 1956 as Friendly Persuasion, he had the story changed to make the Quaker youth (played by Anthony Perkins) become a killer. The Quakers in Wyler's version, as Pauline Kael observed, 'are there only to violate their convictions.' But some of the strength of Wilson's conception remains, as in a scene of a crippled Union Army officer respectfully challenging the steadfast Quakers about pacifism in their meeting house." I would like to have seen the stronger argument for pacifism...The film also received mild criticism for certain inaccurate portrayals of Quaker views, such as a misunderstanding that although Quakers disliked programmed music they did value individual original expressions of it; and in meetings, Bible passages are not read verbatim but speakers recite scripture from memory and express its meaning in their own words. Here is another thing I would have liked to see, a stronger and more accurate portrayal of Quakers. But the point was to pick a religious group that was anti-war, not necessarily be strict in the representation. So we must not be too harsh.

Maybe it's me but the film just didn't click for me. With Gary Cooper in the cast, even portraying a Quaker, I thought there would be more in the way of conflict for the main character to face and persevere against. I know, the conflict turned out to be more of an inner one, with conscience winning out against hate and revenge, but within the context and setting of the Civil War, the outcomes of the various characters didn't ring true to me. Now should Jess (Cooper) have slain the Rebel soldier who killed his friend Sam Jordan (Robert Middleton)? It was a self defense situation and Jess would certainly have been justified, war or not. If the intent of the story was to see Jess through to standing by principle, then I guess it worked. But Jess could have wound up dead just as well.The more principled stand was probably taken by son Josh (Anthony Perkins), who was determined to protect his family's land and property. When the Rebs overran the farm and then wound up basically as house guests of Eliza (Dorothy McGuire), that's where I thought credibility went completely out the window. These weren't even uniformed soldiers for the most part, and initially acted more like marauders when they arrived at the Birdwell farm. Their behavior turning on a dime wasn't realistic in the least; not even one of them was portrayed as a cutthroat soldier. Even the guy who went after the goose seemed to see the error in his ways rather quickly once it was explained to him.I guess what I was expecting was something more along the lines of John Wayne's 1947 film "Angel and the Badman", and more recently, a modern take on the pacifist theme in the 2002 TV movie "The Outsider" with Tim Daly. However in both of those films, the principal male character was not a Quaker and brought conflict into the story by virtue of their gunslinging reputations. Which reminds me, in both of those films, Wayne and Daly left their holstered weapons outside, honoring a Quaker tradition of not allowing weapons to cross the home's threshold. In this picture, Jess and son Josh both have rifles that are stored in the farm house. I don't know if that's an important point or not, but it's something I wondered about having seen the other pictures mentioned.

Gary Cooper was a quintessential male American Actor who reached the heights of movie stardom.His career deserves review as Cooper dead for nearly 50 years is sadly overlooked these days. Cooper's body of work Meet John Doe, Sargeant York, Mr. Deeds, High Noon, et al made Gary Cooper along with Clark Gable the great American Leading Man of his era. William Wyler was the greatest director of his era: Jezebel, The Little Foxes, Wuthering Heights, The Letter, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years Of Our Lives, The Heiress, Ben Hur, Funny Girl, and this movie Friendly Persuasion. Bette Davis deemed Wyler the Great Love Of Her Life and Her Greatest Director: The Little Foxes, Jezebel and The LetterFriendly Persuasion is a beautiful film with a great co starring role for Dorothy McGuire.One of my favorite movies of all time. Thou Swell! Friendly Persuasion was a movie distributed by Allied Artists, a small studio, now defunct, and I am wondering if this film is on DVD? It is one of Gary Cooper's finest efforts as well as a signature film of William Wyler's. Mr. Wyler was a great Director known for many re takes of a scene, frustrating many of the great stars who worked for Wyler: Bette Davis, Olivia DeHavilland, Frederic March, Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, Jennifer Jones, Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine. When De Havilland, a great actress, challenged Wyler on the amount of retakes, asked of Wyler, what do you want, Wyler replied " I Want it Better" I wonder how Gary Cooper so great an Actor he made his work seem effortless took to the many takes Wyler demanded in his pictures?

There is a richness of the old Technicolor which makes every frame an oil portrait. Combine that visual beauty with Tiomkin's lush score, and you have a motion picture masterpiece. The film provides not only a lesson in the lifestyle of a Quaker family in Indiana, it reveals the personal impact and heartbreak of the American Civil War. It was hard for a young man to adhere to his family's pacifist beliefs when he knew his friends were going off to war to defend the very place he called home. Civil War buffs unwittingly romanticize this national trauma which took the lives of over 600,000 young men. This movie brings it down to a personal level. Although filmed closer to Hollywood, the story takes place in Jennings County, Indiana. Although the soil of the Hoosier State was very lightly touched by battle, the fear of invasion was real. The little town of Vernon, mentioned in the movie, is still much the same as it was in the 1860s.