Movie review of inherit the Wind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Movie review of inherit the Wind - Essay Example Scopes â€Å"Monkey† Trial (one of the most famous trials in American legal history), which happened in 1925, in order to explore the then current controversy – the McCarthy trials. However, although the movie based a large portion of its scenes from the actual trial transcript, it is still a composite depiction of the Scopes trial. Kramer added several elements to the original tale, adding a love interest here, a fiery character there – all for the sake of embellishments and dramatization of the film and the messages it wanted to convey. The movie explored the subject of individual freethinking and how it was put on trial when a high school biology teacher was charged of illegally teaching Darwinism. The film attacked religious fanaticism and sided with Darwinism, including the ideas that it represented during the time. Three of the points in the film that proved pivotal in the progression of the story and the successful delivery of the message the director wanted to convey include: 1) the many scenes added to open out the courtroom-bound drama such as the separate depiction of the arrivals of the lawyers, establishing the characterization immediately; 2) the climactic scene between the two lawyers wherein Brady forced Drummond to admit that the Bible could be interpreted in a nonliteral fashion, allowing the argument that evolution could be consistent with the biblical account of creation; 3) the religious hymns and folk songs used in the film in an apparent effort to counteract negative criticisms of fundamentalists that the film was anti-Christ. The second point in the film mentioned previously, underscored the role of the two lawyers, Darrow and Bryan, in outlining, explaining and resolving the problem posited by the film. One aspect in the movie that I found unappealing was the extreme stereotyping committed by the movie. For example, Bryan was portrayed as an ignorant, a bigot, and religious fundamentalist. The man was indeed a fundamentalist but that