Sometimes a Great Notion
Dir. Paul Newman, 1970.
This was Ken Kesey's second novel, and centers on a tight-knit, redneck family of Oregon loggers, and their struggle to keep their family business going despite bitter opposition by striking unionized loggers.
Henry Stamper (Henry Fonda) is the crusty, stubborn patriarch, Hank (Paul Newman) his tough, admiring son, and Viv (Lee Remick) is Hank's beautiful wife. The Stampers live in a rambling house on a river's edge, along with Henry's nephew Joe-Ben (Richard Jaekel), a born-again, sweet, and somewhat dimwitted lumberjack, and his family. Into this mix is thrown Lee (Michael Sarrazin, who died last month). Lee is Henry's son by his first wife, a long-haired, college-educated boy harboring bitternes and longing in his heart.
The characters are archetypical, the conflicts obvious and predictable. Yet the acting is so good, and the scenes of logging family and work life seem so authentic, that you are swept along. "Never Give A Inch" (sic) is the Stamper family motto, and Henry lives and enforces it with every breath. You can't help but admire and root for the courage, the tenacity, the smartness, and toughness of the Stampers -- not to mention the stunning good looks of Paul Newman and Michael Sarrazin.
And yet ... the Stampers are scabs in a fashion, working during the strike despite pleas by the local union men and their neighbors. The men are stupidly stubborn and treat their wives like chattel; Viv is unhappy and Hank is barely aware of it. They are conservative and backward to the core. They stick blindly to the family motto, and in the end pay a heavy lasting price. Yet the film still ends by celebrating the fearless individualism, the contempt of hypocrisy and bunk, and the sheer up-yours rebelliousness embodied in Hank. No wonder it is an icon in the logging industry.
Dir. Paul Newman, 1970.
Henry Stamper (Henry Fonda) is the crusty, stubborn patriarch, Hank (Paul Newman) his tough, admiring son, and Viv (Lee Remick) is Hank's beautiful wife. The Stampers live in a rambling house on a river's edge, along with Henry's nephew Joe-Ben (Richard Jaekel), a born-again, sweet, and somewhat dimwitted lumberjack, and his family. Into this mix is thrown Lee (Michael Sarrazin, who died last month). Lee is Henry's son by his first wife, a long-haired, college-educated boy harboring bitternes and longing in his heart.
The characters are archetypical, the conflicts obvious and predictable. Yet the acting is so good, and the scenes of logging family and work life seem so authentic, that you are swept along. "Never Give A Inch" (sic) is the Stamper family motto, and Henry lives and enforces it with every breath. You can't help but admire and root for the courage, the tenacity, the smartness, and toughness of the Stampers -- not to mention the stunning good looks of Paul Newman and Michael Sarrazin.
And yet ... the Stampers are scabs in a fashion, working during the strike despite pleas by the local union men and their neighbors. The men are stupidly stubborn and treat their wives like chattel; Viv is unhappy and Hank is barely aware of it. They are conservative and backward to the core. They stick blindly to the family motto, and in the end pay a heavy lasting price. Yet the film still ends by celebrating the fearless individualism, the contempt of hypocrisy and bunk, and the sheer up-yours rebelliousness embodied in Hank. No wonder it is an icon in the logging industry.
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