![]() The film’s set pieces usually involve logging. Except he’s presumably already been there and seen what logging looks like. Sarrazin comes into the picture a little while in, but Newman and Gay wait to look at the logging until he’s arrived. Sarrazin starts working with the family, leading to some lengthy expository montage sequences about logging. Of course, even the successful elements in the film don’t really do anything. The friendship (and possibly more) between Sarrazin and Remick is the most distinct thing about Sometimes a Great Notion and it goes absolutely nowhere and does absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, Gay and Newman (as director) don’t really care. Most of that backstory comes out in scenes with Remick, who it turns out has interiority, even if Newman and Fonda don’t care. He went through a suicidal episode as well. No one sent for Sarrazin, no one came to the funeral. After Fonda drove his mother away, she killed herself. He’s a long-haired hippie college graduate (apparently, it’s never actually confirmed he even went to college, he just gets teased about it) with a lot of emotional baggage. Then, out of nowhere, younger son Michael Sarrazin–half-brother to Newman–returns home. Newman and Jaeckel’s opinions aren’t worth anything (to Fonda) but they at least get to be heard. Remick and Linda Lawson (as Jaeckel’s wife) cook and clean for the men, but otherwise keep quiet. Newman’s quiet, Fonda’s loud and demanding (and partially immobilized due to a half body cast), Jaeckel’s goofy (and religious). The townspeople aren’t too happy with them. Except Fonda and family aren’t in the union they’re scabs (but not exactly because they’re just non-union they’re still breaking the picket line and apathetic to their former friends and still neighbors literally starving around them). The film starts in the middle of a loggers’ union strike. Henry Fonda is the dad, Lee Remick is Newman’s wife, Richard Jaeckel’s a cousin. Newman is eldest son in a successful logging family. Newman, as director, uses Mancini’s score to do heavy dramatic lifting in scenes–not the folksy stuff–to the detriment of the performances, which is bewildering, since there are so many good performances in the film. Its loud, obnoxious jazzy folksy Americana thing. You can always tell when it’s one of those moments because Henry Mancini’s score does its jazzy folksy Americana thing. The fun is usually when his character (Newman, at forty-five, is playing a logger in his early thirties) is being a rugged, adventurous, caution to the wind type, whether it’s climbing to the top of a tree he’s just cut the top off, dirt biking, brawling, whatever. He’s serious at times, but outside one scene, he’s always most interested in the fun. And director Newman is more interested in having fun. Screenwriter John Gay avoids exploring those virtues like the plague or directly contradicts them in exposition. At some points in the near two hour runtime, it might hint at being about the virtues of rugged American individualism, family, and maybe capitalism, but it’s not. Newman’s directing was well received by critics.Sometimes a Great Notion is all about the joys of toxic masculinity and apathy. The film's theme song, "All His Children", with music by Henry Mancini, is performed by Charley Pride and was nominated for an Oscar. As co-executive producer, Newman considered replacing Colla with George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy fame), who declined the offer, so when filming resumed two weeks later, Newman was directing as well as acting. ![]() At the same time, Paul Newman broke his ankle, and the production shut down on July 29. Colla left the project after 5 weeks shooting due to "artistic differences over photographic concept," as well as a required throat operation. Sam Peckinpah and Budd Boetticher had expressed interest in bringing Ken Kesey's novel to the screen but Richard A. Filmed in western Oregon during the summer of 1970, it was released over a year later in December 1971. The screenplay by John Gay is based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey, the first of his books to be adapted for the screen. ![]() The cast also includes Richard Jaeckel in an Academy Award-nominated performance. Never Give An Inch (also known as Sometimes A Great Notion) is a 1971 American drama film directed by Paul Newman and starring Newman, Henry Fonda and Lee Remick. Original Australian Daybill Poster Never Give An Inch
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