Spoonatects
Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Casey Duggan
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
casey-48123
The problem with movies like "Sometimes a Great Notion" is that they are supposed to be liked, supposed to do well and supposed to be loved by critics. Written by Ken Kesey and starring Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Lee Remick and Michael Sarrazin, this could have been a blockbuster or, at least, a great film with a devoted following. On any level, you only get about half of what you want in this movie.Apparently Newman directs and, as a result, it comes off as a student project more than a film. Actors parade their lines out like soliloquies in a Greek drama, complete with bad wardrobe and matching hairstyles.One tragic climax results when Newman (now an actor) tries but fails to save a life, with all the predictable Hollywood melodrama. Originally they were all opposed to a strike against the big guys but this all seems to get lost somehow.The book was better but not my favorite. Kesey's powerful "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was forever destined to overshadow the bulk of his work. And so it is here.
tieman64
Ken Kesey wrote "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in 1962, a novel which would later be adapted into a memorable film. Kesey's second novel, "Sometimes a Great Notion", would be published in 1964. Today some regard it as the quintessential Great American Novel. Paul Newman would direct an adaptation in 1971.Titled "Never Give An Inch" in some countries, Newman's adaptation starred Henry Fonda and Newman himself as heads of the Stamper family, a clan of wealthy Oregon loggers. They're rugged individualists, hard workers, deeply conservative and dislike hippies, communists, long haired big-city-folk and homosexuals. They also want to keep logging, much to the chagrin of other striking, unionising workers.Kesey's tale offered a perspective seldom found in art. Whilst most tales of its ilk focus on poor union workers who are persecuted by big, mean capitalists, "Sometimes a Great Notion" does the opposite. We're positioned inside the Stamper gang, who are habitually hounded by the unionists. Of course Kesey and Newman don't romanticise the Stampers – they're mockingly portrayed – but such a perspective nevertheless forces us to accept a certain logic. The Stampers are perfectly "rational" in acting in their own self-interests and in ignoring how their actions affect their wider community. Within the narrow confines of capitalist logic, their actions are wholly sound. What Kesey then does, though, is slowly question this logic and then outright advocate its rejection. By his tale's end, the Stamper family is thus violently torn apart precisely by its individualism, its rejection of the communal and its pursuit of individual gain. With no one to help them, various Stamper members then die in various absurd scenarios. Those who do survive, however, become even more entrenched in their views. We see this at the end of Newman's film, his character shrugging off the loss of his brother and father and becoming, instead, a kind of militant, super capitalist.Newman's film is much smaller than Kesey's novel, and ignores most of the novel's complexities and nuances. Newman is also a weak visualist, though the film's many logging sequences are excellent, perhaps because they were filled by a second unit crew. The film features an audacious, ten-or-so minute long "drowning" sequence.7.9/10 – Very interesting material, simplistically handled. Worth one viewing.
kenjha
An Oregon logging family refuses to join the local union in a strike, leading to tension in the small town. The best-selling Kesey novel becomes a lackluster film. This was Newman's second stint in the director's chair and he seems unsure about how to tell a good story. The plot moves in fits and starts, making it hard to become invested in the story. Too much screen time is devoted to logging scenes that disrupt the narrative flow. The film is best remembered for a heart-wrenching scene involving a logging accident. Newman, Fonda, and Remick head a good cast, with Jaeckel particularly impressive as Newman's cousin.
jpmourar
I also vividly remember this movie, and would love to see it again. The scene with Richard Jaekel and the logging accident is unbelievable. There are many other memorable scenes. I wonder why it is not on DVD? I searched Netflix, and it isn't there. I guess I will just have to wait for it to come around on cable! Or do they only show movies that have made it to DVD on cable? With so many great actors, an excellent story (Ken Kesey) and memorable performances, there's no reason for this to languish in obscurity. I would like to hear some other opinions. It's the kind of movie (at least for me) that you remember forever, so I'm hoping some others remember it as well and can give their opinions.
