sometimes a great notion ( film )
the 1971 film “sometimes a great notion” remains a cult classic in the pacific northwest .
sometimes a great notion essays are academic essays for citation. these papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of sometimes a great notion by ken kesey .
sometimes a great notion
is the other oregon movie made from a ken kesey novel .
sometimes a great notion $ 19. 97 (blu - ray), shout! factory
the big o saloon boasts a full bar and is a great setting to watch “sometimes a great notion, ” a film about logging, thursday, feb. 26 .
the question and answer section for sometimes a great notion is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel .
to ask other readers questions about sometimes a great movie, please sign up .
paul newman and his wife, joanne woodward, enjoy themselves at the wrap party for the filming of “sometimes a great notion. ”
paul newman with a chainsaw on location in the woods near agate beach. this was during the filming of
sometimes a great notion .
washington release (jan. 2014) sometimes a great movie: paul newman, ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel
newman took over direction of
sometimes a great notion ,
which is based on a 1964 ken kesey novel. jaeckel richly deserved his oscar nomination .
with its breathtaking scenery, naturalistic acting and compelling story — not to mention its fascinating depiction of the logging industry —
sometimes a great notion
( 1971) falls a mere peg or two short of being a truly great film .
sometimes a great notion study guide contains a biography of ken kesey, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis .
writers on the edge, inc. : sometimes a great party—the lincoln county filming of a ken kesey novel
sometimes a great notion began shooting on 22 june 1970, with richard a. colla as director. after five weeks of filming, as noted in a 23 july 1970
yet another piece of evidence comes from the mpaa, who' s database indicates that sometimes a great notion received its [ gp ] rating in 1971 and was given certificate number 22982. comparing again, dirty harry received its rating in 1971 with certificate number 23049, not long after sometimes a great notion .
so invested am i in the belief that sometimes a great notion would make an excellent mini series that i have gone to the trouble of assembling a dream cast .
thirty - five years ago, hollywood came to this small lincoln county town to film scenes for
sometimes a great notion ,
ken kesey' s novel about an oregon logging clan .
we’d love your help. let us know what’s wrong with this preview of sometimes a great movie by matt love .
“sometimes a great notion, ” adapted from ken keseyþäôs epic novel about a defiant family of loggers, starred paul newman and was filmed on the central oregon coast during the summer of 1970 .
that’s the plot of sometimes a great notion. there’s logging, the union, bar fights, prostitutes, and death. but the real story is three generations of sexual obsession .
nestucca spit press announces the release of sometimes a great movie: paul newman, ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel, by oregon author matt love .
sometimes a great notion is a good, if plot - sprawling, outdoor action film set in northwest lumber country, about a family of individualists fighting a town and a union. paul newman directed, produced, and stars as the crown prince to family patriarch henry fonda .
after the publication of sometimes a great notion, kesey’s literary efforts fell off for a number of years. the 1964 trip to new york in the further bus to celebrate the publication of notion and also visit the world’s fair took kesey’s prankster sideshow on the road, and this period of frenetic energy followed by his exile to mexico on drug charges left little time for serious writing. in an interview with the paris review in conducted in 1992 and 1993, kesey said of sometimes a great notion :
and from the very beginning of sometimes a great notion, ken kesey' s second novel and eagerly - awaited follow - up to his acclaimed one flew over the cuckoo' s nest, we are hooked .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
urltoken sometimes a great notion: paul newman, henry fonda, lee remick, richard jaeckel, linda lawson, cliff potts, roy poole, joe maross, john c. foreman, john gay: movies & tv
matt love, the author or editor of eight books on oregon history, has written about the production in
sometimes a great movie: paul newman, ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel .
sometimes a great notion is a good, if plot - sprawling, outdoor action film set in northwest lumber country, about a family of individualists fighting a town and a union. paul newman directed, produced, and stars as the crown prince to family patriarch henry fonda. john gay’s adaptation of ken kesey’s novel tries to balance the intellectual [ … ]
in june 1970, the biggest movie star in the world traveled to the oregon coast to film an epic novel about a defiant family of loggers written by a home grown counterculture hero. the star was paul newman. the author was ken kesey. the story was sometimes a great notion and it has a fanatical following in the pacific northwest .
because, as sometimes happens, despite a poor critical reception, a lot of people simply love it .
sometimes a great movie
is, perhaps, author matt love at his best. as in
vortex i
, he' s done his research and presents it in an entertaining and enlightening manner .
sometimes a great movie
focuses on the informal and sometimes wild encounters between the hollywood film professionals and coastal oregonians. lavishly illustrated with photos, black and white as well as color. recommended for west coasters and paul newman fans .
in sometimes a great movie: paul newman, ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel, author matt love documents the legend of that magical summer and presents over a 125 never - before - seen photographs, including many in color .
according to a 1970 article from newport' s
news - times ,
130 people came to lincoln county to work on
sometimes a great notion ,
and an equal number of residents were involved in the production, which lasted from june through september .
“sometimes a great notion” is set in the remote lumber country of the pacific northwest and has to do with the patriarchal stamper family, which is continuing to run its small, independent logging operation while the other loggers in the area are frozen by a, strike against a huge lumber combine .
in the summer of 1970, out on the central oregon coast, paul newman and company filmed a cinematic adaptation of ken kesey' s epic 1964 novel, sometimes a great notion. matt love' s new book (and the final installment in his newport trilogy), sometimes a great movie, chronicles the film' s production with an array of first - person accounts, photographs, and newspaper clippings of the time. a large portion of the book is composed of these local stories wherein coastal residents recall their interacti
on wednesday december 30th the sou’wester will host a rare public screening of sometimes a great notion. the movie, adapted from ken kesey’s epic novel about a defiant family of loggers, starred paul newman and was filmed on the central oregon coast during the summer of 1970. the film was released in 1971 to an indifferent nationwide audience but remains a cult classic in the pacific northwest .
paul newman experimented with that formula in 1970 by making a film with only one. in sometimes a great notion, richard jaeckel played the trusting, loyal joe ben who drowns as his cousin hank tries and fails to keep him alive. jaeckel was oscar nominated for a performance which culminates in that one scene, but what happened to the rest of kesey’s masterful epic ?
a tile mural built this summer outside city hall - the largest of its kind in the northwest - shows scenes from toledo' s history, including newman and fonda being filmed, and
sometimes a great notion
on the marquee of the downtown ross theater, which was torn down years ago .
it' s not a great film, nor is it what the trade likes to describe as an east side film, that is, something that exhibits a kind of white‐collar starchiness towards the idea of manual labor or sweaty physical efort of any sort .
ken kesey’s novel, sometimes a great notion (1964), is a complex and integrated historical background and relationship study of the stamper family, a prideful logging clan living in wakonda, oregon. this big story involves a man, his family, a town, the country, a period of time, and the effects of time. all of the elements of the novel including its characters, events, settings, symbols, and so on, are integrated and oriented toward the themes of independence, individualism, and self - sufficiency. the novel teaches that a person should have the right to try to be as big as he believes it is in him to be. sometimes a great notion was made into a 1971 film directed by and starring paul newman. in britain this film about generations of loggers was called never give an inch .
last year, i approached dale and shawrron searls, owners of the big o, about screening the film in the bar to promote my book about its production, “sometimes a great movie: paul newman, ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel. ” they enthusiastically agreed, and we staged the event on a thursday night in late january .
not long after the great day - glo man died in 2001, i found myself drinking beer in the bayhaven, an ancient tavern on newport’s bayfront. there i noticed hanging on a wall a framed poster of promotional stills from sometimes a great notion the movie. it was filmed in and around lincoln county in 1970 and includes scenes shot in the bayhaven, which stood in for the snag saloon from the novel .
when kesey wrote sometimes a great notion, jocks were winners. much of the plot concerns the courage the lanky, underdeveloped lee must summon to continue seducing the wife of his violent, physically powerful half brother. the better lee knows hank, the more he realizes how dangerous his plan is .
next, i attempted to contact newman directly via emails to several of his high profile business ventures. i never received a reply. i then perused three newman biographies and learned that he once drank to binge and blackout excess. the biographies also reported that the independent production of sometimes a great notion experienced major problems .
“sometimes a great notion” is an extremely interesting, , if impure (happily impure, i might add) example of a genre of action film that flourished in the 1930' s in movies abont tuna fishermen, bush pilots, high‐wire repairmen and just about any physical pursuit you can think of with the possible exception of tolltaking, which (except on some thruways) lacks the necessary element of danger .
paul newman makes his directorial debut in the sweeping saga sometimes a great notion. based on the best - selling novel about a two - fisted oregon lumber family, the story focuses on a family that bucks their close - knit timber community in order to deliver a shipment of logs in defiance of a strike. in the process, one man is killed, the family patriarch henry (henry fonda) is injured, and the eldest son hank (paul newman) almost loses his wife (lee remick) to his half brother (michael sarrazin). filled with complex characters and issues that still resonate today, sometimes a great notion is an intense portrait of life set against the backdrop of logging .
astoria writer matt love, author of sometimes a great movie: paul newman, ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel, will introduce the movie and take questions after the screening. he will also discuss new revelations about the legend of whether newman cut the legs off a tavern pool table with a chainsaw during the production .
on thursday, feb. 26, the big o saloon will reprise its public screening of “sometimes a great notion. ” the movie, adapted from ken kesey’s epic novel about a defiant family of loggers, starred paul newman and was filmed on the central oregon coast during the summer of 1970. the film was released in 1971 to an indifferent nationwide audience but remains a cult classic in the pacific northwest, particularly in logging / timber communities .
three days after hearing this fantastic story, i set out to corroborate its veracity. first i made a day trip to the toledo area, hit every bar and tavern and asked around about sometimes a great notion, the movie, and the alleged newman madness. no one had heard of it, but they all thought it could be true .
it can also be said that kesey’s life became his art. after notion he gravitated more to public performances, often in collaboration with various pranksters. the spontaneous creation of art through theatre and music had a great appeal for him .
in any case, sometimes a great notion was not registered for copyright by universal pictures and newman - foreman co. , inc. until 17 december 1971. if it had actually opened in december 1970, universal and paul newman would not have let a $ 4 million major production go without copyright protection for nearly a year while it played around the country for all of 1971 .
last month, the center held a gathering to recall the film. twenty - five people attended .
i enjoyed love' s look at the filming of
sometimes a great notion
on the central oregon coast. he blends stories from locals, background on the novel, and the film' s legacy; in the process, love shows what it was like to live in a quiet community and in the midst of hollywood stars. the film isn' t a well - known part of oregon history, so to hear stories from the set was a real treat. love shared a ton of fascinating stories, anecdotes, and reflections from that surreal era in oregon history, and
what better place to watch the greatest movie ever made about logging than in a real logger bar decorated with chainsaws and saw blades? well, “sometimes a great notion” is that movie, and the big o saloon in olney is about the best logger bar i’ve ever patronized. it certainly has the biggest chainsaw i’ve ever seen. rumor is: it still works .
at the age of 46 paul newman, then arguably hollywood’s biggest star, produced, directed and starred as the logger hank stamper in sometimes a great notion, one of the first high profile, independent american films. in addition to newman in the lead role, the film featured henry fonda, lee remick, michael sarrazin, and richard jaeckel, respectively as hank’s domineering father, unhappy wife, estranged brother and cousin .
restoring indian jenny to the plot would make an honest miniseries out of a sometimes a great notion, and communicate both the novel’s social and psychological complexity, and its epic sweep. i propose irene bedard to play the beautiful small town prostitute who falls in love with the young logger henry stamper, and whose thwarted union with him provides the narrative engine for the rest of the plot .
what ensued was a wild working vacation between hollywood and oregonians involving beer, sex, scotch, loggers, beaches, and perhaps, a spectacularly vandalized pool table. in sometimes a great movie: paul newman, ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel, author matt love documents the legend of that magical summer and presents over a 125 never - before - seen photographs, including many in color .
news item stated that the film might be shot in canada. by may 1970 ,
the incidents in the film were generally faithful to those in the book; however, many aspects of the book were not included in the film. as noted in the
and i am also here to claim that i will write the book that captures all the madness. it will be called sometimes a great party and hope to find enough of the home movie footage i know the locals shot to make a documentary to include as a dvd with the book .
thus opens ken kesey' s sprawling, drenched, riffing, old growth dense, beautifully flawed, lsd flavored, masterpiece of a novel, sometimes a great notion, set on the oregon coast, about a gyppo logging family, published in 1964, and undeniably the greatest oregon work of fiction of all time. if you live on the northwest coast and haven’t read it, you have no business living on the northwest coast .
i enjoyed love' s look at the filming of
sometimes a great notion
on the central oregon coast. he blends stories from locals, background on the novel, and the film' s legacy; in the process, love shows what it was like to live in a quiet community and in the midst of hollywood stars. the film isn' t a well - known part of oregon history, so to hear stories from the set was a real treat. love shared a ton of fascinating stories, anecdotes, and reflections from that surreal era in oregon history, and the story about paul newman and the pool table added a fun layer of intrigue to the book .
this film was the first movie ever shown on hbo when the service premiered in 1972 .
it seems like being around or involved in the filming of
notion
was a big deal in a lot of people' s lives and they were eager to talk about it .
never have i read a work that captures the true community feeling that inhabits the small costal town of newport, oregon better than in matt love' s sometimes a great movie: paul newman, ken kesey and the filming of the great oregon novel. the book itself is a testament to the greatness of the oregon coast. between the locally written stories about personal experiences and the author' s personal stories of discovering what really happened with paul newman, the saw and the pool table, love' s passion and dedication to uncovering and relaying the unique story of hollywood celebrities forming bonds with lincoln county locals is evident in every sentence. it' s impossible to not become passionate about both sometimes a great notion and the greatness and beauty of the oregon coast and it' s inhabitants while reading this book .
a miraculously non pc film from liberal paul newman that captures the feel and look of keseyland. richard jaeckel' s death is a classic scene within a ...
the best director award was presented to william friedkin (with his first nomination and win) for his first major feature the french connection - a tough, suspenseful crime film that preceded the similar cop film dirty harry by a few months .
when lee chooses to remain behind with hank, the brother he both loves and hates, we understand he has chosen death. he had his chance at life. viv = vitality = life. as viv watches the two men struggle to bring the logs down the river from the window of her greyhound bus out of town, she is ishmael escaping the unholy vortex of moby dick. kesey’s understanding of viv as a whole person, not a plot device, is entirely, but entirely, absent from the 1970 film adaptation of sometimes a great notion .
to make matters worse, he broke his ankle while riding a motorcycle for the film, which delayed production for weeks .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
he did publish other works after sometimes a great notion, but nothing of the same caliber. but anyone who has added great novelist, pioneering counterculture icon, and friend of neal cassady to his list of life accomplishments can be said to be a true artist of the highest order. he proved that art, literature and ideas can come in the form of the solitary composition of a work of literature, or in the form of a [ sychedelic bus crossing the country, blasting the new music, and taking the new reality to the masses. ken kesey was resolutely anti - establishment until the end of his days .
but then newman starts tunneling under the material, coming up with all sorts of things we didn' t quite expect, and along the way he proves himself (as he did with
rachel, rachel
) as a director of sympathy and a sort of lyrical restraint. he rarely pushes scenes to their obvious conclusions, he avoids melodrama, and by the end of
sometimes a great notion ,
we somehow come to know the stamper family better than we expected to .
as i drank in the bayhaven, asking patrons their opinions on sometimes a great notion, the novel and movie, a thickly bearded man wearing a baseball cap emerged from an alcove sheltering the video poker machines and moved toward me holding a hamm’s can. he sat next to me at the bar and said he had a story about the movie. a story about paul newman. would i like to hear it? yes, i would. i ordered him another hamm’s. he appeared anywhere from 40 - 70 years old, or what i call ota, oregon tavern age .
sometimes a great notion
is no classic. filmed five years earlier than
cuckoo' s nest
in newport and elsewhere along the oregon coast, it is best known for an incredible scene in which joe ben stamper (richard jaeckel) is trapped by a log and the incoming tide despite the best efforts of his cousin hank (paul newman) to rescue him. the movie is also the answer to a trivia question: what is the first program to be broadcast on hbo ?
the oregon press offered uniformly positive reviews when sometimes a great notion came out, but to me, it is a mediocre movie, unimaginatively adapted. newman and screenwriter john gay obviously read the novel and tried to conjure a coherent theme from a biblical work of fiction punctuated with manic stretches of stream - of - consciousness and multiple narrators (including a dog). but they failed. the movie is also marred by a terribly dubbed audio track and murky cinematography. if any scene remains memorable, it’s the harrowing sequence where jaeckel’s character is pinned under a log as a rising estuarine tide drowns him while newman tries to cut him free .
was based on the ken kesey novel of the same name, the first of his books to be adapted into a film. the
love has
sometimes a great notion
events scheduled around the state over the next few months. at 7: 30 p. m. may 25, he' ll be at powell' s city of books, 1005 w. burnside st. , along with a chain saw. at 6: 30 p. m. may 26, there will be a screening of the movie at the hollywood theatre, 4122 n. e. sandy blvd. a question - and - answer session will follow. for more appearances, see urltoken
the unmistakable cover, the book' s aesthetics fit for display, the photos worth cutting out to mount, and the author' s passion for making any topic, especially about oregon, interesting, are just a few reasons you should pick up a copy of sometimes a great movie for your next read. you' ll hardly believe the stories in this book, and that these things happened in a small town on the oregon coast. sometimes a great movies makes a perfect gift for anyone, oregonian or not. any reader will have to see the movie afterward, and probably visit lincoln county. sometimes a great movie is well - written, including personal accounts from folks that were in the film and around during the filming that are interesting; stories that make this history lesson one worth remembering and keeping alive. this is exactly what the author does with this book, matt love has a way of keeping the fun in oregon history, his passion for this is apparent. if you haven' t seen him read yet, you ought to catch one of his upcoming shows. did i mention that he prints his books locally ?
this film was the first movie ever shown on hbo when the service premiered in 1972. see more »
farrington thought people in new york or some other metropolis wouldn' t understand the oregon the film captured .
33. tangerines: this is estonia’s nomination in the foreign film category, though the film takes place in georgia, where, we are told, estonians emigrated once, only to return to their native land when armed conflicts began besieging the former soviet republics. tangerines is an interesting blend of new trends in the foreign film category (toward tougher, bleaker films) and old ones (it wraps itself in a poetic ending that is maybe a little pat). nomination: best foreign language film
an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
sorry to bother you .
i liked this film. got to see it on uk tv in mid 70s. it rarely airs now .
22. ida: many years, a foreign film is so acclaimed that it manages to get some spillover attention in the other categories. and while ida’s black - and - white cinematography was lovely, i wish this film had followed in amour ’s footsteps and garnered a best actress nomination for either of its leading ladies, agata kulesza and agata trzebuchowska. it’s their performances—one all sheltered curiosity, the other boozy, weary, and wise—that make this film special. nominations: best foreign language film, best cinematography
23. our curse: i’d love to be able to go into detail about this short film, a look at a pair of new parents whose child suffers a rare condition that requires a ventilator every night or else he will stop breathing and die, but if i think about it for too long, i’m just going to start sobbing again. the miserablism of the doc shorts is sometimes made fun of; there are years where the list reads like “cancer, holocaust, suicide, euthanasia, holocaust again. ” this year’s nominees could certainly fill out a similar checklist. but this heartbreaker of a film is a reminder that reducing these films to their subject matter is a great way to miss out on some intimate, disarming filmmaking. nomination: best documentary short
the big o will offer a hank stamper olympia and meatloaf sandwich special, free popcorn, the warmth of crackling woodstove fire to enjoy the film, and a special musical guest .
my husband had been searching everywhere for this movie, and i was like. . amazon! amazon has everything! so i ordered it for him friday, and it arrived tuesday = thanks to the perks of free 2 day shipping, through amazon prime! my husband is a logger, in oregon - and some of the guys he works with recommended this movie. we really enjoyed it. it shows a good true side to oregon loggers, even the process of the equipment, which many don' t get to see. it is not like the t. v show that' s full of drama. sometimes a great notion, is a wonderful movie featuring paul newman. it' s got a great story line behind it, with great acting skills. looks like it was filmed right in our oregon mountains as well, but i' m not sure. i highly recommend this movie !
review, the film' s final cost was considerably higher than its original budget of $ 3. 66 million .
great movie for the time it was made. i was super excited to finally watch the movie that was filmed in my county and now .
i met ken kesey at a book signing in 1993, and he signed my battered copy of sometimes a great notion, which i consider to be one of the best american novels, along with moby dick and on the road. kesey struck me not so much as a countercultural icon, but as an archetype of the old west: his still - powerful frame from his wrestling days, his calloused hands from hard work on his farm, and his sideburns. the sideburns and the jut of his jaw – suggesting that he was, in fact, hank stamper .
46. parvaneh: the story of a young afghan woman seeking asylum in switzerland. a sweet, generous film that doesn’t make a very big impact, relative to its competition. nomination: best live - action short
given the fact that shooting did not end until early october 1970 and that newman had difficulties editing the film, it' s highly improbable that the film was completed and scored in only 11 weeks, for release by 31 december 1970 .
thanks for that. it' s a magnificent book. i wish i had been fortunate enough to have gotten my copy signed. i believe it is the great american novel .
paul newman' s
sometimes a great notion
tells sort of an old - fashioned story about prideful clans carving empires out of the wilderness. the characters seem a little familiar, too. take the three most important. henry fonda is the proud old patriarch, paul newman is the son who stays at home but makes up his own mind, and michael sarrazin is the kid brother who comes back to the land with all sorts of half - baked notions and scores to settle. so far, the relationships remind us of
hud .
magic trip, a new film by alex gibney and alison ellwood, tells the story of novelist ken kesey' s 1964 road trip across america in a painted bus with a troupe of fanciful hippies and legendary beatnik neal cassady at the wheel .
36. the phone call: every once in a while, you get a short film with some star power. so it is here, as former oscar nominee sally hawkins (plus the voice of oscar winner jim broadbent) lend their talents to this story of a crisis hotline worker and a call that really shakes her up. the familiarity of an actress like hawkins is a huge boon to a movie that is really just one extended phone conversation, though a “name” actress can sometimes feel like an unfair advantage in the shorts categories. nomination: best live - action short
newman, already the star and co - producer of the major film, became the director after the original one resigned. a third of the movie already had been shot .
memories of the film have resurfaced thanks to toledo' s focus on history during the town' s year - long 100th birthday celebration .
“it’s my best work, and i’ll never write anything that good again. it’s a question of time spent on it. i worked on notion for two years without interruption, exploring symbols and characters and letting the narrative take its own way. ”
that imdb date of a 31 december 1970 u. s. release is highly suspect. according to the american film institute catalog, the film did not generally open in the u. s. until november 1971. (no specific date is given .) certainly, my recollection is that it opened late in 1971 .
still, it' s a treat to see saldana in a movie in which she' s not operating a rocket launcher or equipped with a blue tail .
noted that richard a. colla had been set to direct the film, which would be a jennings lang presentation. lang, the then - vice - president of universal films, was not listed in the onscreen credits .
50. white earth: if you’re looking to dispel the notion that oscar - nominated documentary shorts are all sad looks at bleak lives told through a filter of bittersweet perseverance, white earth is maybe not the short for you. nomination: best documentary short
i missed a great novel. i mean, i had the thing decades ago when raw and real young and began to give it a go but couldn' t continue. subsequently over the years i never really ever got a clue what i' d missed out on until now ...
when the film cuts away from the family soap opera dramatics and shows the macho men at work wielding their chainsaws at the logging camp among the giant trees, it has a buzz .
in the book, love blends reportage, memoir, primary documents, oral history, film criticism, and photographs to produce a unique, entertaining, visually rich work of non fiction .
the movie doesn' t seem very sure of what it thinks about the fonda character' s fierce and stubborn pride. the character himself believes all that matters is getting up for another day, and working, and eating, and sleeping, and getting on with life. another character, a brother - in - law, played by oscar nominee richard jaeckel, has been
saved
at the local fundamentalist church and has a sort of sweet simplicity that seems out of place - - until the scene where he dies. he dies in a way that is truly filled with grace and humor, and the scene is one of the several things in
sometimes a great notion
that make it worth seeing, even if its overall design is murky .
then in the spring of 2007, i found myself in the tiny toledo historical museum on a teaching errand completely unrelated to the sometimes a great notion story. on a lark, i asked the museum’s director if the archives held any material about the movie shoot. yes, the archives did. would i like to see them? yes, i would. a few minutes later i held an approximately 100 - page file containing newspaper and magazine clippings of local, state and national stories about the film’s production. there were even articles from the los angeles times and a trade publication called chain saw age, which featured newman on the cover wielding a mcculloch beast with what looked like a 60 - inch bar! the museum director told me that someone had compiled this file back in 1970 - 71 and turned it over to the museum years ago. to her knowledge, no one had ever looked at it. i paid her $ 50 on the spot to copy the entire file for me. i read it all later that night .
42. a single life: the elasticity of styles that can be found among the animated shorts every year makes it one of my favorite categories. with a single life, you get a cute little story about a woman who finds she can advance her life forward and backward with the needle on a record player. the entire film is two and a half minutes long. nomination: best animated short
a tribute to the late tab hunter, a gay matinee idol and hollywood trailblazer .
32. butter lamp: it takes a while to get used to what’s going on in butter lamp, which depicts a photographer setting up group shots of tibetans in front of various backgrounds. the poignancy, humor, and thoughtfulness of the setups (the great wall, disney world) add up to something more like a conceptual art project, reminiscent of the far heavier the missing picture, nominated in foreign language film last year. nomination: best live - action short
a member of british intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught, imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization and expose a traitor .
in his spare time, henry fonda sketched watercolors and collected agates. he bought himself a tumbler to polish his rocks. he also worried about the “sensibilities” of old trees cut down for the film .
someone is going to lose an arm, or worse, but we keep reading, sometimes afraid of what is going to happen, but unable to stop. the story builds relentlessly from its initial image .
shifting the action of the story to a completely different character as well as a different locality in just a short piece of dialogue .
52. the imitation game: for a while there, people really thought harvey weinstein was going to be able to muscle this one to a best picture win, through his usual mix of chutzpah and blunt - force marketing. better luck (with a better film ?) next year. nominations: best picture, best director, best actor, best supporting actress, best adapted screenplay, best film editing, best production design, best original score
after i introduced the film, we all settled in with food and drink and watched a movie containing incredible scenes of logging and log drives of the type that will never happen again because environmental regulations and industry changes disallowed or precluded them in the subsequent decades. forty - five years ago, that wasn’t part of the film’s inherent appeal, but it is today .
review mistakenly list the character of
joe ben
as
henry stamper' s
son. in 1977, the film was released on television under the title
barbara harris (with her sole nomination) as allison - an aspiring singer (co - star dustin hoffman' s girlfriend) in who is harry kellerman, and why is he saying those terrible things about me? [ the film has the remarkable distinction of having the longest title of any nominated film in academy history. ]
35. wild tales: if wild tales had been an english - language movie, there’s no way it would even get close to an oscar nomination. this series of vignettes—most of them darkly comedic, most of them circling a theme of vengeance—plays like lesser tarantino and would probably be brushed off as a popcorn movie and nothing more. but in a foreign language film race where so many entries are solemn, thoughtful, slow affairs, wild tales plays like a hugely refreshing change of pace. nomination: best foreign language film
in june 1970, the biggest movie star in the world traveled to the oregon coast to film an epic novel about a defiant family of loggers written by a home grown counterculture hero. the star was paul newman. the author was ken kesey. the story was
a radio station in the deep south becomes the focal point of a right - wing conspiracy .
21. still alice: throughout awards season, this movie has been treated solely as a julianne moore vehicle. a car service, in particular. one that picks her up from the airport and drives her directly to the best actress oscar she so richly deserves. but it’s too bad the rest of the movie couldn’t get a little love, for its smart and sensitive storytelling, or for its great supporting performances from kristen stewart and alec baldwin. moore still towers over the film, but it’s a shame that the academy couldn’t look beyond her. nomination: best actress
25. two days, one night: jean - pierre and luc dardenne have never once been nominated for a foreign film oscar. not even this year. but through a clever bit of noncampaigning (every time marion cotillard didn’t show up at a precursor event, some critic would write about what a shame it was she was being passed over), their film managed to snag a mention in one of the big four categories. that’s not bad. hopefully it leads to more people seeing this quiet, powerful movie about a woman going door to door in her community to try and save her job. nomination: best actress
8. begin again: writer / director john carney’s follow - up to once didn’t receive the acclaim that its predecessor did, though it ended up getting the exact same oscar nomination. (“lost stars” probably won’t win like “falling slowly” did .) i spent much of this film marveling that i wasn’t more irritated by this story of a down - and - out music producer (mark ruffalo) who discovers a sad singer - songwriter (keira knightley) in a bar and decides to produce her record. but the film walks a difficult tightrope between sentimentality and a kind of process story about making music off the grid, and in the balance it finds an unvarnished sweetness. also amazing: the nominated song sounds so great, despite being performed by adam levine. nomination: best original song
sometimes a grnat noticin, ” ken kesey' s second novel, adapted by john gay and directed by paul newman opened at 22 theaters here yesterday, which probably means that it will be in and out of town so quickly that a lot of people who might like to see it won' t have the chance .
mr. love has captured a slice of oregon - american pie at a pivotal time in [ relatively ] recent history. that he has managed to do so without ken kesey, paul newman and the original director of this film is now small feat. manage he does, however, and readers of mr. kesey, along with film buffs everywhere, are in for a treat as they delve into this tall true - tale. well - worth the $ 30. 00 price tag .
the film barely managed to open in los angeles in time to qualify for the 1971 academy awards (awarded in 1972). the film received two 1971 nominations - - best actor in a supporting role for richard jaeckel and best music, original song, for henry mancini (music), alan bergman (lyrics), and marilyn bergman (lyrics) for the song
all his children
.
10. timbuktu my favorite of the foreign - language nominees this year comes from mauritania, a first - time nominee in this category. it’s been heartening to watch the category expand over the last decade or so, branching out from the usual haunts of france, italy, and sweden to cover a more comprehensive vision of foreign film. timbuktu couldn’t be more vital, telling a story about an islamist takeover in west africa. that it tells such a story without extravagance and with a careful focus on its characters makes it worthy of winning, though it probably won’t. nomination: best foreign language film
since i knew nothing about the book by ken kesey nor the movie, i got both (audio book) to prepare for this new book by matt love (i' m a fan of all of his books and knew that this one would be good). i only got halfway thru the audio book and watched the movie before reading sometimes a great movie. matt' s book does a wonderful job of making this reader want to finish the audio book, watch the movie a few more times, read the novel and visit oregon. i look forward to attending some of his book promotions as he will undoubted have much more say .
brit - born peter finch (with the first of two career nominations - he won best actor for network (1976) ) as dr. daniel hirsh - a middle - aged, homosexual doctor involved in a three - sided love story in the british film sunday, bloody sunday
q. it seems like
notion
was one of those movies that fell through the cracks - - different versions of different lengths, changed title, etc. what is the critical consensus on it, and where does it stand in the history of oregon culture ?
38. the tale of the princess kaguya: in a typical year, the animated feature lineup contains a pixar slot, a disney slot, and a dreamworks slot. looks like now there’s a slot for studio ghibli, which has nabbed nominations for the wind rises and howl’s moving castle, not to mention a win for spirited away. isao takahata’s first film in 14 years is undeniably beautiful, like a watercolor come to life, but at the risk of heresy... it kind of drags. nomination: best animated feature
within days, i received about a dozen leads connecting me to friends, parents, and relatives who had some role in the film’s production or servicing the hollywood people. and frankly, the stories were incredible—better yet, totally unreported .
29. leviathan: the big story here is that a movie this critical of the russian establishment—the way government corruption filters down to destroy the lives of ordinary, good families—was selected to be russia’s official foreign submission to the oscars. the film itself certainly makes an impression, with its whale - skeleton metaphor about how the cross - contamination of government and business is too big a monster to fight. i’m pretty sure i got it. nomination: best foreign language film
but somehow, this bomb of a movie took in $ 133 million in its opening weekend. not only does that total beat the better - reviewed deadpool (84 percent on rotten tomatoes), which i loved, it smashed the august box office records previously set in 2014 by guardians of the galaxy, which i really loved. and this doesn’t seem to be a fluke: deadline reports suicide squad is posting great weekday numbers, beating even the vaunted captain america: civil war for a tuesday box - office record. hence my confusion. how could such a poorly reviewed film make so much money?
sometimes a great notion ( a.k.a. never give a inch ) is a 1970 american drama film directed by paul newman and starring newman , henry fonda , michael sarrazin and lee remick . the cast also includes richard jaeckel in an academy award-nominated performance . the screenplay by john gay is based on the 1964 novel of the same title by ken kesey , the first of his books to be adapted for the screen . filmed in the summer of 1970 , it was released that new year 's eve . 
sometimes a great notion (a.k.a. never give a inch) is a 1970 american drama film directed by paul newman and starring newman, henry fonda, michael sarrazin and lee remick. the cast also includes richard jaeckel in an academy award-nominated performance. the screenplay by john gay is based on the 1964 novel of the same title by ken kesey, the first of his books to be adapted for the screen. filmed in the summer of 1970, it was released that new year's eve.
sometimes a great notion (a.k.a. never give a inch) is a 1970 american drama film directed by paul newman and starring newman, henry fonda, michael sarrazin and lee remick. the cast also includes richard jaeckel in an academy award-nominated performance. the screenplay by john gay is based on the 1964 novel of the same title by ken kesey, the first of his books to be adapted for the screen. filmed in the summer of 1970, it was released that new year's eve.