''Sommersby'' is a 1993 American romantic period drama film directed by

Jon Amiel Jon Amiel (born 20 May 1948) is an English director who has worked in film and television in both the UK and the US. After receiving a BAFTA Award nomination for the BBC series ''The Singing Detective'' (1986), he went on to direct films, inclu ...

from a screenplay written by

Nicholas Meyer Nicholas Meyer (born December 24, 1945) is an American writer and director, known for his best-selling novel ''The Seven-Per-Cent Solution'', and for directing the films '' Time After Time'', two of the ''Star Trek'' feature films, the 1983 tele ...

and

Sarah Kernochan Sarah Marshall Kernochan (; born December 30, 1947) is an American documentarian, film director, screenwriter and novelist. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including two Academy Awards ( Documentary Feature for '' Marjoe'' in 1 ...

, adapted from the historical account of the 16th century

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

peasant

Martin Guerre Martin Guerre, a French peasant of the 16th century, was at the centre of a famous case of imposture. Several years after Martin Guerre had left his wife, child and village, a man claiming to be him appeared. He lived with Guerre's wife and so ...

. Based on the 1982 French film '' The Return of Martin Guerre'', the film stars

Richard Gere Richard Tiffany Gere ( ; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in '' Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1977) and a starring role in ''Days of Heaven'' (1978). He came to prominence with ...

and

Jodie Foster Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and the hono ...

, with Bill Pullman,

James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...

, Clarice Taylor,

Frankie Faison Frankie Russel Faison (born June 10, 1949) is an American actor known for his role as Deputy Commissioner, and, later, Commissioner, Ervin Burrell in the HBO series ''The Wire'', as Barney Matthews in the ''Hannibal Lecter'' franchise, and as Su ...

, and

R. Lee Ermey Ronald Lee Ermey (March 24, 1944 – April 15, 2018) was an American actor and U.S. Marine drill instructor. He achieved fame for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in the 1987 film ''Full Metal Jacket'', which earned him a Golden Globe ...

in supporting roles. Set in the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

following the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

, the film depicts a farmer returning home from the war, with his wife beginning to suspect that the man is an impostor. ''Sommersby'' was released in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

on February 5, 1993 by Warner Bros. The film received generally positive reviews from critics who praised the performances and chemistry of its lead actors as well as the musical score and was a box office success grossing over $140 million worldwide on a budget of $30 million.

Plot

John "Jack" Sommersby left his farm to fight in the

and is presumed dead after six years. Despite the hardship of working their farm in Vine Hill,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

, his apparent

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can so ...

Laurel is content in his absence, because Jack was an unpleasant and abusive husband. She makes remarriage plans with one of her neighbors, Orin Meacham, who has been helping her and her young son with the farmwork. One day, Jack seemingly returns with a change of heart. He is now kind and loving to Laurel and their young son, Rob. In the evenings, he reads to them from

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

's ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Ody ...

'', which the old Jack would never have done. He claims that the book was given to him by a man he met in prison. Jack and Laurel rekindle their intimacy, which leads to Laurel becoming pregnant. Displaced from his courtship of Laurel, Meacham suspects Jack to be an impostor. The town shoemaker also finds that this man's foot is two sizes smaller than the

last A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by shoemakers and cordwainers in the manufacture and repair of shoes. Lasts typically come in pairs and have been made from various materials, including hardwoods, cast iron ...

made for Sommersby before the war. Jack finds the local economy ruined, and his own land mortgaged and exhausted. To revive the economy, he suggests Burley tobacco as a

cash crop A cash crop or profit crop is an agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from staple crop (or "subsistence crop") in subsist ...

. He persuades the townsfolk to pool their resources to buy seed, offering them to share-crop on his land, and to sell them their plots at a fair price once the mortgage is cleared. This raises further doubts in his old neighbors, who believe that the "old" Jack would not give away his father's land, and resentment about the inclusion of former slaves. Joseph, a black freedman living on Sommersby's land, is brutally attacked and brought to Sommersby's door by hooded night riders proclaiming themselves the Knights of the White Camellia (one of them is Meacham). Jack is threatened, in an attempt to force him to exclude black people from the landowning, but he refuses. Upon taking the townspeople's money, he buys the tobacco seed claiming that the crops will raise enough funds to rebuild the town church. All those that bought in on the deal set to work, transforming the plantation into a breeding ground of promise and prosperity. Laurel gives birth to a daughter, Rachel. Shortly after Rachel's

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

, two U.S. Marshals arrest Jack on the charge of murder, which carries the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

. Laurel's attempts to save her husband focus on the question of his identity: whether this "Jack" is who he claims to be, or a lookalike who met the real Sommersby whilst in prison for deserting the Confederate Army. Laurel and Jack's lawyer agree to argue that her husband is an impostor. This would save him from hanging for murder, but he would still be imprisoned for fraud and military desertion. Meacham devises this plan in exchange for Laurel promising to marry him upon "Sommersby's" imprisonment. Jack fires the lawyer and sets about re-establishing himself as the real Sommersby. Several witnesses are brought up to discredit this Sommersby as a fraud, who state that he is Horace Townsend, an English teacher and

con artist A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have ...

from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

. One witness says that the man currently posing as Jack defrauded his

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...

of several thousand dollars after claiming he wanted to help rebuild the schoolhouse there. He is also said to have deserted the Confederate Army and ended up in prison. Sommersby discredits the man's testimony by identifying him as one of the

Klansmen The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and C ...

who had threatened him earlier. He points out that Orin Meacham was another of those men and that this is all a set-up to try to rob the new black farmers of the land they have bought. When Laurel is called as a witness, she reveals that his kind nature convinced her of his being an impostor, admitting "…because I never loved him the way I love you!". Judge Barry Conrad Isaacs calls Jack to his bench to ask whether he wishes to be tried as Jack Sommersby, even if it will certainly mean death by hanging. Jack states that he wants to be tried as John "Jack" Sommersby. Jack is convicted of

first degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

and sentenced to death by hanging. While awaiting death, he is asked by Laurel to tell the truth about his identity as Horace Townsend. Laurel mentions the book on Homer's works that he holds. Jack tells her the story of how a man had to share a cell with another man, who looked like they could have been brothers. After sharing a cell for four years, they came to know everything about each other. Upon his release, Jack Sommersby killed another man, then died from a wound he got during the fight. Horace Townsend then buried Jack Sommersby, which is seen in the opening scene of the film. Horace decided to assume Jack Sommersby's identity. 'Jack' (who is, in fact, Horace) concludes by saying he cannot admit his true identity, because Laurel and the children would lose everything, and the newly-freed slaves who had bought plots of land would lose them. As Jack is taken to the

gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

, he asks Laurel to be amongst the crowds, as he cannot "hang alone". As Jack is about to be hanged, Laurel makes her way to the front of the crowd. Jack calls for her, claiming to the executioner that he "isn't ready". She calls back to him, and the two see each other before he is executed. The closing scenes show Laurel walking up a hill with flowers. She then kneels by the gravestone of "John Robert Sommersby" and lays the flowers down for him. It is revealed that work is being done on the steeple of the village church, as Jack had wished.

Cast

- John "Jack" Sommersby/Horace Townsend *

- Laurel Sommersby * Brett Kelley - Rob Sommersby, son * Bill Pullman - Orin Meacham *

- Judge Barry Conrad Isaacs * Lanny Flaherty - Buck * William Windom - Reverend Powell * Wendell Wellman - Travis * Clarice Taylor - Esther *

- Joseph * Ronald Lee Ermey - Dick Mead * Richard Hamilton - Doc Evans * Maury Chaykin - Lawyer Dawson * Ray McKinnon - Lawyer Webb * Caileb Ryder/Caitlen Ryder - Baby Rachel

Reception

Box office

The film was a box office success, grossing over $50 million in the United States and Canada and $90 million overseas, with a worldwide gross of $140 million against a budget of $30 million.

Critical reception

''Sommersby'' received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American 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, and Stephen Wan ...

, gives the film an approval rating of 62% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's consensus states: "''Sommersby'' stumbles as a consistently compelling mystery, but typically solid work from Jodie Foster and Richard Gere fuels an engaging romance." Critics praised the acting and chemistry of the two leads, Gere and Foster, but criticised the ending of the film.

is actually Armin Tamzarian (a delinquent orphan from New Orleans) who assumed the identity of Sergeant Seymour Skinner when the latter was missing and assumed dead. When the real Seymour Skinner returns home, the townspeople turn against him, discovering that for all of his faults, Armin Tamzarian is actually a better "Seymour Skinner" than the real one. The episode's working title was ''Skinnersby'', in reference to the film. In the 1946 British war drama, '' The Captive Heart'', the protagonist, a Czech army captain (played by

Michael Redgrave Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Mourning Becomes Elec ...

) assumes the identity of a dead British officer, in hopes of avoiding being returned to Dachau concentration camp. The 1957 film, ''

The Bridge on the River Kwai ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' is a 1957 epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the 1952 novel written by Pierre Boulle. Although the film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–1943, th ...

'', has a protagonist (played by William Holden) who has assumed the identity of his dead commanding officer in the hope of receiving better treatment as a prisoner of war. In ''Libel'' (a 1959 film, and a 1935 play), Sir Mark Loddon is accused of being an imposter by Buckenham, with whom he was a POW during the war. They had shared quarters with Wellney, who had borne a resemblance to Loddon and at times pretended to be him. Buckenham alleges that Loddon is in fact Wellney impersonating the baronet. Loddon sues for libel but his case is hampered by memory loss, so that his wife, and even Loddon himself, start to doubt his identity. Similarly, in ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...

'', Richard "Dick" Whitman goes to war in Korea and his commanding officer, Lt. Donald "Don" Draper, is killed in an artillery barrage. With his body charred beyond recognition, Whitman switches dog tags with Draper and assumes his identity. The widow of the real Don Draper, Anna Draper, hunts him down, believing Don has run out on her. Instead, she discovers the switch, becoming a very close friend of the fake Don Draper. In the final minutes of the ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ch ...

'' episode ''

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

'', another man claiming to be the real Kevin Swanson bursts in the door, claiming the other is an impostor in a spoof.

References

External links

* * * * {{Authority control 1993 films 1993 Western (genre) films Films about capital punishment American Civil War films Films about identity theft Films directed by Jon Amiel Films set in Tennessee Films set in the 1860s Films shot in Virginia Films shot in West Virginia Films with screenplays by Nicholas Meyer Regency Enterprises films StudioCanal films Warner Bros. films Films with screenplays by Anthony Shaffer Films scored by Danny Elfman American remakes of French films Films about the Ku Klux Klan 1990s historical films American historical films Films produced by Arnon Milchan 1990s English-language films 1990s American films