Starring Jimmy Stewart and a bevy of other fine actors, this Civil War era film is a dramatic portrait of a strong family seeking to survive as the war "that's no concern to them" draws to a close.
Beautifully filmed, Netflix describes it as a "four-hankie weeper and one of the best melodramas to come out of Hollywood during the 1960s."
Their description is a little "melodramatic" - it's a powerful film with powerful acting - the music is likely what gives the feel of melodrama - if this were being done today, the music would clearly be moodier and the color not so musical-like bright.
The film reminds me of "Legends of the Fall" and "A River Runs Through It."
Jimmy Stewart is a tough man, widowed 16 years earlier when Martha dies in childbirth. He's not a religious man, but takes the family to church and offers prayer before the meal because Martha made him promise.
His prayer is a celebration of self-reliance:
LORD, we cleared this land, we plowed it, sowed it and harvested, we cooked the harvest, it wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be eatin’ it, if we hadn’t done it all our selves. We worked dog-boned hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, LORD, for this food we’re about to eat. Amen.”
At the end, having lost two sons and a daughter-in-law, and possibly his youngest, he prays much the same prayer at a meal … but can’t finish it. He leaves the table and goes to the graveyard where his children and wife are buried. While "talking" to Martha, wishing he knew what she was thinking … the church bell rings, and he looks away and says, “You never give up, do you?” Sunday morning, he rings a bell and gathers the family … "thought you’d get away with it … get my carriage," and they all go to church, walking in late as usual. During the service, the youngest boy walks in, having escaped from a Union prison encampment; Charlie gets to his feet to greet and hug the boy; they return to their pew … the pastor invites the congregation to stand and they sing the Doxology, and Charlie Anderson joins in.
I'm utterly blown away by Jimmy Stewart - his fatherly inquiry as to why a young man (Doug McClure) seeks his daughter's hand is nothing less than brilliant - hats off to the writer, and to Stewart for delivering these lines as only a father/husband could. He makes a brilliant distinction between love and like - like is what leads to love; but love without like is deadly.
A bit later, Stewart gives fatherly advice to the young man soon to marry his daughter about the mysteries of a woman; the scene shifts to the bedroom where the bride-to-be is receiving counsel about the mysteries of men from her sister-in-law.
This is a film worth seeing multiple times: the script is powerful, Stewart and everyone else is fully engaged in the story, and for a film that celebrates human endurance in the face of adversity, this is a winner.
