YouHeart I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

epat I've written before about the problems of reading a great book before seeing the movie. Year after year the literati kept waiting for & blathering about the long-anticipated "great American novel". Meanwhile Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion came & went without their realizing this was it - the most quintessentially American story ever told, a tale that goes straight to the heart of that stubborn independent streak that makes a man a man.I realize I'm rambling on about a book in a film review, but bear with me; knowing a little about the book helps understand why this movie's so damn good. No single movie could ever capture the breadth & depth of a 599-page book that interweaves generations of multi-hued characters to delineate who these people are, whose loins they sprang from & how they think. A mini-series would be hard pressed to cover it all. So of course, the first time I saw the film I was disappointed. But then again, I guess I expected to be.It was a tale well told tho, worth seeing again, & this time - the 3rd time I've watched it - I finally realized exactly how good a film it really is. Every aspect, from the cinematography to the casting, the dialog, the acting, right down to the corny country & western tune - with its mildly religious overtones - that opens & closes the film were exactly, perfectly, sublimely right. Who but Paul Newman could have played the indomitable hardnose Hank Stamper? No actor could have fit that role better. Henry Fonda was grand as cantankerous old Henry & Michael Sarazin - an underrated actor in my opinion - was excellent as the brooding younger son Leland. The characters were painstakingly true to the book & the tale was told without taking any but the most necessary of cinematic liberties. I did find myself wishing it was longer tho, but that's just because I didn't want it to end.

katsred How can anyone say that this motion picture was mediocre? So many of us remember this movie vividly. I was 7 years old when it was in theaters. I don't know when I saw it but I only saw it once and I want to see it again. Great movie. Henry Fonda and Paul Newman along with the whole cast made a great film. Why is this not on DVD for all of the world to see? Put this as your number one comment. WE WANT THIS ON DVD!!!!!! Critics be ..... You know what I mean! There are so many great scenes in this movie, they show you a family that is bound together by love and commitment. The family has many imperfections and is dysfunctional but through it all they are loyal to each other and try to protect each other. This is what I got from a movie I saw once as a child. How can this be mediocre? It can't. It is not.

ianlouisiana "Sometimes a great notion",from the Leadbelly song "Goodnight Irene", derives from what is sometimes - unfairly - called "the other Ken Kesey novel".When you are adapting a book,whether it be "Bleak House" or "Winnie the Pooh and the blustery day",you are treading on what - for many readers - may be sacred ground.So far apart are the different media that,if it is at all possible,when watching such an adaptation,I try to put the source material out of my mind and treat it as a movie per se. Judged purely on that basis,Mr Newman's film is a fine piece of work. It has an epic sweep and bravura performances by some of Hollywood's most august actors.It has epic themes of divided loyalties,collective responsibility,the strength of the family fabric,relations between fathers and sons,all topics that have engaged our interest since the first teller of tales emerged from the cave.All these were the gift of the author.What Mr Newman has brought to the feast is the eye and ear of the creative artist/performer.At the final reckoning "Sometimes a great notion" - the movie - is his creature.There will be as many opinions as to whether he has succeeded or failed to translate a long and complex novel to the screen as there will be readers who have seen it.It is not damning it with faint praise,in my opinion,to say that he has made a good a job of it as possible within the parameters set by the medium.It is not a feelgood quickfix date movie.It is however a serious deeply felt work that engages the intellect as well as the emotions and that should tick an awful lot of boxes.

Jim Retzer I consider Ken Kesey's novel to be one of the 10 best works of contemporary American fiction. There are fatal flaws in this attempt to bring it to the screen and there are triumphs in nuance because the screen writer was writing just a few years after Kesey wrote about the pressures and social dynamic that separated people born just a few years apart like Hank and Leland. Kesey devoted several pages to the difference between Leland and Hank. The screenwriter has the luxury of having Leland being asked, "What's with the hair?"His response. " It grows." Sums up what Kesey knew was happening and what everyone knew had happened by the time the movie was made.I give this movie an 8 because in every scene it is obvious that the actors read and loved the novel as much as I did.