stations of the cross ( german : kreuzweg ) is a 2014 german drama film directed by dietrich brüggemann .

the film had its premiere in the competition section of the 64th berlin international film festival , where it won the silver bear for best script .

stations of the cross ( film )

' stations of the cross ' press conference - 64th berlinale inte . . .
' stations of the cross ' premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale . . .
dietrich brueggemann attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) press . . .
and anna brueggemann attend the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival . . .
franziska weisz attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) press conference . . .
anna brueggemann attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) press conference . . .
franziska weisz attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th . . .
florian stetter and franziska weisz attend the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) . . .
lea van acken attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) press conference . . .
lea van acken and florian stetter in “stations of the cross , ” directed by dietrich brüggemann .
franziska weisz and florian stetter attend ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) . . .
lea van acken attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th . . .
franziska weisz attends ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the . . .
monika gruetters attends ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the . . .
dieter kosslick attends ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the . . .
anna brueggemann attend ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the . . .
moritz knapp attends ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the 64th . . .
stations of the cross is a german drama about a fourteen year old girl from a strict catholic family .
moritz knapp , lucie aron and guest attends ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) . . .
indoctrination lies at the heart of stations of the cross , the bold , new film from german filmmaker dietrich brüggemann . simplistic in form , the film utilises fourteen breathtaking , unbroken shots that unfold within the boundaries of the fourteen stations of the cross , traditionally a central , expressive narrative of catholicism in which christ is nailed to the cross which is here re - positioned into the slow unravelling of a young teenage mind caught at an involuntary crossroads .
dietrich brüggemann ' s disturbing drama premiered at the berlin international film festival and is divided into 14 parts , often pale , minimalist tableaux , for the 14 stations of the cross .
franziska weisz attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
stations of the cross is a quiet film , deep in content and profoundly critical of the catholic church ' s culture of repression that misguides young minds by limiting their senses and curtailing their experiences .
lea van acken attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
franziska weisz attends ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
monika gruetters attends ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
moritz knapp attends ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
dieter kosslick attends ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
anna brueggemann attend ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
franziska weisz attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
dietrich brueggemann attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
anna brueggemann attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
lea van acken attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
, anna brueggemann and birge schade attend the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , . . .
franziska weisz and florian stetter attend ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
florian stetter and franziska weisz attend the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
jochen laube , anna brueggemann and dietrich brueggemann attend ' stations of the . . .
jochen laube , lea van acken and dietrich brueggemann attend the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
moritz knapp , lucie aron and guest attends ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
‘utterly convincing’ : newcomer lea van acken as maria with florian stetter as father weber , a priest offering ‘opportunities for sacrifice’ in stations of the cross .
jochen laube , lea van acken and dietrich brueggemann attend the ' stations of the . . .
florian stetter , franziska weisz and lea van acken attend the ' stations of the . . .
, lucie aron , anna brueggemann and birge schade attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , . . .
jochen laube , anna brueggemann and dietrich brueggemann attend ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere - audi at the 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
in stations of the cross , dietrich bruggeman perfectly matches the austerity of the family at the center of the story with his filmmaking . there is one camera movement in the film’s entirety , coming at the very end . each scene is a single take , representing one of the fourteen titular stations that tell the story of jesus’ trial and crucifixion . importantly , none of those stations are jesus’ supposed resurrection , contrasting the joyful , rejuvenative aspects of christianity with the snuff film that is the passion . this suffering forms the backbone of the fundamentalist catholic family that the film revolves around . the brutal form of religious fervor on display makes for a difficult and painful film to watch , as the lead character moves closer and closer to a meaningless end . b +
florian stetter , franziska weisz and lea van acken attend the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) press conference during 64th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
the film highlights catholic eucharistic sensibilities by presenting the last supper , not chronologically before the garden of gethsemane , but in flashback intercut with the crucifixion itself . this juxtaposition of the crucifixion and the last supper reflects the catholic dogma that the mass , along with the cross , is a true sacrifice , and the sacrifice of the altar and of the cross are one .
part of essential films to watch part of a film a day keeps the doctor away v . ii
lucie aron , lea van acken , franziska weisz , anna brueggemann and birge schade attend the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
franziska weisz , lea van acken , lucie aron , anna brueggemann and birge schade attends the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
as maria crumples before our eyes , many will find “stations of the cross” heartbreaking and infuriating . others may laugh out loud at her mother , a walking nightmare of pious , punishing rectitude .
all of these films challenge us to think more clearly and feel more deeply about life , death , fear , and faith . now stations of the cross joins this small circle of recent significant spiritual films .
fourteen stages of jesus carrying the cross to his crucifixion are depicted in christianity and fourteen perfectly paced long takes directed by dietrich bruggeman , tell the story of a young girl indoctrinated into a fundamentalist system . stations of the cross is a wonderful example of european cinema at its finest , articulate , restrained and quietly powerful .
but it doesn’t stop with backlash within the believing world . nor is gibson’s film the first work of christian art to be accused of excessive morbidity . similar charges could be found against such devotional exercises as the way of the cross ( or stations of the cross ) and the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary , which involve prolonged contemplation of the specifics of christ’s suffering and death . even the observance of good friday , or the display of a simple crucifix , has been viewed with suspicion and hostility by some both inside and outside the faith .
stations of the cross belongs among the decade ' s best films about the lengths one must go to in order to balance strong beliefs with a tolerance toward a secular world that fights against those beliefs .
there are three ways to look at the german director dietrich brüggemann ’s “ stations of the cross , ” an austere , beautifully filmed and powerfully acted portrait of extreme religious fervor that slyly flirts with comedy .
brüggemann achieved such suffocating , yet calm atmosphere through his episodic - like narrative . the film is cleverly inspired from the real stations of the cross , and with its 14 one - long take segments , the film expose the ills of how people clearly abuses religion and put such burden to these innocent , young individuals . and at the core is maria ( parallels jesus christ ) who is the clear victim of being…
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
it may seem strange to think of the traditionalist gibson alluding to scorsese’s notoriously controversial film , the last major jesus film before the passion of the christ . however , the passion does seem to be consciously aware of the earlier film . ( jeffrey overstreet of christianitytoday . com , among others , has noted that the soundtrack is overtly reminiscent of last temptation ’s peter gabriel score . )
these 14 one shot vignettes mirroring the 14 stations of the cross chronicle a young girl in the fundamentalist roman catholic society of st . pius x ( renamed society of st . paul for the film ) and her desire to sacrifice herself to god as a saint . the scenes are very talkative and their unblinking one shot methods are quite an endurance test , but i found the film to be powerful and captivating , reminiscent of von trier ' s breaking the waves .
the film’s structure , following the dolorous passion of our lord jesus christ by venerable sr . anne catherine emmerich , one of the screenplay’s sources , combines two popular traditional catholic devotions : the 14 stations of the cross and the five sorrowful mysteries of the rosary . every mystery and every station is there , in order — including one event drawn entirely from tradition , st . veronica wiping the lord’s face .
berlin - - a german teenage girl struggles with questions of life , death and faith in stations of the cross ( kreuzweg ) , director dietrich brueggemann ’s remarkable and formally rigorous arthouse item that’s closely modeled on the via crucis .
in the end , the formalism of
stations of the cross
wouldn ' t work at all without the work of van acken , a very talented young lady who ' s not only in every scene , she ' s often all there is to every scene .
a sense of humor is the last thing one expects in a dour german drama about the dangers of fanatical catholicism , but thankfully helmer dietrich brueggemann and his sister anna inject a touch of deliberate silliness into their script for “stations of the cross , ” somewhat lightening the heavy load . otherwise , this rigorously reproving pic is as preachy as the alarming tenets it rather too easily explodes . divided into the 14 stations of the cross , all but three consisting of a single fixed shot , the film plays into the expectations of religiophobes who will praise its stiffness while ignoring its obviousness . a sanctified fest life is assured , along with decent arthouse biz .
lucie aron , florian stetter , jochen laube , lea van acken , birge schade , dietrich brueggemann , franziska weisz and anna brueggemann attend the ' stations of the cross ' ( kreuzweg ) premiere during 64th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palast on february 9 , 2014 in berlin , germany .
the actress , who was awarded the silver bear for best actress for playing the role of anna in thomas vinterberg ' s kollektivet and the director of the winning film fuocoammare .
the members of the international jury 2012 and the host on the stage of the berlinale palast .
rarely do i see a film that i can genuinely list as an important film . i ' ve let this film sink in for over a day , and it still proves to be spellbinding experience . stations of the cross told in fourteen distinctly unique shots , analyzes the extents to which individuals practice religion , a topic which has dominated the current event news of recent years . in theory , religion provides a sense of unification and gathering amongst a group of people . but , in practice , due to absolutist and extremist interpretations of religion , there are…
, although enthusiastic commentators have suggested that the real brutality of jesus’ passion exceeded that of the film , that gibson actually toned down the violence in his depiction , realistically this is very likely an inversion of the truth . certainly jesus’ redemptive suffering exceeded what any film could depict , but in terms of actual physical violence the real scourging at the pillar could hardly have been as extreme as the film version .
during the last week of spring term , years 5 and 6 joined pupils from st joseph’s , highfield for a joint celebration of the traditional catholic lenten liturgy , the stations of the cross , in st agnes’ church . as ever , it was a very moving and thoughtful service of readings , drama and music .
the director had fun at the press conference of his film . as jury president he does not want to criticize but to cherish the films of his colleagues .
silver bear for best actress : nina hoss for her yella in christian petzold ' s film of the same title .
to understand the brutality of gibson’s passion within the film’s own redemptive context , one must begin a full hour before the first blow at the pillar falls , in the opening scene in the garden of gethsemane .
a sense of humor is the last thing one expects in a dour german drama about the dangers of fanatical catholicism , but thankfully helmer dietrich brueggemann and his sister anna inject a touch of deliberate silliness into their script for “stations of the cross , ” somewhat lightening the heavy load . otherwise , this rigorously reproving pic is [ … ]
the third way to view “stations of the cross” is as a provocative straight - faced comedy in the mode of “ paradise : faith , ” the satire by the austrian director ulrich seidl . ms . weisz’s genuinely scary portrayal of wrathful , unhinged puritanism bordering on madness may make some cynics howl with laughter at its campy excess .
the significance of genesis 3 : 15 for the passion of the christ doesn’t end with the opening scene . it can also be seen , less strikingly but more pervasively , in the film’s approach to mary the mother of jesus .
in its most extreme form , the charge of morbidity has been laid at the feet of the christian faith itself . christianity’s harshest critics denounce it as
a religion of death .
clearly , at some point objections of this sort must be regarded as a case in point of what the scriptures call the
scandal
of the cross . it is the cross itself , the very suffering and dying of god made man , and the way christians respond to this event in their faith and devotion , that is behind much ( though again not all ) of the religious and anti - religious controversy over the brutality of this particular film .
it is also possible , although extremely far - fetched , to see “stations of the cross” as a genuinely religious work exalting self - deprivation in pursuit of eternal life . each of the film’s 14 scenes was filmed in a single take and illustrates a different station in a traditional roman catholic sequence of images depicting jesus on the day of his crucifixion . the movie throws a crumb to true believers in what appears to be a miracle wrought by maria near the end of the movie . or is it just a sarcastic tease ?
crucially , although the film invites us to view the wasting torments of its heroine as a form of institutionalised child abuse , german co - writer anna brüggemann and her director brother , dietrich , are careful not to be doctrinal . those wishing to find perverse evidence of transcendence will not be thwarted – like lars von trier’s breaking the waves ( a movie i detest ) , stations of the cross appears to acknowledge the miraculous , even as it descends into hell on earth .
the most important awards at the berlinale are the golden bear and the silver bears . they are presented by the international jury to films in the competition and belong to the most renowned awards in the international film industry .
divided into 14 chapters that carry the names of the stations ( jesus is condemned to death , jesus carries his cross… ) , the film chronicles the tough spot that 14 - year - old protagonist maria - - what’s in a name ? - - finds herself in as she prepares for her confirmation and tries to follow the rules and live up to the impossible expectations set by her priest and her family , who belong to the extremely strict ( fictitious ) society of st . paul congregation .
but clearly some of the accusations thrown at the film might as well be directed against christian belief and practice as well .
watching it is an act of self - flagellation ,
fumes one film critic . well , what if it is ? mortification of the flesh has a long and venerable history in christian spirituality .
however , critics who condemn the film without recognizing its basis in western sacred art and spiritual tradition are condemning what they don’t understand . criticisms about the film’s general lack of well - developed characterizations and exaggerated stereotypes , for example , miss the point as much as those that object to the violence .
the original dvd edition of the passion of the christ was a “bare bones” edition featuring only the film itself . this week’s two - disc “definitive edition” is packed with extras , from the passion recut ( which trims about six minutes of some of the most intense violence ) to four separate commentaries .
but the catholic significance of the passion of the christ for the evangelical community goes beyond mere identification of the gospel with the catholic tradition . as non - catholics watch the film , they will begin to sense , permeating the gospel of grace they know and love , a sensibility at work that may at first seem strange to them .
for starters , stations is just an astonishingly well made film . the central conceit is that maria’s week is depicted in 14 scenes – one for each of the stations – and each scene is just one shot . to contextualise that , if you think about any conversation you see in a film , there are at the very least three angles , one for each face and one showing both of them , and the scene will continually cut between them . any scene in a film is made up of several shots edited together to give an impression of a coherent progression , and allows the director to choose exactly which part of the action you see . in recent years , big budget cinema has often taken this to extremes by cutting every two seconds during action sequences so you can’t tell what’s happening . the opposite is something like hitchcock’s rope , which looks like it is all just one shot , or russian ark , which actually is all one shot . stations , then , is unusual in its pacing and form , and while it may tax those whose minds wander during a 30 minute sermon , the formal , measured approach of the 14 shots lends the film real power .
these marian themes , along with the divine mercy allusion in the piercing of christ’s side , are just two aspects of a strongly catholic spirituality that pervades the film . in this connection , one of the most interesting aspects of the film’s reception is how eagerly it has been embraced by non - catholic christians who in many cases might otherwise be disposed to respond to such catholic ideas and sensibilities with suspicion or hostility .
special features on the dvd include a director ' s commentary , why we selected , and short film ,
one shot .
not that the passion of the christ is an anti - protestant tract . far from it . the film focuses to a great extent on what unites christians , not what divides us . its central theme — the belief that the son of god for our salvation suffered and was crucified , died and was buried , and rose from the dead — is shared by catholic and non - catholic christians . protestant believers witnessing the film will in large measure see their own faith reflected in it , and will rightly regard the film as an affirmation of their own beliefs .
this detached quality is further reinforced by filming each chapter in a single take , something brueggemann already experimented with in his debut film , neun szenen , and by not moving the camera except at just a handful of key moments . this lends a stilted quality to alexander sass ’s photography that invites audiences to examine the images as if they were indeed stations of the cross on a church wall that could impart important ( if not entirely unambiguous ) moral lessons , which seems entirely appropriate .
as stations of the cross so vividly demonstrates , the theological understanding that separates humans from god is one that contends that the world itself is a dog - eat - dog place ruled by demonic powers ; it therefore can bring only suffering and pain . wendell berry reacted to this understanding in this way :
perhaps the greatest disaster of human history is one that happened to or within religion : that is the conceptual division between the holy and the world , the excerpting of the creator from creation .
the point here is not that one necessarily has to be familiar with catholic devotional art in order to grasp the heart of the meaning of the passion of the christ . viewers who have appreciated the film include non - catholics , non - christians , non - religious viewers , even agnostics and atheists .
while the film ' s craftsmanship and experimental form go some way toward mitigating the convenient plotting and confused point of view , wrapping the whole in craw - sticking sanctimony is a sin too far for forgiveness .
the two rays denote blood and water . the pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous . the red ray stands for the blood which is the life of souls . these two rays issued forth from the depths of my tender mercy when my agonized heart was opened by a lance on the cross… happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter , for the just hand of god shall not lay hold of him .
his chillingly austere tale of a young woman driven toward self - destruction by an oppressively stringent religious upbringing offers a piercing examination of the interplay between fundamental dogma and family dysfunction , spiritual sacrifice and societal self - harm . presented with ritual formality as a series of static camera tableaux chaptered according to the stations of the cross , this boasts a defining aesthetic as rigidly constrained as the orthodoxies it portrays . yet within the theatrical space of its extended takes , the cast find space to live and breathe with a naturalism that packs a hefty emotional punch .
it doesn’t take a religious scholar to recognize that the first shot of stations of the cross has been framed to vaguely resemble leonardo da vinci’s the last supper . vaguely , because there are seven figures instead of a baker’s dozen , and some of them are facing inward instead of outward . but the familiar arrangement and nature of the imagery—disciplines gathered around a holy man at a table—is unmistakable . the holy man , in this case , is a catholic priest delivering his final lesson to a group of young students on the brink of confirmation . as it will quickly become clear , however , he is not the christ figure in the room , despite his prominent placement at the center of the table and frame . that role belongs instead to the pale , quiet girl sitting to his right , intently absorbing his stern parting lecture on her responsibility to the church and the slippery slope to damnation . over the hundred or so minutes that follow , she’ll have her own cross to bear , the heavy sense of spiritual duty she shoulders on the road to martyrdom .
there’s also the way the film presents jesus’ last words to his mother and the beloved disciple from the cross —
woman , behold your son… son , behold… your mother
— with that meaningful pause before the last two words . add to this the way peter early on refers to mary as
mother ,
and it’s clear that the passion holds up mary as a mother figure to all jesus’ disciples .
told in fourteen fixed - angle , single shot , individual tableaus that parallel christ ' s journey to his own crucifixion , stations of the cross is both an indictment of fundamentalist faith and the articulation of an impressionable teen ' s struggle to find her own path in life . though from the outside maria lives in the modern world , her family and her heart are faithful to a catholic radicalism that requires sacrifice and devotion at every turn . as she struggles to balance her own desires with the dictates of her family ' s faith , she makes ever more perilous sacrifices , attempting to please a god she worships unquestioningly in the pious hopes of curing the autistic younger brother she adores . ( c ) film movement
well , let’s rewind a bit , and start with both the plot and an egregious name drop . stations of the cross – an award winning german drama that is unlikely to hit your multiplex any time soon – tells the story of a girl , maria , who develops unhealthy ideas about god after buying into the dogmatic teachings of her sect of catholicism , the society of st pius xii . it follows her in the week leading up to her confirmation as she deals with guilt , ostracism and ill health because of these ideas . it’s a display of legalism so destructive the pharisees would blush , embodied in particular by maria’s mother and priest . yet the director , dietrich brüggemann , assured me that it wasn’t an anti religious film , saying that religion is only destructive “if you take it too seriously . ” yet the chances are that if you read thinktheology , you take your faith pretty seriously . so what do we make of a film where the church is clearly villainous ? and why do i consider this apparent attack on christianity to be one of the best films of the year ?
reviewed at berlin film festival ( competing ) , feb . 9 , 2014 . running time : 110 min . original title : “kreuzweg”
this complete opposition of mary and satan is evoked in an imaginative and poetic way in the passion of the christ in a number of scenes . one such moment occurs as jesus carries his cross through the midst of the crowd , with mary anxiously following him on one side and the tempter on the other side , mirroring and thus opposing her . another takes place during the scourging at the pillar , as satan manifests himself in a vision that amounts to a hideous parody of images of the madonna and child .
the passion of the christ has been widely hailed by non - catholic christians as an evangelistic tool . in light of the film’s catholic themes , there might be said to be a sense in which evangelicals and fundamentalists themselves are also among those being evangelized .
while the story is more extreme than most of us are likely to experience , stations perfectly portrays the way false teaching can have destructive influences . maria – played with astonishing nuance by lea van acken – does not start out with the anxieties and beliefs that she ends the films with . it is over the course of the 14 stations that a spirit of legalism enters her thinking like the grain of yeast that jesus warned about in matthew 16 . a graceless scolding by her irate mother here , and a guilt - laden confession there , all leavening her thinking until the meaning of the cross is lost behind the idea that she can save herself – and others . it’s also a warning against those of us who are more prone to think like her mother or priest . it’s not pointing the camera at a christian and saying ‘aren’t they silly ? ’ instead , it follows the journey of a girl who is tragically misguided , and asks the question of how she got to that place . ultimately , the film is as compassionate as it is critical , balancing the anger with a humanity that , while never really warm , makes the audience care about the characters and leaves them with a mustard seed’s amount of hope .
the main action in the passion of the christ consists of a man being horrifically beaten , mutilated , tortured , impaled , and finally executed . the film is grueling to watch — so much so that some critics have called it offensive , even sadistic , claiming that it fetishizes violence . pointing to similar cruelties in gibson’s earlier films , such as the brutal execution of william wallace in braveheart , critics allege that the film reflects an unhealthy fascination with gore and brutality on gibson’s part .
the form of the film is inextricably tied to the questions it is asking , and stations is immensely important because of it . brüggemann was right when he said it is not an attack on religion ; it’s far more complex than that . the film makes it clear that maria’s experience is not representative of christianity as a whole , setting her apart even from the other catholics in her town . yet her questions are similar to those asked by anyone of faith : how to respond to sin and guilt ; the relationship between sickness and god’s healing ; what it means to “take up your cross . ” at the very least it is simply refreshing to see cinema that tackles complex questions in mature ways , and treats faith as something worthy of exploring beyond a comedy sidekick or a bigoted villain . beyond that , however , the frank discussions of deep theological issues should cause us to confront our own ideas , particularly the way legalism can creep into our lives .
gibson’s point in depicting the roman soldier ( who is identified with the chastened centurion traditionally called longinus who declared jesus to be son of god and whose subsequent conversion is the subject of the film the robe ) showered in the blood and water from christ’s side is the same as st . faustina’s in saying
happy is the one who will dwell in the shelter
of the red and white rays that represent that same blood and water .
this opening image of satan there in the garden , tempting jesus , the second adam , recalls another scene from the opening chapters of the scriptures , the temptation of the first adam in another garden , eden . gibson even uses a literal serpent , strengthening the genesis 3 resonance — and also , perhaps , alluding to what is probably the only other film to use a literal serpent in depicting christ being tempted , namely , the last temptation of christ .
like the angels ( and demons ) which legendarily attend the sick and the dying , a number of movies float like spectral apparitions around stations of the cross . although comparisons with carl dreyer seem apposite ( and bruno dumont’s 2009 hadewijch makes an intriguing companion piece ) , i was more acutely reminded of the heart - breaking horrors of hans - christian schmid’s 2006 requiem , which presented a bleak portrait of a young woman whose conflicted faith leads her to believe that she is possessed by demons . as with its gaudy hollywood counterpart the exorcism of emily rose , schmid’s movie was inspired by the real - life case of the “possessed” anneliese michel , a tragic figure whose long shadow stretches ( via the remote romanian wilds of cristian mungiu’s comparable beyond the hills ) across this similarly unsettling yet deeply compassionate piece .
the only solace this sensitive teenager has is taking care of johannes and being comforted by bernadette ( lucie aron ) , the french au pair . dealing with her mother ' s harsh attacks on her is a modern - day example of the troubling ways in which someone can carry a cross .
directed by dietrich brüggemann ; written by anna brüggemann and mr . brüggemann ; director of photography , alexander sass ; edited by vincent assmann ; costumes by bettina marx ; produced by jochen laube ; released by film movement . in german , with english subtitles . running time : 1 hour 47 minutes . this film is not rated .
as imagined here , jesus’ agony in the garden harkens back to two earlier events in salvation history : the temptation in the wilderness , and the garden of eden . the agony in the garden and the temptation in the wilderness are the two ordeals at either end of christ’s public ministry in which he was ministered to by angels , but gibson’s film , like other recent dramatizations ( e . g . , the miracle maker ) , omits the angels , instead depicting satan returning to tempt jesus , testing him on the eve of his passion just as he did at the outset of his public ministry .
a thought - provoking and profoundly disturbing film that exposes the harmful side of religion and faith , directed with a noteworthy formal rigor in mostly static long takes and with a skillful mise - en - scène that underlines the overwhelming pressure that the protagonist is living under .
in recent years , festival director dieter kosslick has invited internationally recognised personalities from the world of film such as james schamus , wong kar wai , mike leigh , isabella rossellini , werner herzog , tilda swinton , darren aronofsky , meryl streep and paul verhoeven to head the seven - member jury . jury members include directors , actresses and actors as well as producers , but also writers and artists . one of the festive highpoints of every berlinale is the presentation of the bears on the penultimate day of the festival .
as i contemplate mel gibson’s the passion of the christ , the sequence i keep coming back to , again and again , is the scourging at the pillar .
maria is 14 years old . her family is part of a fundamentalist catholic community . maria lives her everyday life in the modern world , yet her heart belongs to jesus . she wants to follow him , to become a saint and go to heaven - just like all those holy children she ' s always been told about . so maria goes through 14 stations , just like jesus did on his path to golgatha , and reaches her goal in the end . not even christian , a boy she meets at school , can stop her , even if in another world , they might have become friends , or even more . left behind is a broken family that finds comfort in faith , and the question if all these events were really so inevitable . stations of the cross is an indictment and , at the same time , the legend of a saint . it ' s a story of religion , devotion and radical faith , and the film itself comes along just as radical as the subject matter , telling the story in only 14 fixed - angle long shots , allowing the viewer to contemplate the interactions on screen in an . . .
the iconoclastic danish filmmaker lars von trier has stated that
all good cinema should be
like a stone in your shoe .
certainly breaking the waves is an example of his practicing what he preaches . john michael mcdonagh ' s calvary is another film that raises more questions than it answers as it circles around a priest whose life and ministry are in jeopardy . of gods and men is a deeply human french film about the mission and sacrifice of seven catholic monks in algeria whose lives are threatened by fundamentalists .
“i’m telling you that thing upstairs is not my daughter , ” says chris macneil in the exorcist , a film that offered a reassuringly archaic portrait of good and evil during a time of secular uncertainty and strife . here , that template is turned upon its head , the holy ghost ( rather than the demon pazuzu ) wafting its unhealing wings over the body of a child , leaving adults to squabble about the definition of deity and audiences to decide whether or not they hear the voice of god .
take a scene that is one of the film’s most inspired yet least observed moments , the centurion piercing the dead christ’s side with a lance , releasing a flow of blood and water . in other depictions , the blood and water are often shown trickling or oozing down his side . gibson , though , depicts a spray of blood and water gushing from christ’s side and showering down on the startled centurion .
as the film moves from station to station , it becomes increasingly clear that the strict rules and expectations are a heavy burden for maria , who wants to do the right thing and longs to be close to god but who cannot deny she has desires of her own . brueggemann , who wrote the screenplay with his sister , anna , beautifully suggests how religion can offer a crutch or comfort in hard times but at the same time can be suffocating any kind of personal growth , which is especially problematic for a teenager . the siblings’ own religious upbringing no - doubt influenced the careful and very realistic way in which the material is treated , with the film never outright condemning religion but instead coolly observing the devastating results of simply following the rules imposed by religion to the letter .
keen eyed observers of cinema will have noticed that films this year have been especially critical of religion . john michael mcdonagh’s calvary showed a priest unable to answer the soul - searching questions that his community asked of faith , with an undercurrent of anger against the paedophilia scandal that has rocked the catholic church . andrei zvyagintsev’s leviathan was both an exposé of the corrupt links between the russian orthodox church and putin’s politics , and a meditation on suffering for which the church seemingly has no answers . like stations of the cross , they are upsetting , sometimes difficult films to watch , and yet all three will inevitably feature in my top 10 of 2014 . films that view faith as legalistic , corrupt and helpless in the face of suffering can be difficult for christians to watch , and these films certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste . yet this is important cinema , not only because it reveals the anger and urgency of questions that people are asking , but because it is some of europe’s most inventive and creative minds asking them .
gibson’s archetypal characterizations , from the senselessly brutal laughter of the almost orc - like centurions to the implacable hostility of the jewish elders , are in the same tradition as the archetypal and grotesque figures in the sometimes graphically violent sacred art of , for example , matthias grünewald , hieronymus bosch , and pieter bruegel the elder . ( the pbs documentary the face [ jesus in art ] , partly narrated by gibson , includes a segment on the historic portrayal of christ’s sufferings that may prove enlightening to critics who missed the intervening 2000 years between the gospel accounts and the passion of the christ . )
for gibson , mary and satan are antithetical , opposed images , reflecting the total opposition of wills , the
enmity
that exists between the immaculate conception and the enemy of mankind .
to the extent that the film is a call to conversion , though , it is a call to everyone , catholic and non - catholic , believer and nonbeliever . to those who believe , catholic or otherwise , the passion of the christ invites us to a deeper commitment to our lord jesus christ , and a deeper participation in the paschal mystery of his passion , death , and resurrection .
i read a review you wrote in the national catholic register about mel gibson’s film apocalypto . i thoroughly enjoy reading the register and from time to time i will brouse through your movie reviews to see what you have to say about the content of recent films , opinions i usually not only agree with but trust .
many will avoid this film for religious reasons , which would be a shame , because in the end it is not so much about religion ( in this case , conservative catholics in germany ) as childhood , innocence and idealism , and the psychopathology of mental cruelty . maria is a devout catholic awaiting confirmation and like many young adolescents , deeply idealistic and principled . this would be fine but she has a cruel , controlling mother ( whose motivation is shockingly revealed at the end ) , and the combination is deadly . it is engrossing and heartbreaking and not completely implausible . one wonders whether the director is being autobiographical but it will be a revelation to many that catholic orthodoxy of this kind still prevails in parts of rural germany . the film ' s other triumph is that it never judges , only observes , so there is nothing to offend a conservative catholic here . that won ' t stop anti - christian elements seeing the film as a denunication of religion , of course .
to some viewers , this shot may have looked like no more than a burst of gratuitous gore , just another moment of maximized violence drama from a violence - obsessed director . that the image was not gibson’s invention — it comes from one of his inspirational sources , the visionary writings of venerable anne catherine emmerich — may not much mend matters , since many critics of gibson’s film are as suspicious of traditional catholic piety and of anne catherine emmerich in particular as of gibson , and in any case may still be unable to see spiritual meaning in what seems a gratuitously gory image .
these establishing lines , delivered in the opening scene , provide key context for the rest of the film . first , jesus means to take upon himself the weight or burden of our sins . second , this will prove to be a hideous ordeal . third , he accepts this ordeal out of love for us — that is , he rejects the tempter’s suggestion that mankind is
not worth this
; to him , manifestly , we are . this is the context in which every subsequent blow , every laceration , every fall of the hammer must be seen .
other critics , including some christians , have gone still further , charging not only gibson but certain forms of christian piety with a morbid obsession with blood and death . for example , writing before the film’s release in 2003 , then - evangelical writer michael coren commented :
the temptation scene also serves to establish the meaning , the purpose and goal , of everything that follows . ironically , just as the temptations in the wilderness implicitly bear witness to christ’s divinity (
if you are the son of god…
) , so here it’s the tempter’s insinuations that indicate the nature of jesus’ mission :
do you think you can bear the weight of the world’s sins ? they aren’t worth this . the burden is too great . no man can bear it .
however , your recent review of apocalypto was way off the mark . first of all the gore of mel gibson’s films are only to make them more realistic , and if you think that is too much , then you don’t belong watching a movie that can actually acurately show the suffering that people go through . the violence of the ancient mayans can make your stomach turn just reading about it , and all gibson wanted to do was accurately portray it . it would do you good to read up more about the ancient mayans and you would discover that his film may not have even done justice itself to the kind of suffering ancient tribes went through at the hands of their hostile enemies .
to understand the real meaning of the image , it is useful to compare it with a well - known image in catholic devotional iconography , the well - known divine mercy image , based on the visions of st . faustina helena kowalska , which depicts christ with rays of red and white light emanating from his side . here is the explanation of the red and white rays from faustina’s own account of christ’s words in the vision :


sometimes a great notion ( a.k.a. never give a inch ) is a 1970 american drama film directed by paul newman and starring newman , henry fonda , michael sarrazin and lee remick .

the cast also includes richard jaeckel in an academy award-nominated performance .

the screenplay by john gay is based on the 1964 novel of the same title by ken kesey , the first of his books to be adapted for the screen .

filmed in the summer of 1970 , it was released that new year 's eve .

sometimes a great notion ( film )

the 1971 film “sometimes a great notion” remains a cult classic in the pacific northwest .
sometimes a great notion essays are academic essays for citation . these papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of sometimes a great notion by ken kesey .
sometimes a great notion
is the other oregon movie made from a ken kesey novel .
sometimes a great notion $ 19 . 97 ( blu - ray ) , shout ! factory
the big o saloon boasts a full bar and is a great setting to watch “sometimes a great notion , ” a film about logging , thursday , feb . 26 .
the question and answer section for sometimes a great notion is a great resource to ask questions , find answers , and discuss the novel .
to ask other readers questions about sometimes a great movie , please sign up .
paul newman and his wife , joanne woodward , enjoy themselves at the wrap party for the filming of “sometimes a great notion . ”
paul newman with a chainsaw on location in the woods near agate beach . this was during the filming of
sometimes a great notion .
washington release ( jan . 2014 ) sometimes a great movie : paul newman , ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel
newman took over direction of
sometimes a great notion ,
which is based on a 1964 ken kesey novel . jaeckel richly deserved his oscar nomination .
with its breathtaking scenery , naturalistic acting and compelling story — not to mention its fascinating depiction of the logging industry —
sometimes a great notion
( 1971 ) falls a mere peg or two short of being a truly great film .
sometimes a great notion study guide contains a biography of ken kesey , literature essays , quiz questions , major themes , characters , and a full summary and analysis .
writers on the edge , inc . : sometimes a great party—the lincoln county filming of a ken kesey novel
sometimes a great notion began shooting on 22 june 1970 , with richard a . colla as director . after five weeks of filming , as noted in a 23 july 1970
yet another piece of evidence comes from the mpaa , who ' s database indicates that sometimes a great notion received its [ gp ] rating in 1971 and was given certificate number 22982 . comparing again , dirty harry received its rating in 1971 with certificate number 23049 , not long after sometimes a great notion .
so invested am i in the belief that sometimes a great notion would make an excellent mini series that i have gone to the trouble of assembling a dream cast .
thirty - five years ago , hollywood came to this small lincoln county town to film scenes for
sometimes a great notion ,
ken kesey ' s novel about an oregon logging clan .
we’d love your help . let us know what’s wrong with this preview of sometimes a great movie by matt love .
“sometimes a great notion , ” adapted from ken keseyþäôs epic novel about a defiant family of loggers , starred paul newman and was filmed on the central oregon coast during the summer of 1970 .
that’s the plot of sometimes a great notion . there’s logging , the union , bar fights , prostitutes , and death . but the real story is three generations of sexual obsession .
nestucca spit press announces the release of sometimes a great movie : paul newman , ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel , by oregon author matt love .
sometimes a great notion is a good , if plot - sprawling , outdoor action film set in northwest lumber country , about a family of individualists fighting a town and a union . paul newman directed , produced , and stars as the crown prince to family patriarch henry fonda .
after the publication of sometimes a great notion , kesey’s literary efforts fell off for a number of years . the 1964 trip to new york in the further bus to celebrate the publication of notion and also visit the world’s fair took kesey’s prankster sideshow on the road , and this period of frenetic energy followed by his exile to mexico on drug charges left little time for serious writing . in an interview with the paris review in conducted in 1992 and 1993 , kesey said of sometimes a great notion :
and from the very beginning of sometimes a great notion , ken kesey ' s second novel and eagerly - awaited follow - up to his acclaimed one flew over the cuckoo ' s nest , we are hooked .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
urltoken sometimes a great notion : paul newman , henry fonda , lee remick , richard jaeckel , linda lawson , cliff potts , roy poole , joe maross , john c . foreman , john gay : movies & tv
matt love , the author or editor of eight books on oregon history , has written about the production in
sometimes a great movie : paul newman , ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel .
sometimes a great notion is a good , if plot - sprawling , outdoor action film set in northwest lumber country , about a family of individualists fighting a town and a union . paul newman directed , produced , and stars as the crown prince to family patriarch henry fonda . john gay’s adaptation of ken kesey’s novel tries to balance the intellectual [ … ]
in june 1970 , the biggest movie star in the world traveled to the oregon coast to film an epic novel about a defiant family of loggers written by a home grown counterculture hero . the star was paul newman . the author was ken kesey . the story was sometimes a great notion and it has a fanatical following in the pacific northwest .
because , as sometimes happens , despite a poor critical reception , a lot of people simply love it .
sometimes a great movie
is , perhaps , author matt love at his best . as in
vortex i
, he ' s done his research and presents it in an entertaining and enlightening manner .
sometimes a great movie
focuses on the informal and sometimes wild encounters between the hollywood film professionals and coastal oregonians . lavishly illustrated with photos , black and white as well as color . recommended for west coasters and paul newman fans .
in sometimes a great movie : paul newman , ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel , author matt love documents the legend of that magical summer and presents over a 125 never - before - seen photographs , including many in color .
according to a 1970 article from newport ' s
news - times ,
130 people came to lincoln county to work on
sometimes a great notion ,
and an equal number of residents were involved in the production , which lasted from june through september .
“sometimes a great notion” is set in the remote lumber country of the pacific northwest and has to do with the patriarchal stamper family , which is continuing to run its small , independent logging operation while the other loggers in the area are frozen by a , strike against a huge lumber combine .
in the summer of 1970 , out on the central oregon coast , paul newman and company filmed a cinematic adaptation of ken kesey ' s epic 1964 novel , sometimes a great notion . matt love ' s new book ( and the final installment in his newport trilogy ) , sometimes a great movie , chronicles the film ' s production with an array of first - person accounts , photographs , and newspaper clippings of the time . a large portion of the book is composed of these local stories wherein coastal residents recall their interacti
on wednesday december 30th the sou’wester will host a rare public screening of sometimes a great notion . the movie , adapted from ken kesey’s epic novel about a defiant family of loggers , starred paul newman and was filmed on the central oregon coast during the summer of 1970 . the film was released in 1971 to an indifferent nationwide audience but remains a cult classic in the pacific northwest .
paul newman experimented with that formula in 1970 by making a film with only one . in sometimes a great notion , richard jaeckel played the trusting , loyal joe ben who drowns as his cousin hank tries and fails to keep him alive . jaeckel was oscar nominated for a performance which culminates in that one scene , but what happened to the rest of kesey’s masterful epic ?
a tile mural built this summer outside city hall - the largest of its kind in the northwest - shows scenes from toledo ' s history , including newman and fonda being filmed , and
sometimes a great notion
on the marquee of the downtown ross theater , which was torn down years ago .
it ' s not a great film , nor is it what the trade likes to describe as an east side film , that is , something that exhibits a kind of white‐collar starchiness towards the idea of manual labor or sweaty physical efort of any sort .
ken kesey’s novel , sometimes a great notion ( 1964 ) , is a complex and integrated historical background and relationship study of the stamper family , a prideful logging clan living in wakonda , oregon . this big story involves a man , his family , a town , the country , a period of time , and the effects of time . all of the elements of the novel including its characters , events , settings , symbols , and so on , are integrated and oriented toward the themes of independence , individualism , and self - sufficiency . the novel teaches that a person should have the right to try to be as big as he believes it is in him to be . sometimes a great notion was made into a 1971 film directed by and starring paul newman . in britain this film about generations of loggers was called never give an inch .
last year , i approached dale and shawrron searls , owners of the big o , about screening the film in the bar to promote my book about its production , “sometimes a great movie : paul newman , ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel . ” they enthusiastically agreed , and we staged the event on a thursday night in late january .
not long after the great day - glo man died in 2001 , i found myself drinking beer in the bayhaven , an ancient tavern on newport’s bayfront . there i noticed hanging on a wall a framed poster of promotional stills from sometimes a great notion the movie . it was filmed in and around lincoln county in 1970 and includes scenes shot in the bayhaven , which stood in for the snag saloon from the novel .
when kesey wrote sometimes a great notion , jocks were winners . much of the plot concerns the courage the lanky , underdeveloped lee must summon to continue seducing the wife of his violent , physically powerful half brother . the better lee knows hank , the more he realizes how dangerous his plan is .
next , i attempted to contact newman directly via emails to several of his high profile business ventures . i never received a reply . i then perused three newman biographies and learned that he once drank to binge and blackout excess . the biographies also reported that the independent production of sometimes a great notion experienced major problems .
“sometimes a great notion” is an extremely interesting , , if impure ( happily impure , i might add ) example of a genre of action film that flourished in the 1930 ' s in movies abont tuna fishermen , bush pilots , high‐wire repairmen and just about any physical pursuit you can think of with the possible exception of tolltaking , which ( except on some thruways ) lacks the necessary element of danger .
paul newman makes his directorial debut in the sweeping saga sometimes a great notion . based on the best - selling novel about a two - fisted oregon lumber family , the story focuses on a family that bucks their close - knit timber community in order to deliver a shipment of logs in defiance of a strike . in the process , one man is killed , the family patriarch henry ( henry fonda ) is injured , and the eldest son hank ( paul newman ) almost loses his wife ( lee remick ) to his half brother ( michael sarrazin ) . filled with complex characters and issues that still resonate today , sometimes a great notion is an intense portrait of life set against the backdrop of logging .
astoria writer matt love , author of sometimes a great movie : paul newman , ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel , will introduce the movie and take questions after the screening . he will also discuss new revelations about the legend of whether newman cut the legs off a tavern pool table with a chainsaw during the production .
on thursday , feb . 26 , the big o saloon will reprise its public screening of “sometimes a great notion . ” the movie , adapted from ken kesey’s epic novel about a defiant family of loggers , starred paul newman and was filmed on the central oregon coast during the summer of 1970 . the film was released in 1971 to an indifferent nationwide audience but remains a cult classic in the pacific northwest , particularly in logging / timber communities .
three days after hearing this fantastic story , i set out to corroborate its veracity . first i made a day trip to the toledo area , hit every bar and tavern and asked around about sometimes a great notion , the movie , and the alleged newman madness . no one had heard of it , but they all thought it could be true .
it can also be said that kesey’s life became his art . after notion he gravitated more to public performances , often in collaboration with various pranksters . the spontaneous creation of art through theatre and music had a great appeal for him .
in any case , sometimes a great notion was not registered for copyright by universal pictures and newman - foreman co . , inc . until 17 december 1971 . if it had actually opened in december 1970 , universal and paul newman would not have let a $ 4 million major production go without copyright protection for nearly a year while it played around the country for all of 1971 .
last month , the center held a gathering to recall the film . twenty - five people attended .
i enjoyed love ' s look at the filming of
sometimes a great notion
on the central oregon coast . he blends stories from locals , background on the novel , and the film ' s legacy ; in the process , love shows what it was like to live in a quiet community and in the midst of hollywood stars . the film isn ' t a well - known part of oregon history , so to hear stories from the set was a real treat . love shared a ton of fascinating stories , anecdotes , and reflections from that surreal era in oregon history , and
what better place to watch the greatest movie ever made about logging than in a real logger bar decorated with chainsaws and saw blades ? well , “sometimes a great notion” is that movie , and the big o saloon in olney is about the best logger bar i’ve ever patronized . it certainly has the biggest chainsaw i’ve ever seen . rumor is : it still works .
at the age of 46 paul newman , then arguably hollywood’s biggest star , produced , directed and starred as the logger hank stamper in sometimes a great notion , one of the first high profile , independent american films . in addition to newman in the lead role , the film featured henry fonda , lee remick , michael sarrazin , and richard jaeckel , respectively as hank’s domineering father , unhappy wife , estranged brother and cousin .
restoring indian jenny to the plot would make an honest miniseries out of a sometimes a great notion , and communicate both the novel’s social and psychological complexity , and its epic sweep . i propose irene bedard to play the beautiful small town prostitute who falls in love with the young logger henry stamper , and whose thwarted union with him provides the narrative engine for the rest of the plot .
what ensued was a wild working vacation between hollywood and oregonians involving beer , sex , scotch , loggers , beaches , and perhaps , a spectacularly vandalized pool table . in sometimes a great movie : paul newman , ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel , author matt love documents the legend of that magical summer and presents over a 125 never - before - seen photographs , including many in color .
news item stated that the film might be shot in canada . by may 1970 ,
the incidents in the film were generally faithful to those in the book ; however , many aspects of the book were not included in the film . as noted in the
and i am also here to claim that i will write the book that captures all the madness . it will be called sometimes a great party and hope to find enough of the home movie footage i know the locals shot to make a documentary to include as a dvd with the book .
thus opens ken kesey ' s sprawling , drenched , riffing , old growth dense , beautifully flawed , lsd flavored , masterpiece of a novel , sometimes a great notion , set on the oregon coast , about a gyppo logging family , published in 1964 , and undeniably the greatest oregon work of fiction of all time . if you live on the northwest coast and haven’t read it , you have no business living on the northwest coast .
i enjoyed love ' s look at the filming of
sometimes a great notion
on the central oregon coast . he blends stories from locals , background on the novel , and the film ' s legacy ; in the process , love shows what it was like to live in a quiet community and in the midst of hollywood stars . the film isn ' t a well - known part of oregon history , so to hear stories from the set was a real treat . love shared a ton of fascinating stories , anecdotes , and reflections from that surreal era in oregon history , and the story about paul newman and the pool table added a fun layer of intrigue to the book .
this film was the first movie ever shown on hbo when the service premiered in 1972 .
it seems like being around or involved in the filming of
notion
was a big deal in a lot of people ' s lives and they were eager to talk about it .
never have i read a work that captures the true community feeling that inhabits the small costal town of newport , oregon better than in matt love ' s sometimes a great movie : paul newman , ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel . the book itself is a testament to the greatness of the oregon coast . between the locally written stories about personal experiences and the author ' s personal stories of discovering what really happened with paul newman , the saw and the pool table , love ' s passion and dedication to uncovering and relaying the unique story of hollywood celebrities forming bonds with lincoln county locals is evident in every sentence . it ' s impossible to not become passionate about both sometimes a great notion and the greatness and beauty of the oregon coast and it ' s inhabitants while reading this book .
a miraculously non pc film from liberal paul newman that captures the feel and look of keseyland . richard jaeckel ' s death is a classic scene within a . . .
the best director award was presented to william friedkin ( with his first nomination and win ) for his first major feature the french connection - a tough , suspenseful crime film that preceded the similar cop film dirty harry by a few months .
when lee chooses to remain behind with hank , the brother he both loves and hates , we understand he has chosen death . he had his chance at life . viv = vitality = life . as viv watches the two men struggle to bring the logs down the river from the window of her greyhound bus out of town , she is ishmael escaping the unholy vortex of moby dick . kesey’s understanding of viv as a whole person , not a plot device , is entirely , but entirely , absent from the 1970 film adaptation of sometimes a great notion .
to make matters worse , he broke his ankle while riding a motorcycle for the film , which delayed production for weeks .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
he did publish other works after sometimes a great notion , but nothing of the same caliber . but anyone who has added great novelist , pioneering counterculture icon , and friend of neal cassady to his list of life accomplishments can be said to be a true artist of the highest order . he proved that art , literature and ideas can come in the form of the solitary composition of a work of literature , or in the form of a [ sychedelic bus crossing the country , blasting the new music , and taking the new reality to the masses . ken kesey was resolutely anti - establishment until the end of his days .
but then newman starts tunneling under the material , coming up with all sorts of things we didn ' t quite expect , and along the way he proves himself ( as he did with
rachel , rachel
) as a director of sympathy and a sort of lyrical restraint . he rarely pushes scenes to their obvious conclusions , he avoids melodrama , and by the end of
sometimes a great notion ,
we somehow come to know the stamper family better than we expected to .
as i drank in the bayhaven , asking patrons their opinions on sometimes a great notion , the novel and movie , a thickly bearded man wearing a baseball cap emerged from an alcove sheltering the video poker machines and moved toward me holding a hamm’s can . he sat next to me at the bar and said he had a story about the movie . a story about paul newman . would i like to hear it ? yes , i would . i ordered him another hamm’s . he appeared anywhere from 40 - 70 years old , or what i call ota , oregon tavern age .
sometimes a great notion
is no classic . filmed five years earlier than
cuckoo ' s nest
in newport and elsewhere along the oregon coast , it is best known for an incredible scene in which joe ben stamper ( richard jaeckel ) is trapped by a log and the incoming tide despite the best efforts of his cousin hank ( paul newman ) to rescue him . the movie is also the answer to a trivia question : what is the first program to be broadcast on hbo ?
the oregon press offered uniformly positive reviews when sometimes a great notion came out , but to me , it is a mediocre movie , unimaginatively adapted . newman and screenwriter john gay obviously read the novel and tried to conjure a coherent theme from a biblical work of fiction punctuated with manic stretches of stream - of - consciousness and multiple narrators ( including a dog ) . but they failed . the movie is also marred by a terribly dubbed audio track and murky cinematography . if any scene remains memorable , it’s the harrowing sequence where jaeckel’s character is pinned under a log as a rising estuarine tide drowns him while newman tries to cut him free .
was based on the ken kesey novel of the same name , the first of his books to be adapted into a film . the
love has
sometimes a great notion
events scheduled around the state over the next few months . at 7 : 30 p . m . may 25 , he ' ll be at powell ' s city of books , 1005 w . burnside st . , along with a chain saw . at 6 : 30 p . m . may 26 , there will be a screening of the movie at the hollywood theatre , 4122 n . e . sandy blvd . a question - and - answer session will follow . for more appearances , see urltoken
the unmistakable cover , the book ' s aesthetics fit for display , the photos worth cutting out to mount , and the author ' s passion for making any topic , especially about oregon , interesting , are just a few reasons you should pick up a copy of sometimes a great movie for your next read . you ' ll hardly believe the stories in this book , and that these things happened in a small town on the oregon coast . sometimes a great movies makes a perfect gift for anyone , oregonian or not . any reader will have to see the movie afterward , and probably visit lincoln county . sometimes a great movie is well - written , including personal accounts from folks that were in the film and around during the filming that are interesting ; stories that make this history lesson one worth remembering and keeping alive . this is exactly what the author does with this book , matt love has a way of keeping the fun in oregon history , his passion for this is apparent . if you haven ' t seen him read yet , you ought to catch one of his upcoming shows . did i mention that he prints his books locally ?
this film was the first movie ever shown on hbo when the service premiered in 1972 . see more »
farrington thought people in new york or some other metropolis wouldn ' t understand the oregon the film captured .
33 . tangerines : this is estonia’s nomination in the foreign film category , though the film takes place in georgia , where , we are told , estonians emigrated once , only to return to their native land when armed conflicts began besieging the former soviet republics . tangerines is an interesting blend of new trends in the foreign film category ( toward tougher , bleaker films ) and old ones ( it wraps itself in a poetic ending that is maybe a little pat ) . nomination : best foreign language film
an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
sorry to bother you .
i liked this film . got to see it on uk tv in mid 70s . it rarely airs now .
22 . ida : many years , a foreign film is so acclaimed that it manages to get some spillover attention in the other categories . and while ida’s black - and - white cinematography was lovely , i wish this film had followed in amour ’s footsteps and garnered a best actress nomination for either of its leading ladies , agata kulesza and agata trzebuchowska . it’s their performances—one all sheltered curiosity , the other boozy , weary , and wise—that make this film special . nominations : best foreign language film , best cinematography
23 . our curse : i’d love to be able to go into detail about this short film , a look at a pair of new parents whose child suffers a rare condition that requires a ventilator every night or else he will stop breathing and die , but if i think about it for too long , i’m just going to start sobbing again . the miserablism of the doc shorts is sometimes made fun of ; there are years where the list reads like “cancer , holocaust , suicide , euthanasia , holocaust again . ” this year’s nominees could certainly fill out a similar checklist . but this heartbreaker of a film is a reminder that reducing these films to their subject matter is a great way to miss out on some intimate , disarming filmmaking . nomination : best documentary short
the big o will offer a hank stamper olympia and meatloaf sandwich special , free popcorn , the warmth of crackling woodstove fire to enjoy the film , and a special musical guest .
my husband had been searching everywhere for this movie , and i was like . . amazon ! amazon has everything ! so i ordered it for him friday , and it arrived tuesday = thanks to the perks of free 2 day shipping , through amazon prime ! my husband is a logger , in oregon - and some of the guys he works with recommended this movie . we really enjoyed it . it shows a good true side to oregon loggers , even the process of the equipment , which many don ' t get to see . it is not like the t . v show that ' s full of drama . sometimes a great notion , is a wonderful movie featuring paul newman . it ' s got a great story line behind it , with great acting skills . looks like it was filmed right in our oregon mountains as well , but i ' m not sure . i highly recommend this movie !
review , the film ' s final cost was considerably higher than its original budget of $ 3 . 66 million .
great movie for the time it was made . i was super excited to finally watch the movie that was filmed in my county and now .
i met ken kesey at a book signing in 1993 , and he signed my battered copy of sometimes a great notion , which i consider to be one of the best american novels , along with moby dick and on the road . kesey struck me not so much as a countercultural icon , but as an archetype of the old west : his still - powerful frame from his wrestling days , his calloused hands from hard work on his farm , and his sideburns . the sideburns and the jut of his jaw – suggesting that he was , in fact , hank stamper .
46 . parvaneh : the story of a young afghan woman seeking asylum in switzerland . a sweet , generous film that doesn’t make a very big impact , relative to its competition . nomination : best live - action short
given the fact that shooting did not end until early october 1970 and that newman had difficulties editing the film , it ' s highly improbable that the film was completed and scored in only 11 weeks , for release by 31 december 1970 .
thanks for that . it ' s a magnificent book . i wish i had been fortunate enough to have gotten my copy signed . i believe it is the great american novel .
paul newman ' s
sometimes a great notion
tells sort of an old - fashioned story about prideful clans carving empires out of the wilderness . the characters seem a little familiar , too . take the three most important . henry fonda is the proud old patriarch , paul newman is the son who stays at home but makes up his own mind , and michael sarrazin is the kid brother who comes back to the land with all sorts of half - baked notions and scores to settle . so far , the relationships remind us of
hud .
magic trip , a new film by alex gibney and alison ellwood , tells the story of novelist ken kesey ' s 1964 road trip across america in a painted bus with a troupe of fanciful hippies and legendary beatnik neal cassady at the wheel .
36 . the phone call : every once in a while , you get a short film with some star power . so it is here , as former oscar nominee sally hawkins ( plus the voice of oscar winner jim broadbent ) lend their talents to this story of a crisis hotline worker and a call that really shakes her up . the familiarity of an actress like hawkins is a huge boon to a movie that is really just one extended phone conversation , though a “name” actress can sometimes feel like an unfair advantage in the shorts categories . nomination : best live - action short
newman , already the star and co - producer of the major film , became the director after the original one resigned . a third of the movie already had been shot .
memories of the film have resurfaced thanks to toledo ' s focus on history during the town ' s year - long 100th birthday celebration .
“it’s my best work , and i’ll never write anything that good again . it’s a question of time spent on it . i worked on notion for two years without interruption , exploring symbols and characters and letting the narrative take its own way . ”
that imdb date of a 31 december 1970 u . s . release is highly suspect . according to the american film institute catalog , the film did not generally open in the u . s . until november 1971 . ( no specific date is given . ) certainly , my recollection is that it opened late in 1971 .
still , it ' s a treat to see saldana in a movie in which she ' s not operating a rocket launcher or equipped with a blue tail .
noted that richard a . colla had been set to direct the film , which would be a jennings lang presentation . lang , the then - vice - president of universal films , was not listed in the onscreen credits .
50 . white earth : if you’re looking to dispel the notion that oscar - nominated documentary shorts are all sad looks at bleak lives told through a filter of bittersweet perseverance , white earth is maybe not the short for you . nomination : best documentary short
i missed a great novel . i mean , i had the thing decades ago when raw and real young and began to give it a go but couldn ' t continue . subsequently over the years i never really ever got a clue what i ' d missed out on until now . . .
when the film cuts away from the family soap opera dramatics and shows the macho men at work wielding their chainsaws at the logging camp among the giant trees , it has a buzz .
in the book , love blends reportage , memoir , primary documents , oral history , film criticism , and photographs to produce a unique , entertaining , visually rich work of non fiction .
the movie doesn ' t seem very sure of what it thinks about the fonda character ' s fierce and stubborn pride . the character himself believes all that matters is getting up for another day , and working , and eating , and sleeping , and getting on with life . another character , a brother - in - law , played by oscar nominee richard jaeckel , has been
saved
at the local fundamentalist church and has a sort of sweet simplicity that seems out of place - - until the scene where he dies . he dies in a way that is truly filled with grace and humor , and the scene is one of the several things in
sometimes a great notion
that make it worth seeing , even if its overall design is murky .
then in the spring of 2007 , i found myself in the tiny toledo historical museum on a teaching errand completely unrelated to the sometimes a great notion story . on a lark , i asked the museum’s director if the archives held any material about the movie shoot . yes , the archives did . would i like to see them ? yes , i would . a few minutes later i held an approximately 100 - page file containing newspaper and magazine clippings of local , state and national stories about the film’s production . there were even articles from the los angeles times and a trade publication called chain saw age , which featured newman on the cover wielding a mcculloch beast with what looked like a 60 - inch bar ! the museum director told me that someone had compiled this file back in 1970 - 71 and turned it over to the museum years ago . to her knowledge , no one had ever looked at it . i paid her $ 50 on the spot to copy the entire file for me . i read it all later that night .
42 . a single life : the elasticity of styles that can be found among the animated shorts every year makes it one of my favorite categories . with a single life , you get a cute little story about a woman who finds she can advance her life forward and backward with the needle on a record player . the entire film is two and a half minutes long . nomination : best animated short
a tribute to the late tab hunter , a gay matinee idol and hollywood trailblazer .
32 . butter lamp : it takes a while to get used to what’s going on in butter lamp , which depicts a photographer setting up group shots of tibetans in front of various backgrounds . the poignancy , humor , and thoughtfulness of the setups ( the great wall , disney world ) add up to something more like a conceptual art project , reminiscent of the far heavier the missing picture , nominated in foreign language film last year . nomination : best live - action short
a member of british intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught , imprisoned , and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization and expose a traitor .
in his spare time , henry fonda sketched watercolors and collected agates . he bought himself a tumbler to polish his rocks . he also worried about the “sensibilities” of old trees cut down for the film .
someone is going to lose an arm , or worse , but we keep reading , sometimes afraid of what is going to happen , but unable to stop . the story builds relentlessly from its initial image .
shifting the action of the story to a completely different character as well as a different locality in just a short piece of dialogue .
52 . the imitation game : for a while there , people really thought harvey weinstein was going to be able to muscle this one to a best picture win , through his usual mix of chutzpah and blunt - force marketing . better luck ( with a better film ? ) next year . nominations : best picture , best director , best actor , best supporting actress , best adapted screenplay , best film editing , best production design , best original score
after i introduced the film , we all settled in with food and drink and watched a movie containing incredible scenes of logging and log drives of the type that will never happen again because environmental regulations and industry changes disallowed or precluded them in the subsequent decades . forty - five years ago , that wasn’t part of the film’s inherent appeal , but it is today .
review mistakenly list the character of
joe ben
as
henry stamper ' s
son . in 1977 , the film was released on television under the title
barbara harris ( with her sole nomination ) as allison - an aspiring singer ( co - star dustin hoffman ' s girlfriend ) in who is harry kellerman , and why is he saying those terrible things about me ? [ the film has the remarkable distinction of having the longest title of any nominated film in academy history . ]
35 . wild tales : if wild tales had been an english - language movie , there’s no way it would even get close to an oscar nomination . this series of vignettes—most of them darkly comedic , most of them circling a theme of vengeance—plays like lesser tarantino and would probably be brushed off as a popcorn movie and nothing more . but in a foreign language film race where so many entries are solemn , thoughtful , slow affairs , wild tales plays like a hugely refreshing change of pace . nomination : best foreign language film
in june 1970 , the biggest movie star in the world traveled to the oregon coast to film an epic novel about a defiant family of loggers written by a home grown counterculture hero . the star was paul newman . the author was ken kesey . the story was
a radio station in the deep south becomes the focal point of a right - wing conspiracy .
21 . still alice : throughout awards season , this movie has been treated solely as a julianne moore vehicle . a car service , in particular . one that picks her up from the airport and drives her directly to the best actress oscar she so richly deserves . but it’s too bad the rest of the movie couldn’t get a little love , for its smart and sensitive storytelling , or for its great supporting performances from kristen stewart and alec baldwin . moore still towers over the film , but it’s a shame that the academy couldn’t look beyond her . nomination : best actress
25 . two days , one night : jean - pierre and luc dardenne have never once been nominated for a foreign film oscar . not even this year . but through a clever bit of noncampaigning ( every time marion cotillard didn’t show up at a precursor event , some critic would write about what a shame it was she was being passed over ) , their film managed to snag a mention in one of the big four categories . that’s not bad . hopefully it leads to more people seeing this quiet , powerful movie about a woman going door to door in her community to try and save her job . nomination : best actress
8 . begin again : writer / director john carney’s follow - up to once didn’t receive the acclaim that its predecessor did , though it ended up getting the exact same oscar nomination . ( “lost stars” probably won’t win like “falling slowly” did . ) i spent much of this film marveling that i wasn’t more irritated by this story of a down - and - out music producer ( mark ruffalo ) who discovers a sad singer - songwriter ( keira knightley ) in a bar and decides to produce her record . but the film walks a difficult tightrope between sentimentality and a kind of process story about making music off the grid , and in the balance it finds an unvarnished sweetness . also amazing : the nominated song sounds so great , despite being performed by adam levine . nomination : best original song
sometimes a grnat noticin , ” ken kesey ' s second novel , adapted by john gay and directed by paul newman opened at 22 theaters here yesterday , which probably means that it will be in and out of town so quickly that a lot of people who might like to see it won ' t have the chance .
mr . love has captured a slice of oregon - american pie at a pivotal time in [ relatively ] recent history . that he has managed to do so without ken kesey , paul newman and the original director of this film is now small feat . manage he does , however , and readers of mr . kesey , along with film buffs everywhere , are in for a treat as they delve into this tall true - tale . well - worth the $ 30 . 00 price tag .
the film barely managed to open in los angeles in time to qualify for the 1971 academy awards ( awarded in 1972 ) . the film received two 1971 nominations - - best actor in a supporting role for richard jaeckel and best music , original song , for henry mancini ( music ) , alan bergman ( lyrics ) , and marilyn bergman ( lyrics ) for the song
all his children
.
10 . timbuktu my favorite of the foreign - language nominees this year comes from mauritania , a first - time nominee in this category . it’s been heartening to watch the category expand over the last decade or so , branching out from the usual haunts of france , italy , and sweden to cover a more comprehensive vision of foreign film . timbuktu couldn’t be more vital , telling a story about an islamist takeover in west africa . that it tells such a story without extravagance and with a careful focus on its characters makes it worthy of winning , though it probably won’t . nomination : best foreign language film
since i knew nothing about the book by ken kesey nor the movie , i got both ( audio book ) to prepare for this new book by matt love ( i ' m a fan of all of his books and knew that this one would be good ) . i only got halfway thru the audio book and watched the movie before reading sometimes a great movie . matt ' s book does a wonderful job of making this reader want to finish the audio book , watch the movie a few more times , read the novel and visit oregon . i look forward to attending some of his book promotions as he will undoubted have much more say .
brit - born peter finch ( with the first of two career nominations - he won best actor for network ( 1976 ) ) as dr . daniel hirsh - a middle - aged , homosexual doctor involved in a three - sided love story in the british film sunday , bloody sunday
q . it seems like
notion
was one of those movies that fell through the cracks - - different versions of different lengths , changed title , etc . what is the critical consensus on it , and where does it stand in the history of oregon culture ?
38 . the tale of the princess kaguya : in a typical year , the animated feature lineup contains a pixar slot , a disney slot , and a dreamworks slot . looks like now there’s a slot for studio ghibli , which has nabbed nominations for the wind rises and howl’s moving castle , not to mention a win for spirited away . isao takahata’s first film in 14 years is undeniably beautiful , like a watercolor come to life , but at the risk of heresy . . . it kind of drags . nomination : best animated feature
within days , i received about a dozen leads connecting me to friends , parents , and relatives who had some role in the film’s production or servicing the hollywood people . and frankly , the stories were incredible—better yet , totally unreported .
29 . leviathan : the big story here is that a movie this critical of the russian establishment—the way government corruption filters down to destroy the lives of ordinary , good families—was selected to be russia’s official foreign submission to the oscars . the film itself certainly makes an impression , with its whale - skeleton metaphor about how the cross - contamination of government and business is too big a monster to fight . i’m pretty sure i got it . nomination : best foreign language film
but somehow , this bomb of a movie took in $ 133 million in its opening weekend . not only does that total beat the better - reviewed deadpool ( 84 percent on rotten tomatoes ) , which i loved , it smashed the august box office records previously set in 2014 by guardians of the galaxy , which i really loved . and this doesn’t seem to be a fluke : deadline reports suicide squad is posting great weekday numbers , beating even the vaunted captain america : civil war for a tuesday box - office record . hence my confusion . how could such a poorly reviewed film make so much money ?