My mother had a couple of books about Paul Newman that I would leaf through growing up, so a lot of his movies would intrigue me and I’d remember the titles of. Sometimes A Great Notion (1971) was one I was keen to track down since Newman directed it himself and it was based on a novel by Ken Kesey (of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest). It both continues the tradition of family business dramas that Newman as an actor had starred in, like Hud, but is placed in a point in his career where he is growing older. Here, Newman is the intermediary point between classic Hollywood with Henry Fonda and the counter culture new faces with Michael Sarrazin. The film follows the Stamper family, an independent group of loggers in Oregon who have annoyed the small town they reside in by breaking the strike that the union has organised to halt production. Fonda is the ornery patriarch who views such a move as “commie bull” and pushes ahead even though he’s in an arm cast from a previous accident; it’s up to his son Hank (Newman) and his nephew Joe Ben (Richard Jaeckel) to keep the crew operating. Into the mix is Fonda’s son from another marriage, Lee (Sarrazin) who is chided constantly for his “long hair” and seems troubled, yet helps out in the early morning hard work. He’s the only one who also talks to and is interested in what Hank’s wife Viv (Lee Remick) who starts to express unease with the obstinate, male dominated world of the Stampers. It’s an involving drama that is open to the ambiguities and complications in this family and their business; the work of the loggers is captured in distant shots to emphasise the size of such an undertaking, yet the landscape is also desolate and barren due to their deforestation. There are beautiful shots of early morning mist on the waters and hang out vibes in how the Stampers and the townsfolk rile each other up. And then there are some pretty powerful sequences that pack quite an emotional punch (including one that Quentin Tarantino calls The Scene – you’ll know it when it happens). All the cast are great. Henry Mancini provides the score and there’s a nice Charley Pride tune that introduces the movie. I found an HD quality copy to stream on YouTube. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 