Inherit the Wind
Matthew Harrison Brady: Why is it, my old friend, that you've moved so far away from me?
Henry Drummond: All motion is relative, Matt. Maybe it's you who've moved away by standing still.
What happens when you start teaching the Theory of Evolution in Hillsboro? Well, you get arrested of course and then there's a trail which is the story behind
Inherit the Wind.
I expected this to be something I'd really get into. Unfortunately, I did not. There was a lot I did like about
Inherit the Wind, for one it does make you think, at times, but the overall problem for me was the characterization of the townsfolk and especially the prosecuting attorney. They were too over the top and it took me out of whatever it was trying to do. It was almost like revisiting
Two Thousand Maniacs. Of all the characters in the movie there were three that I liked: The Teacher, The Banker and the Prosecutors wife. They were the most real of all the characters, at least they were real to me.
The movie ultimately became less about the teaching of evolution and more about the historical accuracy of the Bible in a long cross examination were the prosecutor is called to the stand by the defense as an expert on the Bible. This may be interesting to some who have never heard two people debate the historical accuracies/inaccuracies of the Bible but having grown up hearing this argument ad nauseum (born again father, atheist mother), it was a bore at what should have been the climax of the picture.
I felt that the best scene in the movie is when Spencer Tracy and Fredric March, old friends who find themselves battling it out in court, have their little conversations on the porch of Mansion House without feeling the need to a make a spectacle in front of the townspeople. That was the one scene involving both of the leads that felt authentic. As for the overall debate, I had cousins attend schools that didn't teach evolution at all. Other cousins went to schools that didn't teach religion at all. I was fortunate. I went to a school that taught both.