Friendly Persuasion (film)
Overview
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
film starring Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
, Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy Hackett McGuire was an American actress.-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse...
, Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
, Richard Eyer
Richard Eyer
Richard Ross Eyer is a former American child actor during the 1950s and 1960s who taught elementary school in the eastern Sierra city of Bishop in Inyo County until he retired in 2006. He is the older brother of Robert Eyer Richard Ross Eyer (born May 6, 1945, Santa Monica, California) is a former...
, Robert Middleton
Robert Middleton
Robert Middleton, born Samuel G. Messer , was an American film and television actor known for his large size and beetle-like brow. With a deep, booming voice, Middleton trained for a musical career at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
and Phyllis Love
Phyllis Love
Phyllis Love was an American theater and television actress.-Career:Throughout the 1950s she acted in Broadway productions and the occasional film. She won the Clarence Derwent Award in 1951 for her role in The Rose Tattoo. On television, she appeared principally in guest roles from 1950 until her...
. The screenplay was adapted by Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson (writer)
Michael Wilson was an Academy Award winning American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism....
from the 1945 novel The Friendly Persuasion
The Friendly Persuasion
The Friendly Persuasion is an American novel published in 1945 by Jessamyn West. It was adapted as the motion picture Friendly Persuasion in 1956...
by Jessamyn West
Jessamyn West (writer)
Mary Jessamyn West was an American Quaker who wrote numerous stories and novels, notably The Friendly Persuasion ....
, and was directed by William Wyler
William Wyler
William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...
. The film was originally released with no screenwriting credit
Credit (creative arts)
In general, the term credit in the artistic or intellectual sense refers to an acknowledgement of those who contributed to a work, whether through ideas or in a more direct sense.-Credit in the arts:...
because Wilson
Michael Wilson (writer)
Michael Wilson was an Academy Award winning American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism....
was on the Hollywood blacklist
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...
. His credit was restored in 1996.
The film tells the story of a pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
family in southern Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The father of the family is gradually converted to supporting the war.
The protagonist of the story is Jess Birdwell (Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
) the patriarch of the Birdwell family whose worldliness is forever coming in conflict with his being a Quaker.
Quotations
"Are you afraid to fight?"
"I often ask myself what I would do if I saw my family threatened... my wife and children's lives in danger"
"They're just humans like us"
"It's wrong to fight."
"I wonder what it feels like to die?"
"This is our home, we'll not leave it"
"If I'm going down... I'm going down fighting."
"Any man who kills innocent women and children is my enemy ... my mortal enemy!"
"Thee wants to get out and fight and give thee live for what thee believes. Anyone of us here is ready im sure to do that. But that's not what thee will be asked to do - no Josh. What thee'll be asked to do ... is to kill"
"Thou Shalt Not Kill!"