Friendly Persuasion (1956)

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

21 Aug 2007 01:37 PM

"Friendly Persuasion" stars Gary Cooper as Jess Birdwell, father of a Quaker family. He and his wife Eliza (Dorothy McGuire) have raised their children to adhere to all the Quaker beliefs - in fact, Eliza is a Quaker minister. They behave with decorum, they don't fight, drink, or smoke, and they seek the Lord in everything they do. They are living a peaceful life until the outside world threatens everything they hold dear.

The year is 1862, and the Civil War is drawing close to their Indiana home. Many men in the community have taken up arms to defend their families. Jess doesn't know what he would do. He firmly believes that killing is wrong, but when it comes down to defending his family, wouldn't he do whatever it took? His teenage son Josh is also conflicted, feeling guilty that other men are out fighting to protect him while he stays home. Eliza remains strong in her conviction that they should not fight, but then, the war is still a little ways down the road and is not on their doorstep quite yet.

Meanwhile, Mattie, the daughter, is falling in love with Guard, who is not only a soldier but a Methodist and thereby doubly unsuitable for her. But she can't help it - she's smitten. And after all the harsh and horrible things he's seen in war, Guard is drawn to her sweet innocence.

Before the end of the film, this family's beliefs have been challenged in every way imaginable. Josh goes off to fight in the war, Mattie becomes engaged to Guard, and - horror of horrors - Jess buys an organ, strictly forbidden in the Quaker faith. But through it all, the family remains strong, and while certain compromises are reached, what never changes is their loyalty to each other, their devotion to the Lord, and their integrity.

My only complaint with this film is that they spent a long time building up to the war and to Mattie's engagement, and then only spent a few minutes on those events. We are told that Mattie's parents will have a hard time with her relationship, but then we never see their reaction. Overall, however, it was a beautiful film and I highly recommend it.

This movie was unrated.

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Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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Dale Harcombe (10415) 11 Apr 2008 02:38 PM

As I already said on my blog This is my favorite movie of all time. http://christian.families.com/blog/how-far-would-you-go I wish when I wrote that blog I'd known you had this review up, Iwould have linked to it.

Tristi Pinkston (10839) 11 Apr 2008 04:29 PM

You can go in and edit your blog if you wanna. :) I'd never heard of this film until I saw someone mention it on their personal blog, and I really am glad they did. It's such a great film. It reminds me of "Shenandoah" in a lot of ways, too.