Friendly Persuasion is a 1956 Palme d'Or-winning Civil War film starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton and Phyllis Love. The screenplay was adapted by Michael Wilson from the 1945 novel The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West, and was directed by William Wyler. The film was originally released with no screenwriting credit because Wilson was on the Hollywood blacklist. His credit was restored in 199...
more
Friendly Persuasion is a 1956 Palme d'Or-winning Civil War film starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton and Phyllis Love. The screenplay was adapted by Michael Wilson from the 1945 novel The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West, and was directed by William Wyler. The film was originally released with no screenwriting credit because Wilson was on the Hollywood blacklist. His credit was restored in 1996.
The film tells the story of a pacifist Quaker family in southern Indiana during the American Civil War.
The protagonist of the story is Jess Birdwell (Gary Cooper) the patriarch of the Birdwell family whose worldliness is forever coming in conflict with his being a Quaker. Jess's wife Eliza (Dorothy McGuire) is a deeply religious woman and is steadfast in her refusal to engage in violence of any sort. Jess's daughter Mattie (Phyllis Love) wants to remain a Quaker but has fallen in love with a dashing cavalry officer (Peter Mark Richman), a...
less
