Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Sometimes a Great Notion (1971)

Directed by Paul Newman
Paul Newman as Hank Stamper
Henry Fonda as Henry Stamper
Lee Remick as Viv Stamper
Michael Sarrazin as Leland Stamper

The Storyline / plot

Sometimes a Great Notion is about an Oregon family who own and run a logging business. The senior man of the logging show is Henry Stamper (Henry Fonda).He is also the father to the two sons involved in the logging business. Hank Stamper (Paul Newman) is the eldest son and is the main hand in the logging business. The family business is totally self sufficient. They get the logging contracts, fall their timber, yard their timber with a high lead / yarder show, and finally truck their own logs down to the river where the logs are moved by their tug boats. Their operation was a good one.

The problems start when the local timber union goes on strike. The Stamper family refuses to join the strike and keeps fulfilling their contract with the mill. The Union workers start making threats to the family and Hank gets in more than one bar room brawl over the ordeal. Through the good times and the bad, the right choices and the wrong choices the Stamper family sticks together. They have a contract with the mill and they will fill the contract and to hell with the consequences and the union!

Conclusion

I find the movie quite ironic in more than one way. Loggers in the United States were and still are too independent and thick headed for their good. I can say this because I have been a logger all of my life. If the loggers would have unionized, we would still be logging today. Now most of our logging shows and mills are shut down and the finished lumber is imported from Canada and New Zealand. Combine bone headed, independent loggers with ultra environmentalists and we get to watch our forests go up in flames. The second ironic thing about the film is that Paul Newman directed and stared in it. Paul Newman is one of the most active environmentalists in the country. He made more money by acting like a logger in one film than most loggers do in a life time of actual work in the woods, then Newman lobbies to shut them down.

Is the film worth seeing? You bet it is, it is one of my favorite movies. I have always been a huge fan of Henry Fonda. Although I am no fan of Mr. Newman, his acting is and always has been awesome. Cool Hand Luke is one of the best films ever made. Fonda and Newman starring in Sometimes a Great Notion are an excellent pair. The directing by Newman was excellent as well. The logging scenes are many and authentic. This gives the viewer a real idea of the sort of back breaking and dangerous work that these men did, day in and day out. One of the hazards of being a timber faller is when a tree barber chairs as you are felling it. This is when the tree splits up the center and breaks off a ways up the tree, then rapidly falls to the ground, generally killing the faller.

Newman goes through the trouble of setting up a dangerous scene depicting a barber chair and it gets the point across to the viewer of how dangerous the work is. Newman‘s directing in this film is outstanding. The plot is OK. There are some holes in the character development; while most characters are done very well a couple are not developed much at all. The sound track is also noteworthy if you enjoy country / folk music. Anyone who enjoys Fonda or Newman would enjoy Sometimes a Great Notion. Fonda plays an ornery old codger similar to his character in, On Golden Pond. If you ever wondered what Loggers actually do, this film would give you some idea.

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This is an entry into the Lean—N—Mean III Write Off, Movies Category. Thanks Tom
Lean—n —Mean III
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RUNTIME: 1 Hour 55 minutes
Rated : [R] for logger fights and logger language

Thanks for the read,
~Mac

© 2004 Joe McMaster


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older