With: Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins.
Written by Michael Wilson. Directed by William Wyler.
Southern Indiana, the middle of the Civil War. Farmer Jess Birdwell, his preacher wife, Eliza, and their three children (a teenage son and daughter and younger son) are simple folks cheerfully immersed in the ordinary business of living: getting the work and chores done, having a little fun, enjoying friends and neighbors, going to church. They hear rumors of Confederate raiders in their area, but are mostly too busy to dwell on the ominous possibilities.
The Birdwells are Quakers, and their religious commitment to non-violence makes the movie’s growing allusions to oncoming aggression all the more unsettling. These are good, decent, likable people … who have no intention of defending themselves. What will happen when the brutal realities of war engulf them?
The groundwork for that collision is laid with gentle, good-humor throughout the film, as each family member grapples with what seem to us – across 150 years – like some remarkably innocuous personal temptations. Is it okay to have a musical instrument in your home, if your denomination frowns on making melody? What about dancing, or tapping your feet to a lively beat? Or driving your buggy fast on a country road?
The movie finds a great deal of fun in the Birdwells’ moral struggles, but never mocks their beliefs. It’s rare, indeed, to find a film that so seriously appreciates the depths and subtleties of faith, and how ordinary Christians “work out [their] own salvation” (Philippians 2:12-13) amid the push and pull and undertow of daily circumstances.
The resolutions of their more minor dilemmas quietly inform the Birdwells’ various responses to what soon becomes – for each of them – the decisive moment of their lives. By then, it’s not just the very real physical dangers they face that concern us; we actually worry for their souls. Every member of the family is facing a crisis of conscience so profound that it may well change their relationship with God and each other forever.
The film is unusually insightful about many things: the nuances of husband / wife relations, the challenges of parenting, the adventure of life through the eyes of a child. But it’s particularly thoughtful about the ways our deepest beliefs and individuality often separate us from even our most cherished family and friends … even as love binds us our hearts ever more tightly together.
“I only hope, whatever happens, I can be an instrument of the Lord,” Jess says, early on. It’s a prayer, really, and the story hinges on how it is answered. Turns out, when it comes to instruments … the Lord has assembled a truly remarkable orchestra.
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