Inherit the Wind (1960 film)

Inherit the Wind is a 1960 Hollywood film adaptation of the 1955 play of the same name, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, directed by Stanley Kramer.

A television remake of the film was released in 1965. Another television remake starring Jason Robards and Kirk Douglas aired in 1988. It was once again remade for TV in 1999, costarring Jack Lemmon as Drummond and George C. Scott as Brady.Inherit the Wind is a fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, which resulted in John T. Scopess conviction for teaching Charles Darwins theory of evolution to a high school science class, contrary to a Tennessee state law. The characters of Matthew Harrison Brady, Henry Drummond, Bertram Cates and E. K. Hornbeck correspond to the historical figures of William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, Scopes, and H. L. Mencken, respectively. However, Lee and Lawrence state in a note at the opening of the play on which the film is based that it is not meant to be a historical account, and many events were substantially altered or invented. For instance, the characters of the preacher and his daughter were fictional, the townspeople werent hostile towards those who had come to Dayton for the trial, and Bryan offered to pay Scopes fine if he was convicted. Bryan did die shortly after the trials conclusion, but his death occurred five days later in his sleep. Political commentator Steve Benen said of the dramas inaccuracies Scopes issued no plea for empathy, there was no fiancee and the real Scopes was never arrested. Lawrence explained in a 1996 interview that the plays purpose was to criticize McCarthyism and defend intellectual freedom. According to Lawrence, we used the teaching of evolution as a parable, a metaphor for any kind of mind control ... Its not about science versus religion. Its about the right to think. ........

Source: Wikipedia