Inherit the Wind

Stanley Kramer's Inherit the Wind is a 1960 film about the famous Scopes 'Monkey' trial of 1925 but ironically it's still relevant in today's society. John Scopes, a high school teacher, was accused of violating a state law that made teaching evolution in any state funded school a crime. This film is not just about evolution vs creationism, it is a jibe at the religious fanaticism that always has been clouting the minds of millions. The performances from Spencer Tracy and Fredric March and the strong dialogue makes the film a Hollywood classic.

 The story takes place in the small town of Hillsboro, Oregon. The case of Bertram Cates, the high school teacher, suddenly becomes famous when Mathew Brady (Fredric March), three time presidential candidate and a biblical scholar decides to fight for the prosecution. E.K. Hornbeck (Gene Kelly) a journalist for the Baltimore Herald decides to bring Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy) , a lawyer known for his staunch atheist views. The trial that follows is surely one of the most entertaining trials in American film history.

The high point of the movie occurs when Drummond decides to put Brady on the box as a witness for the defense. The dialogue between Drummond and Brady raises some fundamental issues about the way organised religion is practised. When Brady asks Drummond if nothing is holy to him he answers, "The individual human mind. In a child's ability to master the multiplication table, there is more holiness than all your shouted hosannas and holy of holies." The film is not against religion, it is against the way religion blurs the clarity of the human mind. The film acknowledges the necessity of faith in our lives. I am myself a theist turned agnostic. Our lives are filled with pains and miseries. Some people have the courage and mental strength to bear everything without believing in any higher power, but most people don't. People need to place their belief in something which is an eternal source of hope. Throughout the centuries perpetrators of organised religion have used this weakness of man to manipulate them. Organised religion has turned man into a God fearing species instead of a God loving species. It is our foremost duty to make sure the wheels turn the other way.