Awards and Honors

Friendly Persuasion placed ninth on The New York Times' annual ten best list.

The film screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, where it was the surprise winner of the Palme d'Or for best picture. Among the films it beat out were Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal and Jules Dassin's He Who Must Die (both 1957).

The film started off awards season by scoring Best Actress honors for Dorothy McGuire from the National Board of Review and placing number five on the group's annual ten-best list

The picture was nominated for Golden Globes for Best Film Promoting International Understanding, Best Actor (Drama) for Cooper and Best Supporting Actress for Marjorie Main.

Both the Writers Guild and the Directors Guild nominated Friendly Persuasion.

Friendly Persuasion was nominated for six Oscars®: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Perkins), Best Song, Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay. Because there was no writing credit, it was ruled ineligible for the award under Academy® rules, so the nomination was not included in the voting ballot. The film lost in all six categories.

The Motion Picture Academy® rules deeming Friendly Persuasion ineligible for an Oscar® nomination were rescinded in 1959, but Wilson's nomination was not reinstated until December 2002.

The Critics' Corner: FRIENDLY PERSUASION

"Who would have thought the story of a Quaker family living on a farm in southern Indiana at the time of the Civil War would make for a winning motion picture in which a spurt of stirring drama and suspense would top off a natural abundance of comedy, quaintness and charm?" - Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

"Perkins scores resoundingly as the son who goes off to fight. The scene of his leave-taking of his mother and father will not leave a dry eye." - Brog, Variety

"The material is a little tenuous...but Wyler's sure-handed direction constantly illuminates it with a humour, a gentle charm and a feeling for fundamental values that are rare indeed" - Moira Walsh, America

"The pastures are sometimes dyed a fluorescent green that would surely blind a cow." -- Time Magazine

"Sentimental, homespun Western fare, well done without being especially engrossing." - Halliwell's Film Guide

"...this William Wyler film is disappointing but far from shameful....This was one of the first of Perkins' confused, canny, emotional characters; his mood shifts hadn't yet become ticky, and he's marvelously likable as he imitates Cooper's lanky movements - he's a very convincing son. The film was actually shot in California and the acreage looks so manicured that one half expects a station wagon to come into view; still, it was an attempt to deal with an offbeat subject, and Wyler's work shows care and taste." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies.

"Warm, winning performances in this beautifully made film." - Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide

"Solid performances, particularly from Perkins as the anguished son, and odd touches of humour (which might, ironically, offend Quakers, since their way of life is presented as eccentrically old-fashioned), but the basic dilemma -- whether to take up arms or not -- is presented in simplistic and predictable fashion." -- Geoff Andrew, Time Out

"The great artist William Wyler took Jessamyn West's aggressively pacifist novel Friendly Persuasion and created this beautiful idyll, a possible Utopia Americana. The family values earned and tested in this drama imply a real examination of American hopes, as opposed to the Reader's Digest brand of complacent denial that deep-fried much of the culture at the time. Friendly Persuasion is an immensely entertaining and thoughtful movie that finds an ideological middle ground, a rarity in any decade." - Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant

"....Surprisingly, the first half of Friendly Persuasion is a comedy. Most viewers have found the gentle family humor in these scenes to be charming. But this grumpy critic was instead frustrated, particularly in the absence of a plot. The elders are portrayed as gullible fools, the spinsters are apparently founders of the Sadie Hawkins dance, and the fight at the fair is resolved by violence. Eliza, of all people, uses violence to save the life of Samantha. Violence is first promoted as anathema to Quakers, then used for both dramatic purposes and comic relief. Unrealistically, there are no consequences to the Birdwell family whenever they turn to violence. Which happens on several occasions, especially in the second half of the film...Friendly Persuasion is hampered by an intrusive, saccharine score by Dimitri Tiomkin. Pat Boone sings the maudlin title song, which became a top ten pop hit." - Brian Koller, filmsgraded.com

Compiled by Frank Miller