That Pennsylvania school board court decision against the teaching of Intelligent Design is going to be a movie.
According to Variety, [Paramount] just hired Ronald Harwood to write a screenplay based on last year’s court decision ruling that a Pennsylvania school board didn’t have the right to force teachers to teach intelligent design. (Interestingly, the film’s producer was thinking “movie” from the very start, so much so that she actually sent someone to watch and take notes on the trial – does that show clever foresight or a disturbing tendency to turn every major news story into tomorrow’s blockbuster? Both?) In Harwood’s eyes, his benchmark is Inherit the Wind, the play and film that told the story of the famous Scopes trial, which allowed evolution into (Tennessee) classrooms in the first place. “Our aspiration is to make a film that powerful…We have a highly emotional case that divided a town right down the middle, and a judge whose summary was spectacular.”
Except that Inherit the Wind doesn’t purport or intend to tell the story of the Scopes trial. The printed edition of that play contains a note from the authors acknowledging the liberties they took. L.A. Theatre Works is currently touring a play that’s much more faithful to what actually happened in the Scopes trial — which is dramatic enough in its own way.
Word verification string for this comment: gzhad (Gad zooks! Having a denoument!)
Whatever rationalizations the authors of Inherit the Wind might have offered, the simple fact is that everyone associates that play (and the film and TV adaptations thereof) with the Scopes trial, and the public perception of the Scopes trial has been profoundly shaped by these dramatizations. The article Jeff links to here is, itself, ample evidence of that. And if I’m not mistaken, at least one of the TV adaptations even tried to incorporate bits of the real-life trial that were omitted from the play (but don’t quote me on that, as I’m going by an 18-year-old memory of an interview I read with co-star Kirk Douglas).
Oh, absolutely. For better or worse (worse, I suspect), what most people think they know about the Scopes trial comes from Inherit the Wind. I haven’t seen Inherit the Wind or read it, so I may be something of an exception to the rule. I don’t see, though, how Inherit the Wind could be more powerful than the L.A. Theatre Works play, which I have heard, and which also has the distinction of being more accurate, for whatever that’s worth.
But when Harwood hails Inherit the Wind as his benchmark, I wonder whether he envisions a tell-it-like-it-was screenplay, or a screenplay in which major facts are changed in order to serve an agenda.
Ah, the power of myth (or the danger of misplaced modifying phrases): “the famous Scopes trial, which allowed evolution into (Tennessee) classrooms in the first place.” The Scopes court actually convicted the defendant for the crime of teaching evolution.
Well… while we’re talking about myths from the Scopes trial.
I don’t think most people know that the prosecuting attorney, William Jennings Bryan, a man who was the Democratic nominee for President on, I think, three occasions, objected to the teaching of “evolution” because in those days evolution meant eugenics. In fact the textbook used by Scopes includes chapters on eugenics. Here’s an excerpt from the textbook so vigorously defended by Hollywood:
” Hundreds of families such as those described above exist today, spreading disease, immorality, and crime to all parts of this country. The cost to society of such families is very severe. Just as certain animals or plants become parasitic on other plants or animals, these families have become parasitic on society. They not only do harm to others by corrupting, stealing, or spreading disease, but they are actually protected and cared for by the state out of public money. Largely for them the poorhouse and the asylum exist. They take from society, but they give nothing in return. They are true parasites.
” The Remedy. — If such people were lower animals, we would probably kill them off to prevent them from spreading. Humanity will not allow this, but we do have the remedy of separating the sexes in asylums or other places and in various ways preventing intermarriage and the possibilities of perpetuating such a low and degenerate race. Remedies of this sort have been tried successfully in Europe and are now meeting with some success in this country.”
I like that, “The Remedy” kind of brings to mind, “The Final Solution” which of course was based on exactly the same kind of “science.” Forced sterilizations, logicaly following from these kinds of arguments were performed even in California up until 1945. Good thing Spencer Tracy came along to protect that sort of thinking.
The sad part is that “open minded” Christians so readily accept Hollywood’s propaganda about the event so as not to be confused for one of those evil fundamentalists. The Scopes propaganda should at least make you wonder if everything you’ve heard about the Pennsylvania trial and ID is accurate.
Here’s a link:
http://www.eugenics-watch.com/roots/chap08.html
Greg Marquez
goyomarquez@earthlink.net
IVChristianCenter.com