Inherit the Wind: Faith, Science, and the Scopes Trial

Introduction: Setting the Scene

"Give me that old time religion," proclaims the first strains of the soundtrack of Inherit the Wind, a 1960 Hollywood dramatization of a Broadway play of the same name. Yet the film is not about the revivalist tent meeting that opens it and sets the scene of its narrative framework. Rather, Inherit the Wind is primarily a courtroom drama that pits faith against reason in the form of two esteemed lawyers. The film's plot revolves around the John Scopes "Monkey" Trial and the issues it raised about science, faith, and religion in the American educational system. This real-life event took place in the Bible Belt of America during the turn of the twentieth century.

A biology teacher named John Scopes at a local high school in the small town of Hillsborough had the audacity to teach evolution to his students and was arrested as a result. The central question the film poses to its viewer is whether the teacher was right to violate the statute of his locality. One way to view this issue, as the film suggests, is that parents have a right to exercise local control over what their children learn — the ordinary people of Hillsborough have a right to raise their children according to their religious values, as guaranteed by the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom. However, the defense attorney portrayed by Spencer Tracy, Drummond, sees such local ordinances as violating both the teacher Scopes' own freedom of expression and the ability of human intellectual progress to reach the minds of a small town. No American community can live in the past, Drummond believes.

The Trial at the Heart of the Film

Ironically, although the town defends its right to set local standards, it brings in a well-known progressive yet religious attorney named Brady to lead the prosecution of John Scopes. This noted politician and former Democratic Progressive presidential contender declares that he fears the moral impact that teaching evolution to impressionable young minds will have upon the youth of America. The film begins with the early days of the trial and the publicity the Scopes Trial has drawn to "Heavenly Hillsborough, the buckle of the Bible Belt." In dramatizing the subject of evolution, the film also reveals the ability of a small town to capitalize on media attention, drawing money and tourism to the tiny municipality. Some parents may cry out that they wish to protect their children from the larger world, but everyone in Hillsborough seems to want publicity and money rather than shelter from national celebrity.

Media, Spectacle, and Small-Town Ambition

Suddenly, all of Hillsborough is captivated by receiving such eminent guests as Drummond and Brady, and does its best to court the attention of the media, embodied by the cynical Northern reporter played by Gene Kelly. Most of the media, and even some of the ostensibly religious townsfolk, do not seem to care very much whether the teacher is jailed or fined for attempting to exercise his freedom of speech and challenge young people to engage more critically with their faith and with modern science. They are excited primarily by the prospect of money, scandal, publicity, and above all the spectacle of the courtroom drama itself.

Conclusion: What Does the Film Teach?

The film thus serves its purpose not merely to entertain but to deepen the audience's understanding of the American experience during the Progressive Era. It illustrates the widening chasm between the sophisticated East, embodied by the reporters, and America's religious heartland — where, denied the economic opportunities of the cities, faith becomes the central pillar of everyday existence, alongside a characteristically American eagerness to capitalize on celebrity. The film also gives viewers a richer appreciation of the political, economic, social, and cultural heritage of the United States. It reminds the audience that America is at once a secular nation in its laws, grounded in the adversarial system of the trial, and an intensely populist nation in its common culture and public dialogue, with a vibrantly religious people.

The major forces shaping the contemporary world — the dueling historical perspectives of religion and science, different American regional orientations toward faith, and a growing awareness of the early history of celebrity and the popular press's role in framing emotional and scientific debates — are all present in the film version of Inherit the Wind. The film reflects upon and evaluates the human experience of two lawyers approaching the end of their careers, even as the issue of evolution in public schools was just beginning, like the summer heat of Hillsborough itself, to burst into the American consciousness with all its tears, sweat, and flames.