Customer Reviews
Excellent Film of Misleading Book - By: Mr. G. M. Mackley, 30 Nov 2007 
This is a really good filmin all aspects. If you watch it simply as a very well produced film version of a fictional book, it is great to sit back & admire the quality of the work.
Some reviewers however do appear to have been misled into believing that the plotin some way matches the facts of the actual events of the famous Stopes trial. This is the fault of the book & misleading information over the years rather than the film per se, although there is no more attempt to inform the viewer of the film of this than there is the reader of the original play. if you have any doubt about the disparity between this fiction & the facts, watch the film, research the details of the actual people involved & read the genuine trial transcripts (everything is availablein the public domain). As well as enjoying good cinema you may well then ask which people would spend so much time & money to try to blur the real historical facts with this particular fictional version & thus (apparently continue to) mislead many people & why they would wish to do so, rather than dramatising the event as it actually occurred. This background can then be related to more recent news items concerning debates on the subject of teaching of Origins on both sides of the Atlantic. You may well find the film much more thought provoking even than some of the other reviewers have suggested!
A great film and, amazingly, still topical... - By: Dr. George L. Sik, 12 Oct 2007 
As courtroom dramas go, this is unsurpassable: 'JFK', 'Anatomy of a Murder', even Spencer Tracy's later masterful performancein 'Judgement at Nuremberg'...none are quite as good as this. What makes it remarkable is that the trial of John Scopes for teaching evolutionary theoryin Tennessee happenedin 1925 & ought to feel like old history - but it isn't! America is still full of creationists who believe every word of the Old Testament is literally true -in many polls, it is the MINORITYin the States who side with Darwin.
In fact, this film is very balancedin terms of faith & science: it doesn't kick the Book of Genesis out completely. From today's perspective, herein a largely secular UK, parts of it seem a little quaint, not least the final revelation that Spencer Tracy's defence lawyer is actually a bit of a Bible buff deep down. Clarence Darrow, the real lawyer on whom Tracy's character is based, was rather less sentimental. I also suspect that Gene Kelly's big city journalist was intended at the time to be unpleasantly cynical, but by today's standards he seems spot on - his parting line is brilliant!
Of course, the film plays a little fast & loose with what happenedin the real trial (which is presumably why all the names have been changed). It is still, however, a masterful piece of work, with scintillating dialogue & real drama - as topical today as when it was made.
A Clever Creation - By: J. Davis, 07 Jan 2007 This is an extremely well-acted picture. The vivid dramain the courtroom is supplemented by various scenes which provide insight into the key characters & their motivations.
But this is a black-and-white filmin another sense. Those on either side of the evolution-creation debate are, for the most part, portrayed herein starkly contrasting roles. The religious side comprise the bigots & eccentrics; the evolution side are made up of the clear-eyed & intellectually sound, who stand for truth & justice. It's a familiar presentation, but inaccurate.
The arguments against the book of Genesis & the Old Testamentin general, as advanced by the chief protagonist, Henry Drummond (Spency Tracy), are stale, & easily refuted by anyone with a decent knowledge of Scripture.
'Inherit the Wind' is a good film. Just that. One can hardly fashion a philosophy from it.
Inherit The Wind:- A lesson for our time - By: Ian L Freeman, 15 Nov 2003 I first saw Inherit the wind as a teenager around ten years after it was made. I was just getting into courtroom dramas & would watch Perry Mason & others of its genre. I thought it was a "good" film & left it at that. Some ten years later I saw it again & this time through different eyes. The characterisations of the leading characters was perfect, sufficient to bring the roles to life but not to overwhelm the story. Each time I see the film I get more out of it. The arrogance of government trying to tell the people what they can & cannot hear & learn, the pomposity of the so called religous moral majority who take it upon themselves to prosecute a teacher who does not follow their teachings, the newspaper who will follow any course to grab a headline. Through all these plots & sub-plots the story winds a path which eventually resultsin the realisationin the viewer that the most important thing mankind has is his right to form his own views providing he has all the facts to hand. As the line from the film says "even a sponge has the right to think".
In these times when newspapers raise people to celebrity status only to knock them down, when the religous right tries to stop freedom of choice over many aspects of our lives such as abortion, when wars are fought based on religion, colour, tribal loyalties, this film shows us that eventually the freedom of thought is our greatest asset. Spencer Tracy, Frederick March & Gene Kelly give masterful faultless performances,despite the film beingin black & white the atmosphere generated is consuming. This is a film which I watch every three to four months to remind myself of the performances & of my right to think.
Don�t monkey around with religion - By: B. Chandler, 18 Jun 2003 This film is based on the play by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee about the 1925, Scopes Monkey Trial. It is tricky to keep the differences between this play & the real trial apartin one's mind. Spencer Tracy (Henry Drummond) & Fredric March (Matthew Harrison Brady) spar over the legality of teaching of evolutionin Tennessee. This combination is guaranteed to keep you glued to your seat. In this movie Scopes, while teaching evolution to a high-school biology class is arrested & placedin jail.
Some time the other characters get lostin the shuffle yet one other will show through. That is Gene Kelley who plays E. K. Hornbeck who reports the trial.
I will not give a blow by blow of the trail but to say it gets rather heated & is broken up with several adjournments with time to reflect on what was said & going to be said.
If you are interestedin the real thing then read Scopes Autobiography "Center of the Storm."
Pr 11:29... "HE WHO TROUBLES HIS OWN HOUSE WILL INHERIT THE WIND,"
