Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

NORDIC-2 Adapted from the 1964 Ken Kesey novel by John Gay ('Soldier Blue'), 'Sometimes a Great Notion' follows the struggles of the Stampers, a family of fiercely independent loggers on Oregon's central coast who are fighting to remain working in the midst of a local strike against a large timber corporation. Henry Fonda plays Henry Stamper, the ferocious family patriarch; Paul Newman (who also directed the film after Richard A. Colla left the project) is Henry, Jr. ("Hank"), the irascible eldest son; Richard Jaeckel is Joe Ben, the stolid second son; Michael Sarrazin is Leland, the prodigal third son; Lee Remick is (miscast as) Hank's neglected wife, Viv. As 'New York Times' film critic Vincent Canby wittily pointed out in a contemporary review, 'Sometimes a Great Notion' is "an example of a genre of action film that flourished in the 1930's in movies about tuna fisherman, bush pilots, high-wire repairmen and just about any physical pursuit you can think of with the possible exception of toll-taking, which (except on some thruways) lacks the necessary amount of danger." 'Variety' characterized the film as "a sort of contemporary 'western' in the timber territory." Indeed, 'Sometimes a Great Notion' might best be thought of as an extended episode of Bonanza with chainsaws; the emphasis is on old fashion family solidarity, rugged Americanism, and hyper-masculine prowess in a wilderness setting. Implicitly anti-union and anti-feminist, book and film express a reactionary, anachronistic ideology that augurs the retrogressive Age of Reagan still eight years away when it was released. Despite its unsavory politics, 'Sometimes a Great Notion' is an entertaining film with some highly memorable set pieces, e.g., Newman's Hank Stamper dismantling a union official's desk with a chainsaw; Jaeckel's Joe Ben pinned under a log and slowly drowning in a rising river, with Hank powerless to help; and the final, resounding image: Fonda's severed arm—middle finger extended—strapped to the Stampers' boat mast as a standard of everlasting defiance. Incidentally, book and film derive their titles from the 1936 Leadbelly song, "Goodnight Irene": Sometimes I live in the country/Sometimes I live in the town/Sometimes I get a great notion/To jump in the river and drown." 'Sometimes a Great Notion' was the first movie shown on HBO when it began broadcasting on November 8, 1972. VHS (1998).

Jim Retzer I consider Ken Kesey's novel to be one of the 10 best works of contemporary American fiction. There are fatal flaws in this attempt to bring it to the screen and there are triumphs in nuance because the screen writer was writing just a few years after Kesey wrote about the pressures and social dynamic that separated people born just a few years apart like Hank and Leland. Kesey devoted several pages to the difference between Leland and Hank. The screenwriter has the luxury of having Leland being asked, "What's with the hair?"His response. " It grows." Sums up what Kesey knew was happening and what everyone knew had happened by the time the movie was made.I give this movie an 8 because in every scene it is obvious that the actors read and loved the novel as much as I did.

dedalus-16 I saw this seventies movie for the first time last night. It must be one of the greats. The story line from Kesey's book, and the direction by Paul Newman are so closely woven and with such impact that there are times when one is left emotionally bare. There's not a fault in the casting,and the background of logging is nicely interwoven into the action bringing up surprise after surprise. The only flaw might be the glamorization of Lee Remick - I doubt that her character would show such a degree of grooming and cosmetic sophistication, but, as ever, Ms. Remick gives a performance that is impeccable. If awards were ever to come PaulNewman's way for direction and/or acting surely they should for this masterpiece.

gmacpherson-1 The scene in which Paul Newman is trying to keep Richard Jaeckel alive using mouth-to-mouth is one of the most haunting and memorable from that era's films (late 60s/early 70s; for my money, the true golden age of cinema). Here are some others I would compare it to: 1.) Oliver Reed vs. a pack of wolves in "The Trap". Reed's greatness as an actor was overshadowed by his off-screen, alcohol-induced antics, but watch him, outnumbered, terrified and enraged, fighting for his life in this scene - he was never better. 2.) The final slow-motion rodeo scene in J.W. Coop: Final score: Bull 1, Cliff Robertson 0. Still can't figure out how they filmed it - it looks like a snuff film. 3.) The opening 'frying pork chop' sequence from "Electra Glide In Blue". Flabbergasting and brilliant.