Thus Giving Us the Really *Bad* Movie, “Inherit the Wind”

Did You Know? In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100 at the conclusion of the Scopes Monkey Trial on July 21, 1925. LEARN MORE.

7 thoughts on “Thus Giving Us the Really *Bad* Movie, “Inherit the Wind””

  1. Jimmy, you are doing a great job bringing important news to the Hoi_polloi.

  3. I clearly recall an LP owned by my parents from the mid ’50’s, narrated by Edward R. Murrow, entitled “I can hear it now”.  Murrow painted what was the conventional liberal view of the Scopes Trial event, in which the “cowboys” (my figurative term), led by Clarence Darrow for the Defense, were defending reason and good sense against the “indians”, led by William Jennings Bryan, a neanderthal only noteworthy to Murrow for his “bigotry” on behalf of the prosecution.  From all the coverage I received, I had always thought that the trial resulted in victory for Mr. Scopes!  
     
    This is but one example of the kind of mythical history that baby boomers lapped up in history class.  After all the indoctrination in the secular liberal view of history, is it any wonder what happened when the baby boomers went to college and the likes of Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn became celebrated cult figures in the pseudo-academic culture of the ’70’s?

  4. Once again Jimmy hits the nail on the head.  “Inherit the Wind” (1960) is more a commentary on how biased and insulting Hollywood could be against Bible believing Christians and the actual facts of the Scopes Trial. It is worth keeping this in mind as we witness the willingness of secular liberals of our own times to play “fast and loose with the facts” if it benefits their political aims.

  5. Jimmy, have you seen the film “Alleged”? Supposedly it gives a more accurate picture of the trial. I read that the dialogue in the court scenes comes right from the original transcript. I haven’t seen the film yet, but it sounds better than “Inherit the Wind.”

  6. On further consideration, I would like to compare the original play “Inherit the Wind” (1955) with Rolf Hochhuth’s controversial drama Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel (The Deputy, a Christian tragedy, released in English in 1964) portraying Pope Pius XII as a hypocrite who remained silent about the Holocaust.  It was an East German Communist attempt to attack the enemy of the East German State: Pope Pius XII and the promulgation and teaching of authentic Catholic doctrine.  In the case of “Inherit the Wind”, the idea was to thoroughly discredit the Christian Right and their Communist adversaries.  The actual Trial was not a “monkey trial” at all.  These Tennessee Christians held themselves strictly to the standard of Truth and fairness demanded by the Gospel in which they believed.  The “Inherit the Wind” authors couldn’t stand that posture and had to use their financial and mob power to create a movie that would tell the story the way the enemies of Faith would like to portray it.  “Inherit the Wind” was the statement of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s enemies after his enemies had found a way to discredit him and the anti-Communist cause he led.   
     
    It is also instructive to observe the number of positive Google reviews of this movie.  A great number of critics like this movie and say more or less the same thing.  Do they follow the historical case, or just support what they view to be a liberal atheist movie with a sympathetic review?  It appears the latter is the case.
     
     I can’t help but recall the Biblical portrayal of Elijah in confrontation with the 400 Prophets of Ba’al (IKgs. 18).  The truth of the movie is told by only the occasional reviewer, in contrast to the overwhelming number of liberal drone reviewers!  I suppose many of us will recognize the way in which the advocates of God’s Will are greatly outnumbered in the world of media and intellectual discussion.  Imagine if these reviewers were held accountable for what they advocate, as Elijah held the 400 accountable.  What kind of books, plays, movies, compositions and artworks would we see if their creators were reverent of truth by the standard demanded by Jesus Christ?

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