This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Friendly Persuasion (1956) A look at Quakers, How to be peaceful in war? Funny with serious, Goose, organ, racing horses, Fall in love with the Birdwells. One could forgive the Grating "thee" and "thou" plain speech, But film undermined By anticlimactic end, Postwar fairytale ending. (Somonka is a form of poetry that is essentially two tanka poems, the second stanza a response to the first. Each stanza follows a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable pattern. Traditionally, each is a love letter. This form usually demands two authors, but it is possible to have a poet take on two personas. My somonka will be a love/hate letter to a film?) #Somonka #PoemReview

This film is simply one of the great classics of cinema. Who would have thought that Allied Artists, spun off from tiny Monogram, could produce a film of such magnificence and beauty. Gary Cooper and especially Dorothy McGuire create beautiful characterizations as the Birdwells. Anthony Perkins, in one of his first roles, is swell as the young Quaker torn between his beliefs and his conscience. Marjorie Main and her three spinster daughters will have you howling with laughter. Even Samantha the goose is more than competent in her part. The photography, in color by DeLuxe, is simply gorgeous and the music by Dimitri Tiomkin is lovely. Here is a picture where sex obviously takes place, and yet it is not thrown in your face with explicit scenes. This is a beautiful, gentle film which bears repeat viewings. On the DVD there is an interesting extract from the NBC TV series "Wide, Wide World" which digs into the behind the scenes particulars of this filming. An enriching experience.

Gary Cooper was a quintessential male American Actor who reached the heights of movie stardom.His career deserves review as Cooper dead for nearly 50 years is sadly overlooked these days. Cooper's body of work Meet John Doe, Sargeant York, Mr. Deeds, High Noon, et al made Gary Cooper along with Clark Gable the great American Leading Man of his era. William Wyler was the greatest director of his era: Jezebel, The Little Foxes, Wuthering Heights, The Letter, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years Of Our Lives, The Heiress, Ben Hur, Funny Girl, and this movie Friendly Persuasion. Bette Davis deemed Wyler the Great Love Of Her Life and Her Greatest Director: The Little Foxes, Jezebel and The LetterFriendly Persuasion is a beautiful film with a great co starring role for Dorothy McGuire.One of my favorite movies of all time. Thou Swell! Friendly Persuasion was a movie distributed by Allied Artists, a small studio, now defunct, and I am wondering if this film is on DVD? It is one of Gary Cooper's finest efforts as well as a signature film of William Wyler's. Mr. Wyler was a great Director known for many re takes of a scene, frustrating many of the great stars who worked for Wyler: Bette Davis, Olivia DeHavilland, Frederic March, Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, Jennifer Jones, Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine. When De Havilland, a great actress, challenged Wyler on the amount of retakes, asked of Wyler, what do you want, Wyler replied " I Want it Better" I wonder how Gary Cooper so great an Actor he made his work seem effortless took to the many takes Wyler demanded in his pictures?

Quakers in 1862 southern Indiana are caught up in the great Civil War. This is a film of emotional, psychological and religious conflict upon the members of Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire, both of whom give splendid performances. This was certainly McGuire's best performance since 1947's "Gentleman's Agreement," and Cooper seems like he is right at home with his conflict of whether to fight or remain a pacifist. We saw the same conflict with him in his Oscar-winning performance 15 years earlier in "Sergeant York."Amazed that Anthony Perkins received a supporting nomination for his work as the conflicted son. Perkins would go on to much better performances in "Tall Story," and "Fear Strikes Out."The cinematography is grandiose or magnificent style. Surprising, Pat Boone's rendition of For Thee I Know did not work with Oscar voters who chose Que Sera Sera as the best song of 1956.Marjorie Main offers definite comic relief as one of Cooper's customers.The film of definite moral convictions showed from the beginning that there were cracks in the intense religious faith of this Quaker family.