I think you're mistaken. It's not on either my VHS or DVD copy.
Yes, I'm afraid that is the case.
I was lucky enough to attend five Silver Screenings of this film over the past three days. Please believe me when I tell you that by the third screening, I was mouthing some of the dialogue right along with the actors. That line, alas, is not in this movie, though I don't doubt that you saw or heard the line somewhere else.
To help set your mind at ease, consider this:
The only time in the movie that Coop points a weapon at a human being is during the fight with the Confederate soldier. The fight doesn't last long, and when it's through, Coop has wrenched the gun from the soldier's hands and is pointing it at him from literally about a foot away. We then see a close-up of the soldier's face and we, the audience, share his pain as he realizes he's about to be shot, just as he himself had shot so many other men.
However, rather than shooting him, Coop lets him go instead. The soldier is so astounded that Coop has to tell him
twice that he is free to go. The first time, he tells the soldier "Go on, go." After the soldier doesn't move, Coop then he tells him "Go on, go: I will not harm thee," thereby assuring the soldier that it's not some battlefield trick to, say, get the soldier to walk away so that Coop can shoot him in the back.
What I'm trying to get at here is that Coop was holding a gun on the soldier from about
a foot away. Telling the soldier that he didn't want to shoot him, but that he was standing in the way of where he wanted to shoot would have amounted to Coop jeering at him: of
course the soldier was standing in his way! The soldier is pinned to a tree with a man holding a loaded rifle on him at point-blank range.
If I can borrow a line from you: "Friend, I would not harm thee for the world." The reason I've made such a novel of this is that there are few things worse than looking for something that just isn't there. If what I've said makes any sense, then you can spare yourself the search for something that won't be found in this film.
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jdbna
14 years ago
To fast_fierce_and_funny re: "I was lucky enough to attend five Silver Screenings of this film over the past three days..."
I am so-o-o jealous! Where did you get to see this on the big screen? I saw it in it's original release as a child, and I would love to see it again.
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fast_fierce_and_funny
14 years ago
I am so-o-o jealous!
Honestly,
I was slightly jealous of the folks who we able to attend Tuesday's sixth (and final) screening of the film, I liked it that much. What with the commute and all, though, (don't ask) I just couldn't justify seeing it for a sixth time. However, some films just hit you where you live, and
Friendly Persuasion certainly qualifies as that type of film (for a few of us, anyway).
Where did you get to see this on the big screen?
It was shown here:
http://stanfordtheatre.org/stf/ (click on "Current Calendar")
It was, apparently, the first time the film has been screened there since its original release in 1956. I hope that the owner of the theatre was as impressed as I was with it and will bring it back at some point in the future.
If you have an all-time favorite film, it's well worth a trip to the Stanford to see it. Their calendar frequently (though not always) covers 2-3 months at a time, so it's well worth checking the site every now and then to see the upcoming films.
Please believe me when I say that you couldn't hope to see a film in a better setting than the Stanford; every film buff owes it to themselves to pay a visit.
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