Bless the Beasts and Children | |
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Directed by | Stanley Kramer |
Screenplay by | Mac Benoff |
Based on | Bless the Beasts and Children by Glendon Swarthout |
Produced by | Stanley Kramer |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Michel Hugo |
Edited by | William A. Lyon |
Music by | Barry De Vorzon Perry Botkin Jr. |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 109 minutes 102 minutes (TCM print) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Bless the Beasts and Children is a 1971 film adaptation of the eponymous novel written by Glendon Swarthout. It was directed by Stanley Kramer and stars Bill Mumy and Barry Robins.
Six teenaged boys, each a misfit in one way or another, are ostracized by the other boys at a summer camp but form a bond among themselves. After seeing a herd of bison selected for culling by local hunters, they resolve to sneak away from the camp in the middle of the night and set the penned bison free.
The film is presented partially out of sequence; the primary narrative of freeing the bison is interspersed with flashback scenes showing the boys' troubled lives.
A bidding war broke out over the film rights, which Stanley Kramer eventually won. [1] Kramer negotiated with Columbia Pictures for the right to produce and direct the film, [2] which made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in August 1971, as the United States's entry in the international competition. [3] [4] Kramer later commented on Soviet reception of the film, stating that they "viewed [the film] as a preachment against Kent State and My Lai," when he had envisioned more of a statement about the "gun cult" in America and how "easy availability of weapons contributes to violence." [4]
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
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Academy Awards [5] | Best Song – Original for the Picture | "Bless the Beasts and Children" Music and Lyrics by Perry Botkin Jr. and Barry De Vorzon | Nominated |
Berlin International Film Festival [6] | Golden Bear | Stanley Kramer | Nominated |
OCIC Award | Won | ||
Interfilm Award | Won | ||
Genesis Awards [7] | Classic Film Award | Won | |
Grammy Awards [8] | Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special | Perry Botkin Jr. and Barry De Vorzon | Nominated |
The music for the film was composed by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin Jr. Their score included an instrumental selection titled "Cotton's Dream", which was later rescored to become the theme song of the soap opera The Young and the Restless , produced by Columbia's television division, now Sony Pictures Television. In late July or early August 1976, when ABC's sports summary program Wide World of Sports produced a montage of Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci's routines during the 1976 Summer Olympics [9] and used "Cotton's Dream" as the background music, the song became more popular; it was subsequently released in a re-edited and lengthened form as "Nadia's Theme", the title under which it became best known. (Comăneci herself never performed her floor exercises using this piece of music, however.) De Vorzon and Botkin Jr. also wrote lyrics for "Cotton's Dream", but no vocal version of it was known to have charted as of August 2017 [update] . The film's soundtrack also contains its theme song, performed by The Carpenters. The theme was released as the B side of The Carpenters' single "Superstar", which reached #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 and #3 in Canada. [10]
Charles William Mumy Jr. is an American actor, writer, producer, and musician. He came to prominence in the 1960s as a child actor whose work included television appearances on Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and a role in the film Dear Brigitte, followed by a three-season role as Will Robinson in the 1960s sci-fi series Lost in Space. Mumy later appeared as lonely teenager Sterling North in the film Rascal (1969) and Teft in the film Bless the Beasts and Children (1971).
Nadia Elena Comăneci Conner is a Romanian retired gymnast. She is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, all in individual events. In 1976, at the age of 14, Comăneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games. At the same Games, she received six more perfect 10s for events en route to winning three gold medals. At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, she won two more gold medals and achieved two more perfect 10s. During her career, she won nine Olympic medals and four World Artistic Gymnastics Championship medals.
The 20th Annual Grammy Awards were held February 23, 1978, and were broadcast live on American television. They were hosted by John Denver and recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1977.
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in the fictional Genoa City. First broadcast on March 26, 1973, The Young and the Restless was originally broadcast as half-hour episodes, five times a week. The show expanded to one-hour episodes on February 4, 1980. On March 17, 2006, the series began airing previous episodes weeknights on Soapnet until the closure on December 31, 2013, when it moved to TVGN. From July 1, 2013 until 2019, Pop aired previous episodes on weeknights. The series is also syndicated internationally.
Texas Stadium was an American football stadium located in Irving, Texas, a suburb west of Dallas. Opened on October 24, 1971, it was known for its distinctive hole in the roof, the result of abandoned plans to construct a retractable roof.
Perry Botkin Jr. was an American composer, producer, arranger, and musician. The tune "Nadia's Theme", composed by Botkin and Barry De Vorzon, peaked at No. 6 in Canada and No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976 and became the theme song for the long-running television soap opera The Young and the Restless. He was also a major contributor to Incredible Bongo Band, one of the most influential groups of all-time for its Bongo Rock album which is one of the most sampled from records, making it a major influence in the origins of Hip hop.
L.I.E. is a 2001 American drama film about a relationship between Howie, a troubled 16-year-old boy, and a middle aged man known as "Big John". The title is an acronym for the Long Island Expressway. The film was directed by Michael Cuesta, who has said that the film is about exploring sexuality. It stars Paul Dano in his first lead role as the boy Howie, and Brian Cox as John.
Howard Green Duff was an American actor.
"Nadia's Theme", originally titled "Cotton's Dream", is a piece of music composed by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin Jr. in 1971. It was originally part of the soundtrack music of the 1971 Stanley Kramer film Bless the Beasts and Children, and became better known as the theme music to the television soap opera The Young and the Restless since the series premiered in 1973. Later, "Cotton's Dream" was given the informal name "Nadia's Theme" after it became associated with Olympic gymnast Nadia Comăneci during and after the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Ranaghat is a city and a municipality in Nadia district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Ranaghat subdivision. It is known for its handloom industry, various types of flowers and floriculture.
"No More Drama" is a song by American recording artist Mary J. Blige. Written and produced by duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, it was initially intended for Blige's fourth studio album Mary (1999) before she insisted on making it the title track of her fifth studio album of the same name (2001). The song embodies portions of "The Young and the Restless Theme" (1971), written by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin Jr.. Lyrically, the song is about going through hard times and moving on from pain.
Jerome Martin "Jerry" Haynes was an American actor from Dallas, Texas. He is most well known as Mr. Peppermint, a role he played for 30 years as the host of one of the longest-running local children's shows in television, the Dallas-based Mr. Peppermint (1961–1969), which was retitled Peppermint Place for its second run (1975–1996). He also had a long career in local and regional theater and appeared in more than 50 films. A 1944 graduate of Dallas' Woodrow Wilson High School, he was the father of Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes.
"Bless the Beasts and Children" is the theme song to the 1971 eponymous film and was performed by the Carpenters. It was featured on the B-side to their hit, "Superstar". The song received enough of its own airplay that Billboard listed the single as "Superstar"/"Bless the Beasts and Children" on the Hot 100, charting first at number 16 for the week of 11/20/71, and then number 21 for the week of 11/27/71. Then "Bless The Beasts and Children" had its own run as an A-side charting on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually topping out at number 67. In order to promote it, the Carpenters performed it on their television series, Make Your Own Kind of Music, as "F" for "Film Music". It was nominated for a 1972 Academy Award for Best Song, but it lost to Isaac Hayes's "Theme from Shaft".
The soundtrack to the 1971 film Bless the Beasts and Children consists of music by The Carpenters, Barry De Vorzon, Perry Botkin Jr. and Renee Armand. It included The Carpenters' "Bless the Beasts and Children" theme song as well as "Cotton's Dream", later known as "Nadia's Theme" from 1976 onwards. It has also been the theme song to the hit television soap opera The Young and the Restless from 1973–present.
Bless the Beasts and Children may refer to:
Pianist, Arranger, Composer, Conductor is the second solo album by American musician Richard Carpenter, released in 1998. It includes instrumental versions of popular songs of the Carpenters, and is dedicated to their deceased mother, Agnes Carpenter. The album contains two new songs, "All Those Years Ago" and "Karen's Theme", which was released as a single.
Barry Robins , was an American stage, film and television actor. He was best known for his leading role as Cotton in Stanley Kramer's 1971 movie, Bless the Beasts and Children.
Barry Devorzon is an American singer, songwriter, producer, composer, label owner, and music publisher. He has composed hit songs, contributed to film and television soundtracks, and has won Grammy and Emmy awards.
Bless the Beasts and Children is a 1970 novel by Glendon Swarthout that tells the story of several emotionally disturbed boys away at summer camp who unite to stop a buffalo hunt. The 151-page book covers some social issues of the 1960s and 1970s. It was published by Doubleday.