Who Sows the Wind (1960)

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Movie
German title Who sows the wind
Original title Inherit the wind
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1960
length 123 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Stanley Kramer
script Nedrick Young ,
Harold Jacob Smith
production Stanley Kramer
music Ernest Gold
camera Ernest Laszlo
cut Frederic Knudtson
occupation
synchronization

Who sows the wind (Original title: Inherit the Wind ) is an American film by Stanley Kramer from 1960 . It was produced by him for the United Artists . The film is based on a play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. This is based freely on the so-called monkey trial, which was brought against the teacher John Thomas Scopes in Dayton ( Tennessee ) in 1925 . The artistic advice for the film was Erich Maria Remarque . The leading roles are cast with Spencer Tracy , Fredric March and Gene Kelly , leading roles with Dick York , Donna Anderson , Harry Morgan , Claude Akins and Florence Eldridge .

action

In 1925, a dispute broke out in the small town of Hillsboro, Tennessee, which upset the American nation and made headlines around the world: the young Bertram T. Cates is a teacher. He teaches his students Charles Darwin's theory of evolution , which states that man came into being through evolution . The fanatical Reverend Jeremiah Brown has Cates arrested and tried because the thesis he taught contradicts the biblical story of creation, which is the only correct one according to the law. The "monkey trial" is making waves in the United States.

Bible-believing fundamentalist and multiple presidential candidate Matthew Harrison Brady will represent the prosecution. The reporter E. K. Hornbeck from the "Baltimore Herald" reports on the trial and organizes the agnostic defense attorney Henry Drummond for Cates . Matthew Brady and Henry Drummond were friends while at college. Drummond also supported Brady in several election campaigns when he wanted to become President of the United States . But the friendship broke due to Brady's fanatical disposition.

The process is dramatic. The prosecution and defense fight bitter duels. Henry Drummond fights vehemently for progress and freedom of thought, which is prevented by the law, while M. H. Brady insists on the literal interpretation of the Bible and therefore calls Darwinian evolutionary theory wrong.

The Hillsboro residents are almost united behind the Reverend and Brady. A service is held in which the Reverend even curses his own daughter because she is engaged to Bertram T. Cates and cannot see anything in his behavior as sinful. A demonstration is also organized where a doll with Cates' name is burned and bottles are flung through his cell window.

The court refuses all witnesses that Henry Drummond wants to call to explain the Darwinian theory of evolution taught by Cates in more detail. The reason is always that it is not the task of the court to question the content of a law that has already been passed. Eventually, Brady himself is called to the stand by Drummond as an expert on the Bible. Drummond succeeds in using Bible quotations to urge Brady in a certain direction by showing that many statements in the Bible cannot reasonably be taken literally. His endeavor is less to refute the Bible; rather, he expands and questions biblical statements through human logic: the ability to think is ultimately God-given from the point of view of the prosecution and may well be used in relation to the text of the Bible. Drummond himself considers this ability to think to be far "more sacred than all amens and hallelujahs". Drummond questions Joshua's ability to make the sun stand still, as well as questions the Bible's view of the teaching of Copernicus and he asks how Cain's wife Awan can suddenly appear.

Cates is the jury still found guilty, but to a fine of 100 US dollars condemned. After the verdict is announced, Brady wants to give a political speech he wrote on the trial. But all the people who hung on his lips until the day before are impressed by Drummond and doubt their previously irrefutable attitude. Brady, who overeat in the humid heat of the courtroom during the course of the trial, collapses and dies after the exertion.

Hornbeck later comments on the process in a conversation with Drummond and mocks the deceased who fought fanatically for his faith. But Drummond rebukes him by showing him how remarkable it is to strive for something and to sacrifice yourself for it, despite a possibly narrow-minded view. Hornbeck is embarrassed when he realizes how little it is for him in life and that he has no ideals. In the end, however, he also invokes his “right to be lonely”, which only Drummond would defend in court.

The film ends with Drummond holding the Bible and Darwin's On the Origin of Species in both hands, weighing them against each other, then laying the Bible on Darwin's work and leaving the courtroom alone. The Battle Hymn of the Republic serves as background music .

production

background

The play Inherit the Wind and its film adaptation are based freely on the so-called monkey trial , but changed smaller details and renamed the main protagonists. The trial of the teacher John Thomas Scopes was also held in Dayton ( Tennessee ) in 1925 and ended with a fine of 100 US dollars, later he was completely acquitted for a formal error. The character of Henry Drummond is based on the Scopes defense attorney Clarence Darrow , who, like the film character, was involved in some of the most famous trials that took place in the United States during his lifetime. The character of Brady is based on the politician William Jennings Bryan , who was known for his Christian fundamentalist views and who actually allowed himself to be cross-examined by Darrow during the trial and became entangled in contradictions. Bryan did not die dramatically in the courtroom like Brady did on the last day of the trial, but only five days after the verdict in his sleep. The cynical journalist EK Hornbeck has his role model in the journalist Henry L. Mencken , who was known for his sharp-tongued articles and who accompanied the process.

publication

The film was released in theaters in the Federal Republic of Germany on August 30, 1960, and the German television first broadcast on March 15, 1971 at 9 p.m. on ZDF .

Movie title

The German film title is based on the Bible verse "Whoever sows the wind, will reap the storm" ( Hos 8,7  GNB ) from the book Hosea . The English original title "Inherit the Wind" is from the Book of Proverbs ( Spr 11,29  KJV ): "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart."; German ( Prov 11:29  SLT ): "Whoever breaks up his own family will [only] get wind for an inheritance, and the fool becomes a servant of him who is wise."

synchronization

The dubbed version was created in 1960 at Ultra Film Synchron in Berlin, directed by Josef Wolf .

role actor Voice actor
Henry Drummond Spencer Tracy Walter Suessenguth
Matthew Harrison Brady Fredric March Konrad Wagner
EK Hornbeck Gene Kelly Heinz Dragon
Bertram T. Cates Dick York Michael Chevalier
Rachel Brown Donna Anderson Sabine Eggerth
Mrs. Brady Florence Eldridge Tilly Lauenstein
Judge Mel Coffey Harry Morgan Alfred Balthoff
Reverend Jeremiah Brown Claude Akins Werner Peters
Tom Davenport, prosecutor Elliott Reid Heinz Petruo
Mayor Jason Carter Philip Coolidge Erich Fiedler
John Stebbins, father of the dead boy Noah Beery junior Alexander Welbat
Howard, student Jimmy Boyd Ernst Jacobi

reception

Reviews

“A brilliant cast guarantees theatrical perfection; the subject - intolerance and fanaticism in relation to the democratic right to freedom of expression and free teaching - is extremely topical. The model case on which it is demonstrated dates back almost forty years and bears very characteristic American features. In the form of a court hearing, it is about Darwin versus the Bible. The question of whether the natural sciences refute the revealed wisdom or not worries hardly anyone today, because it is wrongly posed. In this respect, the film's sometimes somewhat rhetorical dialogue also remains pale and antiquated. But what becomes credible under Kramer's master hand is the passionate seriousness with which America then and now fights against dogmatism and for the rights of the constitution. "

- Die Zeit , July 8, 1960

“Faith in the Bible, true to the letter, on the one hand, and Darwinism on the other, heat a small town to white heat. [...] Outstanding actors, an exquisitely staged court film that entertains in a sophisticated and captivating manner. "

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

The film received four Academy Award nominations ("Best Male Leading Actor": Spencer Tracy, best adapted screenplay: Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith , best cinematography: Ernest Laszlo , best editor: Frederic Knudtson ), but the 1961 award went empty-handed. Fredric March received a Silver Bear for “Best Actor” at the Berlinale 1960 and Stanley Kramer received the Youth Film Award at the Berlinale. The film was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Picture and Best Foreign Actor (March and Tracy). The film was nominated for Best Picture and Tracy for Best Actor at the Golden Globes .

Remakes

Trivia

The Simpsons episode God against Lisa Simpson ( St.17 / Ep.21 ) takes up the theme of the film; the trial in the second half of the episode is based on the film.

Web links

Commons : Who sows the wind  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Filmlexikon.de and Spiegel.de .
  2. ↑ German synchronous index | Movies | Who sows the wind. Retrieved February 12, 2019 .
  3. ↑ On the head of the new wave . In: Die Zeit , No. 28/1960
  4. ↑ Who sows the wind. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 22, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ IMDB list of awards