Better Late Then Never

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

My thoughts on this remake of Inherit The Wind and the slant that it was given arise from one thing only, the possibility in early 1988 that Pat Robertson would be a presidential candidate. The main difference between the classic 1960 version and this television one is that Matthew Harrison Brady is considering yet a fourth run for the presidency. To bring the country back to God, or at least his version of God. Listening to Kirk Douglas as Brady and remembering the times that this television film was made, the context is essential to understand what was going on.In real life of course William Jennings Bryan was thoroughly cured of the presidential bug by 1925. He was still very much an influence in the party, especially in rural areas such as Eastern Tennessee where the Scopes Trial took place. In real life Bryan would have been 68 in 1928 had he lived and I'm willing to bet he'd have fought mightily against the nomination of the Roman Catholic Alfred E. Smith.In this version a lot of business is eliminated including the contempt citation that defense lawyer Henry Drummond is given and a favorite scene of mine where Brady is holding court for the press in the hotel restaurant, enjoying heaping helpfuls of roast beef and mashed potatoes while Drummond sits in the foreground with a tuna sandwich and a glass or milk.The confrontation climax with Brady and Drummond is still basically the same with the added dialog about Brady maybe running for president again to bring the USA back to God. Again written for the 1988 television audience.Jason Robards, Jr. is far closer to the truth of Clarence Darrow in his Henry Drummond than Spencer Tracy. Darrow was not as noble a creature as Tracy makes him out, but his performance did get him an Academy Award nomination. Robards is a lot more sneaky, still for me the best interpretation of Clarence Darrow is Orson Welles as Jonathan Wilk in Compulsion.Kirk Douglas gets reunited with his Spartacus co-star Jean Simmons playing Mrs. Brady. By all accounts the real Mrs. Bryan was a very wise woman capable of a brake on her high flying husband when needed.When I wrote a review for the 1960 Inherit the Wind which I did see in theaters back in the day, I said that the film was done from a quaint nostalgia point of view about what silly things we believed and fought over and how America had grown up in the interim. In 1960 who would have believed that fundamentalist Christianity would have a stranglehold on one of our major parties. This version of Inherit The Wind sadly takes that into account.

Inherit the Wind (1988) *** 1/2 (out of 4) The second of three remakes of the 1960 Spencer Tracy/Frederic March film once again takes a look at the infamous Scopes trial. The film centers on a teacher who is arrested for teaching the theory of evolution. A religious prosecutor (Kirk Douglas) takes on the defender (Jason Robards) in a case about the right to think. I personally think that the 1960 film is one of the greatest movies ever made and it contains some of the most powerful actor of any movie ever made. It would be rather silly to go into the remake expecting anything as powerful but this film actually comes pretty close. The film has been slightly rewritten and it takes a look at the case from a different side but the movie remains quite powerful and contains some very good acting. The only real problem here is that the movie only runs around 96-minutes, which means we lose some character development. The actual real case has pretty much been proved as a fraud but it certainly makes for an interesting debate, which carries over very well to film. I think, like the original film, this one is a bit too one sided and shows the religious aspect unfairly but while saying this there's no doubt that the original trial showed evolution in an unfair way. As I said earlier, I think both Tracy and March delivered two of the most powerful performances in the history of film but Robards and Douglas do great work here. Douglas really gets into his character so much that you feel as if you're watching the real guy and not Douglas giving a performance. His speech in the church early on is among some of the best preaching I've seen from any actor or any real preacher. Robards was an excellent choice to go up against Douglas and he too delivers a strong performance and the two men together, during the final courtrooms scene, contain enough fireworks to really get your blood pumping. Darren McGavin, John Harkins, Megan Follows and Gene Simmons all add great supporting in their performances. In the end, this film is far from the 1960 version but it's still a very good little gem with great performances and an always interesting story.

I thought Jason Robards was good as Darrow even if he didn't erase the memory of Spencer Tracy from my mind but I thought the usually fine Kirk Douglas was miscast as William Jennings Bryan (who was a glutton, not a movie star!) and didn't come close to Frederic March who even looked like Bryan. (Admittedly, Spencer always looked like Spencer.) He was reduced to playing the part as if it was Elmer Gantry and when Jason said that "a giant once lived in that body!" I didn't believe him for one second.And where the old black and white version suggested the oppressive heat and humidity of Dayton, Tennessee, this one didn't even come close. Darren McGavin who played H. L. Mencken was quite good though and I've always adored Jean Simmons in most of what she did. Kyle Secor was the Scopes character (I mistook him for Matthew Broderick) and was very adequate. I'd be interested to see (again?) the 1965 TV version with Melvyn Douglas and Ed Begley but I don't remember it at all if I did see it.

I'm a Spanish speaker, to tell the truth I don't know how to write in English. About the picture, its contents are specially interesting for whom, like me, are teachers, and have to fight with all kind of fanaticism that slave the minds of our students and their families. On the other hand, the performances of Kirk Douglas and Jason Robard, are really remarkable. The edition of the film is just great, its film rhythm is smooth and easy and the production is outstanding too. I wish we could get this picture in DVD. Sorry for my english.