Sometimes a Great Notion (1970)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Paul Newman

Writers:

Ken Kesey (novel)
John Gay (writer)

Release Date:

31 December 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Action | Adventure

Tagline:

"Never give an inch" was the motto of the Stampers of Oregon. And live it they did!

Plot:

A family of fiercely-independent Oregon loggers struggle to keep the family business alive amidst changing times.

Plot Keywords:

Logger | Strike | Mouth To Mouth Air Exchange Underwater | Lumberjack | Family Relationships

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Paul Newman	...	Hank Stamper
Henry Fonda	...	Henry Stamper
Lee Remick	...	Viv Stamper, Hank's Wife
Michael Sarrazin	...	Leland Stamper
Richard Jaeckel	...	Joe Ben Stamper
Linda Lawson	...	Jan Stamper, Joe Ben's Wife
Cliff Potts	...	Andy Stamper
Sam Gilman	...	John Stamper
Lee de Broux	...	Willard Eggleston
Jim Burk	...	Biggy Newton
Roy Jenson	...	Howie Elwood
Joe Maross	...	Floyd Evenwrite
Roy Poole	...	Jonathan Stamper
Charles Tyner	...	Les Gibbons
Bennie E. Dobbins	...	Bit Part (as Bennie Dobbins)

Also Known As:

Never Give a Inch (USA) (reissue title)
Never Give an Inch (UK)

Runtime:

114 min | Portugal:108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Broughton Log Flume, Columbia River Gorge, Washington, USA

Company:

Newman-Foreman Company

Trivia:

Paul Newman replaced Richard A. Colla as director.

Quotes:

Hank Stamper: [singing] Don't ever hit your mother with a shovel. It will leave a dull impression on her mind. Paul Newman said the same line in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid".

Movie Connections:

References King Kong (1933)

Soundtrack:

All His Children

A fine, workable adaption of an excellent but unfilmable novel

Kesey's superb epic novel with its shifting points of view and verb tense is far too complex a work to adapt directly. Kesey's prose while exceptionally cinematic in its description and action ironically proves unfilmable.

That said, Paul Newman and his production team have created a most admirable and solid, if rather top heavy adaption of Kesey's excellent novel.

The dialogue while rather shallow and weak in spurts (Kesey's rich vernacular is lost)is overcome by a wonderful ensemble cast featuring some of America's finest. Who better that Henry Fonda to play Newman's father? Richard Jaekel richly earns the Oscar nomination as the dim-witted but enthusiastic born again lumberjack Joe-Ben. The famous scene where Newman tries desperately to save Jaekel's character from drowning is heartbreakingly tragic and darkly comic. It is a marvelous example of direction.

Newman spent a great deal of time in my native Oregon researching the part and the film and his homework shows. Kesey's rich descriptions of the land remain largely intact. The sense of time and place is impressively captured in the photography of rusting metal, dripping ferns, rotting wood and mildewed carpets. This is a film that one can almost smell.

Newman is one of the finest artists ever to come out of Hollywood. Not only as an actor, but also as a director. He instinctivly knows how to illicit naturalistic, comfortable and utterly human performances from his casts and Sometimes a Great Notion is no exception. Well worth a look. 7 out of 10 stars.