Sometimes A Great Notion (1971)

A group of Oregon loggers go on strike demanding the same pay for shorter hours. They are backed up by their union. But the independent Stamper family lead by its cantankerous patriarch (Henry Fonda) and his eldest son (Paul Newman, who also directed) refuse to honor the strike and continue to supply the mill owners with logs. Based on the Ken Kesey (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST) novel, the film is a paean to the rugged individualist. But the Stamper family are a rather arrogant and unlikable bunch so its hard to drum up much empathy for the tragedies and hardships that befall them. I suppose it's to the film's credit that it doesn't attempt to soften them up in order to make them more sympathetic but when the eldest son's wife (Lee Remick) finally decides she's had enough and leaves him, you totally understand why. Fonda seems rather miscast as a rugged womanizing right wing lumberjack (John Wayne would have been perfect) but Newman manages overcome his miscasting with an effective performance. The scene stealer in the movie is Richard Jaeckel who has one of those once in a lifetime roles (like Ben Johnson's Sam in THE LAST PICTURE SHOW) that veteran actors who have been toiling in the business for years that finally gets them recognition. He earned a well deserved Oscar nomination but lost to Johnson for TLPS. The often majestic cinematography by Richard Moore (THE REIVERS) takes full advantage of the ripe Oregon landscapes. I'm less enthusiastic over Henry Mancini's ill advised country and western underscore, it's Oregon not Tennessee or Texas. With Michael Sarrazin, Linda Lawson and Joe Maross.