Wordiezett So much average

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

aimless-46 Whenever I see "Spencer's Mountain" (1963) I can't help doing a compare and contrast with "Sometimes a Great Notion" (1970). There is the obvious Henry Fonda patriarch connection; Clay Spencer and Henry Stamper being essentially the same character with much the same "never give an inch" relationship to their respective environments. Clay Spencer is a bit more bending and a bit less self-involved than Henry Stamper, but Fonda did not have to stretch much for the role replication. And there is the obvious parallel between the logging accidents. And the showcasing of dazzling wilderness beauty.But just as Earl Hamner Jr. was no Ken Kesey, "Spencer's Mountain" is no "Sometimes a Great Notion"; if for no other reason than the differing energy levels of the two films. One could accurately describe it as what "Sometimes a Great Notion" would be if Kesey had heavily sedated himself on an overdose of "The Waltons". Interestingly the novels were released in 1961 and 1964 respectively so it is at least possible that Hamner influenced Kesey.And both novels and films strip down to stories about the collision between the traditional and the modern, the past and the present. Although Kesey's story is far more gritty and far more ambitious, they are more similar in theme and style than they appear at first glance (I suspect that both authors would be horrified by this notion).The film version of Spencer's Mountain" suffers in any comparison by the relative weakness of its cast. Fonda is a constant and Veronica Cartwright (as Becky Spencer) makes you wish she had a bigger part, but the rest of the cast is borderline embarrassing; saved only by the one-dimensional nature of their parts. Kym Karath's "Pattie-Cake Spencer" manages to recapture, 20+ years later, the most irritating qualities of Phronsie Pepper. In fairness to James MacArthur, he manages to portray the mega earnest Clayboy Spencer accurately, but this early version of John-Boy Walton is truly cringe-worthy. MacArthur's scenes with 18 year-old ingénue Mimsy Farmer, however, play on a much higher level and nicely illustrate that it was possible in conservative days to create a smoking sexual tension without anything even remotely explicit.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

jazerbini Spencer's Mountain is one of my favorite movies. Maybe because it was filmed in an era that still cultivated certain values ​​and perhaps because it is set in one place - in the vicinity of Jackson Hole - WY, which has a special meaning for me. There were filmed, among others, Jubal (also Delmer Daves) and Shane (George Stevens. The film is an amazing simplicity. Shows the simple life of a family within the Wyoming, with magnificent interpretations of the stakeholder group. Fonda and Maureen O'Hara dispenses reviews but James MacArthur repeats here his remarkable performance in "Third Man on the Mountain", another unforgettable film. The story, as everyone knows, was used for the series "The Waltons", years later and that was a huge success on TV. It is a film to always review.

Karl Ericsson Big families, beautiful surroundings and everybody honest and good. Not a business-man or banker anywhere. People building houses and doing other honest work. Families sticking together without excluding other families - in fact, everybody members of one big happy family. Accidents and deaths, yes but not by villains or exploiters. One for all and all for one. There is an owner of a mill but he is, at least seemingly, not taking more than his fair share. In other words, by today's measure, this is a fairy-tale and more so than anything Grimm or Andersen ever dreamed up.In fact, what is described here is an anarchist society, which so far has never been but, as the film shows, might very well be. OK, it's not quite an anarchist society - there is still an outside world of "bettering oneself" and having "victory and honor" but this is in the periphery and it is easy to imagine studies and other things being incorporated in the core society described here.The people are free and independent and the work they do in the mill could easily be seen as community work for which they receive medical attention, education and infra-structure.Yes, this is surely not the USA but somehow I believe that many Americans are mad enough to believe so.Towards the end of the film the actual USA moves in a little and this review is only valid for the first 106 minutes and not for the last 12 minutes. Let's forget about these last 12 minutes and let's try to make these first minutes come true. It's about time.

Qanqor I just finished watching this curiosity. A great movie it's not. But on the whole it was fairly entertaining and enjoyable.Normally I tend to write about what I found lacking in a film. This time I want to praise some of its strong points.Henry Fonda's Clay Sr. was just a wonderful character. I adored his unabashed love of cussing and smoking and drinking and dancing and fooling around with his wife, and his steadfast refusal to give an inch to the uptight church crowd. Usually, religion is treated with kid gloves in the movies, so it's a rare treat to see a film where a hero actually stands up to it. I mean, as an atheist, how can I not love a character who, on hearing that his son has applied for a ministry scholarship, exclaims "I'd as soon see my boy in jail as have a pulpit!"Also, I adored Mimsy Farmer as Claris. I'm surprised to find a number of people here describing her as "annoying". I thought she was magnificent. OK, let's not mince words: I thought she was HOT. It's not that she's the most gorgeous creature to ever come down the pike, she's not. I mean, she's attractive enough, but nothing amazing. But the character, and the way she plays it, oh my! The way she is so openly and unsubtly hot for Clayboy, the way you half expect her to start ripping his clothes off-- I mean, I'm sorry if that didn't do it for you, but for me, this is the material of which fantasies are made! I'm not usually very impressed by the titillation factor in a movie, but this one was definitely an exception!Yeah, there are flaws in the film, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point them out (and you'd think I'd been replaced by an alien pod-person). The Tetons set looks impressive, but really was a mistake; in particular, I don't think people in northwest Wyoming speak like down-home Virginians. The funeral scene for grandpa was painfully overlong-- it was about ten times as long as the amount of screen time Grandpa had had while he was alive! And let's face it, it was pretty stupid the way he couldn't get out of the way of a slow-falling tree (let alone be so stupid as to walk right into it's path in the first place. He's supposed to be an old mountain hand!)But on the whole, it was a pretty good movie, with a couple of good characters. When you add the interest factor of seeing The Waltons' origins, I think I can comfortably give it a solid 7 stars.