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''Conrack'' is a 1974 American drama film based on the 1972 autobiographical book '' The Water Is Wide'' by
Pat Conroy Donald Patrick Conroy (October 26, 1945 – March 4, 2016) was an American author who wrote several acclaimed novels and memoirs; his books ''The Water Is Wide (book), The Water is Wide'', ''The Lords of Discipline'', ''The Prince of Tides (no ...
, directed by
Martin Ritt Martin Ritt (March 2, 1914 – December 8, 1990) was an American director, producer, and actor, active in film, theatre and television. He was known mainly as an auteur of socially-conscious dramas and literary adaptations, described by Stanley K ...
and starring
Jon Voight Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. Throughout his career, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and four Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations ...
in the title role, alongside Paul Winfield, Madge Sinclair,
Hume Cronyn Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. (July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003) was a Canadian-American actor, screenwriter and playwright. He appeared in many stage productions, television and film roles throughout his career, and garnered numerous accolades, includ ...
and
Antonio Fargas Antonio Fargas (born August 14, 1946) is an American actor known for his roles in 1970s blaxploitation and comedy movies, as well as his portrayal as Huggy Bear in the 1970s TV series ''Starsky & Hutch''. Early life Fargas was born in New York C ...
. The film was released by
20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...
on March 15, 1974. The novel was remade as ''The Water Is Wide'' in 2006, a
Hallmark Hall of Fame ''Hallmark Hall of Fame'', originally called ''Hallmark Television Playhouse'', is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas Citybased greeting card company. It is the longest-ru ...
TV movie starring
Jeff Hephner Jeffrey Hephner is an American actor, best known for the role of Jeff Clarke, first on the NBC television series '' Chicago Fire'' and then on its sister show, '' Chicago Med''. On film, he co-starred with Jennifer Garner in the action thrill ...
and
Alfre Woodard Alfre Woodard ( ; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. Known for portraying strong-willed and dignified roles on stage and screen, she has received various accolades, including four Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Scree ...
.


Plot

The story follows a young teacher, Pat Conroy, in 1969 assigned to isolated Yamacraw Island ( Daufuskie Island) off the coast of South Carolina and populated mostly by poor black families. He finds out that the children as well as the adults have been isolated from the rest of the world and speak a dialect called
Gullah The Gullah () are a subgroup of the African Americans, African American ethnic group, who predominantly live in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within ...
, with "Conrack" of the novel's title being the best they can do to pronounce his last name. The school has only two rooms for all grades combined, with the principal teaching grades one through four and Conroy teaching grades five through eight. Conroy discovers that the students aren't taught much and will have little hope of making a life in the larger world. Conroy tries to teach them about the outside world but comes into conflict both with the principal and Mr. Skeffington, the superintendent. He teaches them how to brush their teeth, who
Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional Baseball in the United States, baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nickna ...
is, and has the children listen to music, including
Flight of the Bumblebee "Flight of the Bumblebee" () is an orchestral interlude written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) for his opera '' The Tale of Tsar Saltan'', composed in 1899–1900. This perpetuum mobile is intended to musically evoke the seemingl ...
and
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony The Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, also known as the ''Fate Symphony'' (), is a symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1804 and 1808. It is one of the best-known compositions in classical music and one of the most frequently pla ...
. He explains that when Beethoven wrote the Fifth Symphony, he was writing about "what death would sound like". He is astounded they've never even heard of Halloween, and he decides to take them to Beaufort on the mainland to go
trick-or-treating Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween custom for children and adults in some countries. During the evening of Halloween, on October 31, people in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase "trick or treat". Th ...
, which the superintendent has forbidden. He also must overcome parental fears of "the river." As a result, he's fired. As he leaves the island for the last time, the children come to see him leave, all of them lined up on a rickety bridge. As he is about to leave by boat, one of the students then begins playing a record, which is the beginning movement of
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony The Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, also known as the ''Fate Symphony'' (), is a symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1804 and 1808. It is one of the best-known compositions in classical music and one of the most frequently pla ...
.


Cast


Production

This film was shot in and around
Brunswick, Georgia Brunswick ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Glynn County, Georgia, Glynn County in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. As the primary urban and economic center of the lower southeast portion of Georgia, it is the second-larges ...
and used pupils from C.B. Greer Elementary school as the cast of students. Tommy Tedesco played guitar on the introduction theme.


Reception


Box office

On a budget of $2.37 million, ''Conrack'' grossed $2 million in the United States and Canada.


Critical response

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film has an approval rating of 71% based on 14 reviews, with an average score of 6.1/10.
Nora Sayre Nora Clemens Sayre (September 20, 1932 – August 8, 2001) was an American film critic and essayist. She was a reviewer of films for ''The New York Times'' in the 1970s, and, from 1981, a writing teacher for many years at Columbia Universit ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote that "despite Mr. Voight's skill, the teacher's character never jells... Another weakness is the glaze of sentimentality that sugars much of the narrative." The review in '' Variety'' stated, "Its computerized warmth may make 'Conrack' seem a bit self-congratulatory at times, but at least its creative participants deserve outsiders' congrats for translating hokum into potentially viable b.o. fodder."
Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune'' who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert. Siskel started writing for the '' ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and praised it as "an undeniably tender film full of affecting moments, genuine tension, and much good will. It's also one of those rare film commodities: a nice family picture."
Charles Champlin Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American film critic and writer. Life and career Champlin was born in Hammondsport, New York. He attended high school in Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the ...
of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' wrote, "''Conrack'' has Voight's commanding characterization as its center, and those kids, and a strong visual sense throughout. And in its warm concern for human values, it is beyond question a welcome alternative to the hard-edge melodramas which have been conspicuous in recent times. The disappointment is that to achieve a sentimental optimism, it is felt necessary to create a world which, however real it looks and sounds, turns out to be make-believe at its center." Gary Arnold of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' called it "an unusually decent and appealing adventure, a commercial entertainment that also reflects the best of human and social intentions. One trusts that it will be a popular film, and it deserves to be." John Raisbeck of ''
The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...
'' wrote "With its lingering long shots, ''Conrack'' is a constant visual delight; but for all its craftsman-like virtues, it seems a conscious turning aside from the complexities of modern cinema to the simpler alternatives of yesteryear. Indeed, with underprivileged white children instead of black and
Greer Garson Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson (29 September 1904 – 6 April 1996) was a British-American actress and singer. She was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who became popular during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the homef ...
substituting for Jon Voight, the film might have been made all of thirty years ago."


Release

The film was released on
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
and DVD in 2001. Twilight Time released a limited edition (3,000 copies) Blu-ray version of the film in 2014.


See also

* List of American films of 1974 *
List of drama films of the 1970s This is a list of drama films of the 1970s. 1970 * '' The American Soldier'' * '' The Butcher'' * '' The Conformist'' * '' Gods of the Plague'' * '' Mujo'' * '' Tora! Tora! Tora!'' * '' Valerie and Her Week of Wonders'' 1971 * '' Beware of a Hol ...
* Daufuskie Island *
Sea Islands The Sea Islands are a chain of over a hundred tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the Southeastern United States, between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns rivers along South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The la ...
* '' The Water Is Wide''


References


External links

* * * * {{Pat Conroy 1974 films 1970s English-language films Films directed by Martin Ritt 1970s biographical drama films American biographical drama films Films scored by John Williams Films set in 1969 Films set in South Carolina Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state) 20th Century Fox films Films based on American novels Films based on works by Pat Conroy Biographical films about educators 1974 drama films 1970s American films English-language biographical drama films