O Sol Brilha na Imensidade

It would be nice to be able to discuss this film without having to refer to its politically incorrect depiction of blacks, but it's impossible to do so. The film, which is a remake of director John Ford's own Judge Priest from the 30s (in which Will Rogers played the title role), must have seemed curiously dated even when it was released, and feels like it was made in the early forties rather than the mid-fifties. Whether that's because of its outdated attitude towards blacks and the presence of slow, scratchy-voiced Stepin Fetchit is open to conjecture – it could just be that the fog of nostalgia that hangs over the entire work is the reason.

Charles Winninger makes an amiable old judge whose quiet wisdom puts to shame the hypocritically puritanical attitudes of his small town's people and the racist assumptions of an unruly lynch mob out to hang a blameless teenage Negro. The storyline is kind of meandering, reflecting the apparently relaxed pace of life in the turn of the century Deep South, and you do really get a taste of Southern gentility – whether accurate not. Its various sub-plots are linked together by the judge's bid for re-election, which serves to emphasise the importance of standing by one's principles no matter what the possible personal costs may be. Of course, the truth is Billy Priest is too good to be true, but I don't think anyone was out to make him a more realistic figure in this milieu than Santa Claus or God would have been.

John Ford's notorious sentimentality is in danger of becoming cloying at times, but he just about manages to rein it in at key moments. The film says as much about Hollywood's take on American social attitudes in the mid-50s as it does about the same in the Deep South at the turn of the century, which isn't in itself a bad thing. I suppose it's even possible that one day films like this will be shown in classrooms to demonstrate the gigantic positive strides made in the cause of racial equality in the latter half of the 20th Century. Better that than they are wilfully ignored in the name of political correctness.

'The Sun Shines Bright' is my all-time favourite movie and, though it is now more than 50 years old, there is not one better that has been made since. I first saw it on BBC TV way back and, having taped it for my own use, I never tire of it. The plot, based on stories by Irvin S. Cobb, is beautifully acted out, especially by Charles Winninger as Judge Billy Priest. The evolving drama is most moving. The post-Civil War period setting and atmosphere are perfectly caught by the greatest of all movie directors, John Ford, and the 'moral' (an apparently out-dated word, but still as relevant today as in the 1950s when the movie was made) of this splendid entertainment is still worth marking, learning and inwardly digesting. If Kentucky is still as it is pictured, even if in black-and-white, may I please move there right now?!

One of the odd aspects of this film is the post Civil War background that looms large to a greater or lesser degree throughout. This takes the form of a blatantly obvious pro Confederate stance, and an almost religious idolatry of 'Dixie'. Halliwell tells us that Judge Priest, the moral heart of the film, "has trouble quelling the Confederate spirit" - but the opposite is the case - the judge is absolutely central to maintaining and celebrating that spirit. The oddness comes because, it seems to me at least, we are not used to seeing such a character defending black rights, preventing a lynching, etc. Even more peculiar is to see such a 'happy' black population - particularly the quite disturbing courthouse scene where 2 black characters suddenly burst into a grotesque song and dance routine. "Mississippi Burning" this certainly isn't! But certainly a film worth watching, and the prostitute's daughter's funeral scene is excellently done. It somehow feels older than 1953.

I will make an introductory, Autobiographical comment.I am , by training, a Political Theorist and a student of American Institutions.A long time ago, I saw a list of the ten greatest films ever made. The only one I had never heared of was The Sun Shines Bright...Only later did I discover that Ford listed it, with Wagonmaster, as one of his two favorite films. I wrote an essay on Fords "democratic poetics" for a course on Tocqueville(!)In the essay, I analyzed Wagonmaster and the Sun Shines Bright. Wagonmaster(implicitly) and The Sunshines Bright(explicitly)are films about politics, and about democracy. Wagonmaster is ,in fact a pilgrimage narrative, while The Sunshines Bright takes place in a "polis", the tiny Kentucky town of Fairfield,during an election.The whole story is, in fact, a meditation on democracy, leadership, compassion and tradition.Charles Winninger is superb. The Prostitutes funeral,with its closing scene in the church,where Priest quotes the Bible, is simply grand.The parade at the end is very touching, and the final shot of the lonely, but beloved Priest walking alone into his house, is almost equal to the end of The Searchers....Ford was indeed the grand lion of the cinema.

A sort of remake of Judge Priest, taking on a slightly different selection of short stories by Irvin S. Cobb about his character of Billy Priest, The Sun Shines Bright is a more refined telling of a very similar set of stories than the earlier version. Still steeped in nostalgia for an idealized Kentucky post-Civil War and missing the presence of Will Rogers, replaced capably by Charles Winninger, the movie is a sweet look at one man making his little town better by simply being good and decent. Ford would later say that it was one of his favorite movies he made himself, holding it up as an example of what he was trying to do in the movies.

Billy Priest (Winninger) is a local judge up for re-election in the next few days against his opponent, the county prosecutor Horace K. Maydew (Milburn Stone). Priest helps to let off a young black man, US Grant Woodford (Elzie Emanuel), son to Priest's servant Uncle Plez (Ernest Whitman) of a small charge, helped by his ability with a banjo. That same day, Ashby Corwin (John Russell) returns to town after years away and gains an eye for the social pariah Lucy Lee Lake (Arleen Whelan), a woman of unknown parentage, the ward of the local doctor. She's pretty and young, but no one will approach her because of the knowledge that her mother was a woman of not a well-looked upon profession.

The closest thing this film has to a plot is Priest navigating the eventful few days before the election to both do what he thinks is right and to try and win re-election. The central piece to all of this is US going into a white part of town where a trio of hound dogs chase him up a tree after a young white woman is attacked and left unconscious. Because the dogs went after US, the people in the small community think it was him and they're ready to lynch him the first chance they get. In a scene reminiscent of the future president talking down a mob in Young Mr. Lincoln, Priest tries to talk down the mob before pulling a gun on them and threatening to shoot them should they try to break down the door, scattering them for a time. At a teetotalling election dinner where Priest must try to keep his fellow ex-Confederate soldiers happy in the face of an evening without alcohol, the sheriff rolls up with the actual perpetrator whom the girl identified after she woke up, Buck (Grant Withers) whom had insulted Lucy on the street earlier in the film.

Concurrently, an older woman (Dorothy Jordan), sick with disease, comes into town and dies in the local brothel despite the doctor's good care. She is Lucy's mother, a former paramour of the Confederate general Fairfield (James Kirkwood) whom has known that Lucy was his daughter for years due to her resemblance to the woman he had known and refused to acknowledge her as well. The woman's dying wish was to have a real funeral with a preacher giving a sermon. When she does die, Priest leads the funeral procession that he pays for himself, his act of goodwill towards an unwanted member of society inspiring the people of the town to join in and attend her funeral where he reads the story of Jesus saving Mary Magdalene. It's a real sweet moment as Priest uses his status of authority in the town to extend a gracious hand towards a woman forgotten and cast aside, even in death.

Needless to say, his efforts at just being a decent man, saving US's life by holding off the mob, being a gracious individual to the veterans of the Union army also living in the town, and holding a funeral for a forgotten woman, end up giving him the necessary votes to winning his re-election. It's not challenging, but it is heartfelt and warm. I do miss the easy charm of Will Rogers in the role, but Charles Winninger is nice as Priest. He's a good old man, set in his ways, but he just doesn't have that same kind of appeal as Rogers that I found so affectionate in Judge Priest. Overall, though, I find this to be the better film.

The story is more cohesive, comes to a nicer conclusion that's not as steeped in Confederate rose-colored glasses, and is more emotionally resonant. It's a very nice movie.