Friendly Persuasion (1956)

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This piece of authentic homespun Americana is still one of a handful of truly great films made by its director William Wyler. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, something almost unheard of for an American film at the time. It's simplicity itself; a tale of Quakers during the American Civil War and very smiliar in style and tone to Andrew McLaglen's "Shenandoah". Gary Cooper, (never better), is the peace-loving farmer, Dorothy McGuire, (equally good), is his wife and Anthony Perkins, (brilliant in only his second film and picking up an Oscar nomination), is the son who goes off to fight.Wyler, who himself served in the Second World War, was too canny a director to make an outright anti-war film though the message of the picture is clear. He was also too good a director to fudge it. It may move at a quiet, almost stately pace while remaining one of his most overtly cinematic pictures. A huge hit in its day, it seems now to have all but disappeared.

Friendly Persuasion (1956) A look at Quakers, How to be peaceful in war? Funny with serious, Goose, organ, racing horses, Fall in love with the Birdwells. One could forgive the Grating "thee" and "thou" plain speech, But film undermined By anticlimactic end, Postwar fairytale ending. (Somonka is a form of poetry that is essentially two tanka poems, the second stanza a response to the first. Each stanza follows a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable pattern. Traditionally, each is a love letter. This form usually demands two authors, but it is possible to have a poet take on two personas. My somonka will be a love/hate letter to a film?) #Somonka #PoemReview

The pacifist attitude of a Quaker family is tested as a result of the American Civil War.The worst thing about this movie: the strange rear-projection during buggy scenes, although I will let it slide as a strange relic of the time. Best thing about the movie: Dorothy McGuire was cast as Cooper's wife after Wyler's choice, Katharine Hepburn, declined. Not only was McGuire very good, but it kept that useless hack Hepburn out of a good film.What I appreciate most is the story of the film's production. Writer Michael Wilson told HUAC in 1951, "I feel that this committee might take the credit, or part of it at least, for the fact that 'The Friendly Persuasion' was not produced, in view of the fact that it dealt warmly, in my opinion, with a peace-loving people." Although it took a couple years, a slight name change, and Wilson's name removed, the film did still come out.There were some other changes: "What happened to Wilson's pacifist script after Capra dropped it," notes film historian Joseph McBride, "reflected the political climate of the Cold War. When William Wyler directed the film for Allied Artists in 1956 as Friendly Persuasion, he had the story changed to make the Quaker youth (played by Anthony Perkins) become a killer. The Quakers in Wyler's version, as Pauline Kael observed, 'are there only to violate their convictions.' But some of the strength of Wilson's conception remains, as in a scene of a crippled Union Army officer respectfully challenging the steadfast Quakers about pacifism in their meeting house." I would like to have seen the stronger argument for pacifism...The film also received mild criticism for certain inaccurate portrayals of Quaker views, such as a misunderstanding that although Quakers disliked programmed music they did value individual original expressions of it; and in meetings, Bible passages are not read verbatim but speakers recite scripture from memory and express its meaning in their own words. Here is another thing I would have liked to see, a stronger and more accurate portrayal of Quakers. But the point was to pick a religious group that was anti-war, not necessarily be strict in the representation. So we must not be too harsh.

In 1862, in Southern Indiana, the Quakers Jess Birdwell (Gary Cooper), his wife and Minister Eliza (Dorothy McGuire), their teenage son Joshua (Anthony Perkins), their teenage daughter Mattie (Phyllis Love) and their young son Little Jess (Richard Eyer) live a peaceful life in their farm. Eliza opposes to the war and they follow the stringent principles of their religious sect. But when the rebel Southern troops threaten the Birdwell family and their friends and neighbors, Josh decides to go to the front to defend their lands and Jess has to take a position against the principles of the Quakers."Friendly Persuasion" is another masterpiece of William Wyler that tells the story of a Quaker family in Southern Indiana that is forced to fight to defend their lands. William Wyler makes a sensitive film and the story is never melodramatic or corny, having the right doses of humor, love and violence. The performances are outstanding and the forty year- old Dorothy McGuire is extremely beautiful in a strong role. The debut of Anthony Perkins in a feature could not be better. The smart goose Samantha is responsible for the most hilarious scenes. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): Not available on DVD or Blu-Ray