Sometimes A Great Notion [Blu-ray]

Sometimes a Cinematic Notion
OK, in fairness; I came to this film on the strength of my long, enduring affection for the work of Ken Kesey. Sometimes a Great Notion, the novel, is as dense and intense a read as one can find out there by any (and I mean ANY -- Faulkner, Hemingway, the works) American author. I've read this superb novel many times, and savored every word with every reading.

...then I saw the film.

Again, in fairness; I had doubts that ANY film under 2 hours would begin to do justice to the novel. I was right. I had suspicions that perhaps Paul Newman and Henry Fonda weren't quite, well, BIG AND TOUGH ENOUGH to do due justice to the Henry and Hank Stamper father/son team. I was almost right -- physically, they weren't the looming figures that roared across Kesey's pages. But Newman and Fonda ain't bad either, not by a long shot. Their abilities almost obscure the fact that they don't fully seem like lifelong lumberjacks from the wild coast of Oregon in the middle 20th century. They seem like...

A fine, workable adaptation
Firstly, I cannot stress enough that one read the novel. It is one of the finest American novels ever written.

Kesey's superb epic novel with its shifting points of view and verb tense is far too complex a work to adapt directly to the camera's limited third person POV. Kesey's rich and dense narrative prose, while exceptionaly cinematic in its description and action ironically proves unfilmable.

That said, Paul Newman and his production team created a most admirable and solid, if very truncated adaptation of Kesey's excellent novel. It is near impossible to fit the novel's rumbling narrative into a mere hour and a half.

Unlike the more famous film version of Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey admires this filming of his work. It is important viewing on that note alone.

Sadly missing is the critical sub-plot involving a love triangle between Lee and Vivian. As a result, a great deal of Lee's motivation and narrative tension is lost. According to Kesey, the triangle was filmed but lopped...

The Editorial Review is ridiculous
Don't believe the editorial review by Marshall Fine. That's one of the most misleading reviews I've ever seen. The story is not a "mishmash", and it has nothing to do with LSD or anything psychodelic. He calls Newman an "ultraliberal", which indicates that his bad review was probably politically motivated. However, the story is not political at all. It's really a touching story about a family in crisis. And it's one of Newman's finest moments as an actor. Fonda's too. It was nominated for two Academy Awards. This movie used to play on HBO constantly. And it would probably do fairly well today if it were re-released on DVD.

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