At first I was surprised at the number of votes for this film, but on reflection, it becomes all too clear why this is so. This film may be too literate for contemporary audiences. How many people now know who Henry Adams, Owen Wister, and Louis Brandeis WERE? Still, one shouldn't have to be a constitutional law scholar to love a film so well acted and so rich in Human interest. Yes, the film does occasionally sentimentalise Holmes. So? I find it fascinating that Emmett Lavery, a devout Catholic, educated by Jesuits, was able to paint such a warm portrait of the atheist (and lets not mince words-he WAS an atheist) Holmes, who had little use for moral absolutes or the Natural Law. In short, a very fine film, of the sort that is impossible to make nowadays.
Review of The Magnificent Yankee
