As part of their Arts4Freedom programming, Holland Zeeland Indivisible is pleased to host two classic films in Holland in September: Inherit the Wind and The Great Dictator.
Inherit the Wind will be shown at 7 p.m. on September 17 at the Park Theatre, 248 S. River Avenue. Historian Jeanne Petit, chair of the Hope College History Department, and dramatist Norman Bert, professor emeritus of theatre at Texas Tech University, will provide commentary. Admission is free; a cash bar and popcorn will be available.
Inherit the Wind, originally released in 1960, features Spencer Tracy and Fredric March. Written in response to the McCarthy years, it was a fictionalized account of the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee in 1925. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert said, “It is Inherit the Wind, among all of [director Stanley] Kramer’s films that seems most relevant and still generates controversy.” The film earned four Academy Award nominations and was a Top 10 Films award winner from the National Board of Review.
The second film in the series, The Great Dictator, written, directed, produced by, and starring Charlie Chaplin, will be shown on Sunday, September 27, at 3 p.m. at the Park Theatre. Historian Janis Gibbs, professor of history at Hope College, and dramatist Norman Bert, professor emeritus of theatre at Texas Tech University, will provide commentary. Admission is free; a cash bar and popcorn will be available.
The Great Dictator, a 1941 Oscar nominee for Best Picture, stars Paulette Gaddard with Chaplin. It’s a brilliant satire, both comic and pointed. About it, Roger Ebert said, “Chaplin’s… portrait of Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomania, was among the first declarations of war on Hitler….. This is Chaplin’s most serious, most tragic, most human work. He did not find Hitler at all funny, needless to say, and so although he uses his own comic genius to inspire the movie, the comedy is never neutral. It is jugular….”
Both films are sponsored by Holland Zeeland Indivisible, Out on the Lakeshore, the Hope College History Department, In Memory of Luke Silvasi, and others. Maggie Einhaus, project lead for the film screenings, says, “We’ve selected these films for their timeless relevance. We hope people will come ready to be both entertained and intrigued!”