epat I've written before about the problems of reading a great book before seeing the movie. Year after year the literati kept waiting for & blathering about the long-anticipated "great American novel". Meanwhile Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion came & went without their realizing this was it - the most quintessentially American story ever told, a tale that goes straight to the heart of that stubborn independent streak that makes a man a man.I realize I'm rambling on about a book in a film review, but bear with me; knowing a little about the book helps understand why this movie's so damn good. No single movie could ever capture the breadth & depth of a 599-page book that interweaves generations of multi-hued characters to delineate who these people are, whose loins they sprang from & how they think. A mini-series would be hard pressed to cover it all. So of course, the first time I saw the film I was disappointed. But then again, I guess I expected to be.It was a tale well told tho, worth seeing again, & this time - the 3rd time I've watched it - I finally realized exactly how good a film it really is. Every aspect, from the cinematography to the casting, the dialog, the acting, right down to the corny country & western tune - with its mildly religious overtones - that opens & closes the film were exactly, perfectly, sublimely right. Who but Paul Newman could have played the indomitable hardnose Hank Stamper? No actor could have fit that role better. Henry Fonda was grand as cantankerous old Henry & Michael Sarazin - an underrated actor in my opinion - was excellent as the brooding younger son Leland. The characters were painstakingly true to the book & the tale was told without taking any but the most necessary of cinematic liberties. I did find myself wishing it was longer tho, but that's just because I didn't want it to end.

mmallon4 There is no over arching plot in Sometimes a Great Notion yet I was still engaged with the life of this family with their ongoing effort to try and make a living and their own family dilemmas all occurring among the beautiful forest scenery of Oregon. This is a man's movie reminiscent of the male bonding films from Howard Hawks such as Only Angels Have Wings and Tiger Shark.Henry Fonda plays a character called Henry so I like to imagine his interactions on set with Paul Newman occur just like they do in the movie. I've also often championed Henry Fonda's unsung abilities as a comedic actor and here he provides the film with some great moments of comic relief. Michael Sarrazin gives the most interesting performance though as the girly man Leeland Stamper who doesn't fit in with the rest of the men largely due to his long hair. There's a quiet confidence to his character though as he is unbothered by the remarks of the other men and eventfully wins their respect, by how? Winning a game of the ever manly sport of football.The logging scenes themselves are actually quite suspenseful, seeing men who are putting their lives in danger in order to make a living, you're expecting someone to get injured or killed at any time and that beings me to scene in the film which left the greatest impression on me. There are two death scenes towards the end of the film. First there's Henry Fonda's death which is sad, itself but that is but nothing compared to the death of Richard Jaeckel; I was thinking about this scene for days after watching the film and it's even more powerful watching it a second time as I'm waiting in dread for the scene to arrive. For starters the character is trapped under a log while the tide is slowly rising and he spends the whole time joking about it and when he is eventually submerged in water he can only stay alive thorough constant mouth to mouth resuscitation until help shows up to move the giant log. I can't imagine a more terrifying situation a person could be in; you can possibly get rescued and live but in order to do so you must remain completely calm; one mistake and you're a goner. This one of the most harrowing things I've ever seen in a film. I doubt I will ever see a more intense death scene or one so difficult to watch.

tieman64 Ken Kesey wrote "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in 1962, a novel which would later be adapted into a memorable film. Kesey's second novel, "Sometimes a Great Notion", would be published in 1964. Today some regard it as the quintessential Great American Novel. Paul Newman would direct an adaptation in 1971.Titled "Never Give An Inch" in some countries, Newman's adaptation starred Henry Fonda and Newman himself as heads of the Stamper family, a clan of wealthy Oregon loggers. They're rugged individualists, hard workers, deeply conservative and dislike hippies, communists, long haired big-city-folk and homosexuals. They also want to keep logging, much to the chagrin of other striking, unionising workers.Kesey's tale offered a perspective seldom found in art. Whilst most tales of its ilk focus on poor union workers who are persecuted by big, mean capitalists, "Sometimes a Great Notion" does the opposite. We're positioned inside the Stamper gang, who are habitually hounded by the unionists. Of course Kesey and Newman don't romanticise the Stampers – they're mockingly portrayed – but such a perspective nevertheless forces us to accept a certain logic. The Stampers are perfectly "rational" in acting in their own self-interests and in ignoring how their actions affect their wider community. Within the narrow confines of capitalist logic, their actions are wholly sound. What Kesey then does, though, is slowly question this logic and then outright advocate its rejection. By his tale's end, the Stamper family is thus violently torn apart precisely by its individualism, its rejection of the communal and its pursuit of individual gain. With no one to help them, various Stamper members then die in various absurd scenarios. Those who do survive, however, become even more entrenched in their views. We see this at the end of Newman's film, his character shrugging off the loss of his brother and father and becoming, instead, a kind of militant, super capitalist.Newman's film is much smaller than Kesey's novel, and ignores most of the novel's complexities and nuances. Newman is also a weak visualist, though the film's many logging sequences are excellent, perhaps because they were filled by a second unit crew. The film features an audacious, ten-or-so minute long "drowning" sequence.7.9/10 – Very interesting material, simplistically handled. Worth one viewing.

rgrant3700 The death scene involving the characters of Mr. Newman and Mr. Jaeckel was as moving and emotional as i have seen in 70 years of watching films. Others have stated that this film fails to live up to the novel by Ken Kesey. On its own merit this reviewer takes under consideration the fine ensemble acting and the rich photography to make this film memorable. Lee Remick, because of her talent, always turns in a believable performance. This movie is being featured on some movie channels this weekend, so i strongly recommend it to viewers. Its important to note the direction of Paul Newman. This is one his earliest directorial efforts.