how I was pissed off yesterday....

Yesterday, I watched what may be the most offensive movie that I have ever seen, Inherit the Wind. I have to admit it's a kind of a surprising choice considering it was directed by Stanley Kramer and stars Spencer Tracy, Frederic March, and Gene Kelly. For those of you who know me, you realize that I have sat through many of the most graphic, depressing, and abstract films ever made and not batted an eye. No, it had nothing to do with anything like that. What upset me was how painfully simple-minded the film was. It is basically a recreation of the Scopes trial in the 1920's when a school teacher was put on trial for teaching evolution in the class room. The citizens of the rural Southern town and the prosecuting attorney (Frederic March doing a hollow, piss-poor imitation of William Jennings Bryan) and caricatured to the point of hilarity. Apparently, the only thinking people within the city limits are the poor teacher and his noble attorney (Spencer Tracy). I am not offended by the mere fact that a movie takes jabs at the Christian community, I don't get offended when a movie is single-mindedly left wing, and I don't always even get offended when good, Southern folk (of which I am one) are portrayed as ignorant, Bible-thumping bigots. What I do get offended by is when a movie claims to be a movie about ideas, about getting to the truth of an issue, about portraying an accurate history so that we can see what progress we've made in recent years, and ends up bashing the audience over the head with ideas and arguments that are so blatently simple-minded a five-year-old could deconstruct them. I was put off during scenes in which the (ridiculously one-dimensional) towns folk march by the jail rewording such songs as "Old Time Religion" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" to condemn the teacher and his attorney to the hellfires. Everyone is portrayed as being so bigotted and ignorant, that Tracy's quiet dignity must mean that he is intellectually superior to these simpletons because he believes "ideas" and "the advancement of the human mind". That's all great except the reasoning he offers is so flawed I wanted to vomit. Oh, and one of the best parts is when, in a bold and daring move, Tracy's character puts March's character on the witness stand as an expert on the Bible. He starts talking about "begetin'" and then asks what March's character thinks about sex. "Sex is original sin," March's character confidently replies. I found myself laughing with disbelief at many such scenes. And before I wrap this up, here's the best part. In the end, when the jury finds the teacher guilty (sorry I spoiled it), we are supposed to feel that justice has been perverted on this dark day, when no one seems to realize that the reality of the trial is that he is being tried for teaching evolution in the classroom. Did he, or did he not teach evolution in the classroom? Yes, he did. Therefore, he is in violation of the law and therefore, guilty. The entire argument of the defense was that it is an unjust law. Well, that may be, but does anyone else see the problem with this scenario. They are trying to legislate through the courts. When the verdict was guilty, they said that they would appeal it to the state supreme court. The state supreme court! Never once did they attempt to go to the state legislature to get the law changed, no, they wanted to legislate through the courts. Courts interpret law, they don't make it. The teacher was guilty as charged and it is not the role of the court to change what may well be an unjust law. Alright, I'm finished. As you can see, it got me going, and that alone is quite an accomplishment.