Ken Kesey’s classic Sometimes a Great Notion is arguably the great novel about the Pacific Northwest; it’s also a damn good movie. Knockout performances from Paul Newman and Henry Fonda are highlights in this chronicle of a family logging business determined to withstand the encroaching union.
“Never give a inch!” is the Stamper family motto, and this is a film full of (stubbornly) manly men with (desperately) gritted teeth.
Obviously, no movie could ever approach the scope of Kesey’s tome, but in atmosphere and characterization, this 1970 film is pretty spot-on. It’s a time capsule of a way of life and image of masculinity that were already dying in the 1970s and have faded to distant memories in the 2010s.
Sometimes A Great Notion plays nightly at 6:30 and 8:45 at the Grand Illusion through Thursday night.
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Those look like people from a Hilfiger ad.
Do yourself a favor and read the book. As a side note, I believe it payed for the “bus” memorialized in “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid test.” It's a wonderfully dark story. It always comes back to me on a dark rainy day on the coast.
Do yourself a favor and read the book. As a side note, I believe it payed for the “bus” memorialized in “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid test.” It's a wonderfully dark story. It always comes back to me on a dark rainy day on the coast.