Customer Reviews

The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Noah Dearborn (Poitier) lives a simple life off the grid. He uses no electricity, even his car's an antique. The local people call him a "Carpenter God" and more than one local lady has fallen for his respectful grace.

But he's never been married. He only had a dog once. What means the most to Noah is his work and his land--and an out of town developer Christian Nelson (George Newbern) wants to buy the land to build a shopping center.

The offers start kind, $300, 350, 400--thousand dollars. Then, Nelson gets it in his head that anyone who won't sell their land to him is 'crazy'. That's when he calls in his girlfriend, Dr. Valerie Craine (Parker), a psychologist to assert just that so Nelson can get Noah committed and have the County seize his land.

Valerie quickly realizes that there's really nothing wrong with Noah. Noah's even managed to convince Nelson's company lawyer to give it all up to go to California and start a vineyard.

Unfortunately, Nelson is not going to be so easy to persuade. The conflict is inevitable, but the acting makes the whole story worth watching. The only reason this film got a 4 star rating is because of the rough cuts that brand it so obviously 'made for television' and distract the viewer at the critical moments.

Sidney Poitier, What else needs to be said. He has always been a class act and in this movie he reminds us of how important a stress free life is to our health. He has me wanting a life less complicated.

One of Sidney Poitier best performances. If you enjoyed Lillies of the Field you will like this one. In some ways it almost feels like a sequel to Lillies but it's not.

I originally found this video on Netflix, and watched everything but it. I kind of assumed it would be a cheesy Lifetime-esque movie (don't get me wrong I love Lifetime, you just have to be in a certain mood). Anyway, I watched it and wow. It is a very well acted movie. This is my first time watching Sidney Poitier and he exceeded expectations. The movie is filmed in a beautiful location (and that's not because I'm from Georgia either)and has a wonderful message. I highly suggest watching it, you may even come to Amazon to buy it like I did!

The greaceful prescence of Sidney Poitier makes this movie something to behold. Tom Shales of the Washington post in his rave review called it "more than a movie...it's poetry. When the movie was first aired on CBS, it surprised everyone by attracting 27,000,000 viewers on Sunday night. Diane Wiest was nominated for an Emmy Award and Mr. Poitier won Best Actor at the NAACP Image awards. Mary-Louise Parkers performace helps drive the story and she is Luminous. A feel good fable that has something to say about the encroachment of modern civilization into a mans life that is untouched in its simplicity...and the secret of his agelessness.

I loved this movie, it is a clean, wholesome, good movie! We need more movies like this one!

Noah is a wise and noble man, who is also a gifted carpenter, and a very hard worker! Noah is one of the lucky ones, he loves his work, and he has found his place in this world! He loves his home and land, and his very special, wonderful, simple life!

But greedy land developers try every trick in the book to take Noah's land away from him, to build another stupid mall! But Noah ,ends up teaching all of them a thing or two! This is a heartwarming movie ,and I highly recommend it! And I just loved that little puppy in the movie, and Noah's old timey, beautiful farm!

THE SIMPLE LIFE OF NOAH DEARBORN concerns an elderly carpenter with deep roots in a small town, located in Anywhere, U.S.A. In a nutshell, the carpenter (Sidney Poitier) has devoted his life to hand carpentry in the service of the townspeople for decades and decades, carving elegant doorframes, building chairs, carving wooden architectural cornices, and such. All this he does using hand tools, which he learned to use from his now-deceased Uncle Silas. Mr.Poitier is loved by the townsfolk for his skills in contributing to various woodworking projects, involving architectural accoutrements, park benches, and furniture. After setting the tone for this, and other characters, the plot thickens. A team of lawyers representing a shopping mall developer make plans to remove Mr.Poitier from his land. First, they offer him about $300,000. Then, they offer him about $600,000. Then the lawyers manage to have Mr.Poitier committed to a mental hospital. Then, they send a team of surveyors and bulldozers to the outskirts of Mr.Poitier's farm. (Don't worry, I won't give away any more of the plot.)

PERSECUTING NON-CONFORMISTS. This movie develops the theme of non-conformism, a conventional theme in Hollywood, and the issue of persucution of a non-conformist. Mr.Poitier is seen by the lawyers a non-conformist because of his unwillingness to develop any long-term relationship with other humans. But the Mr.Poitier's reluctance to take off time from his carpentry in order to develop a long-term relationship is carefully explained, in the movie, as resulting from his self-devised technique for avoiding pain from loss of his Uncle Silas. The theme of persecuting a non-conformist can be found in the Twilight Zone episode, THE MONSTERS ARE DUE ON MAPLE STREET.

LOVE FOR ONE'S CRAFT. A noble theme throughout this movie is Mr.Poitier's devotion to the craft of carpentry. Any person out there in the audience possessing a technical skill, for example, in carpentry, engineering, chemistry, or computer science, will easily become emotionally emersed in this movie. SPIRIT OF ST.LOUIS featuring Jimmy Stewart (as Lindbergh) is another movie where the theme is a man's love for one's craft (aviation). AMADEUS featuring Tom Hulce (as Mozart) is yet another movie about a man's devotion to his craft (composition).

REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS. Another overriding theme in THE SIMPLE LIFE OF NOAH DEARBORN is the team of lawyers representing the shopping mall. Threats from real estate developers is a recurring Hollywood theme, as most recently set forth in the PIXAR movie called, "UP," and a decade or so ago, in POLTERGIEST, starring Zelda Rubinstein as the spiritual medium. The theme of encroachment by real estate developers can also be found in the classic book for children, THE LITTLE HOUSE, by Virginia Lee Burton. Real estate developers is a fact of life that is a source of frequent litigation, as is abundantly evident in books on property law, found in the campus book store of any law school.

HOTTIE. Actress Mary-Louise is a young hottie, who is the heroine of the film. She is a physician, with training in psychiatry. Her interesting way of speaking and her interesting facial expressions will keep all viewers, both male and female, glued to the television screen throughout this movie. At first, she is the sweetie of one of the aggressive real estate lawyers. But then, allegiances change somewhat. FIVE STARS to this easy-to-understand movie. It is suitable even for little kids. There are no guns. There are no bad words. And thank gawd, there are NO COMPUTER GRAPHICS.

Love the movie and have already watched it 5 times!
Even better was because it was delivered earlier than
expected and in perfect condition. Thank you so much.

It gives you hope that there are still places that have a simple life style. Definately a warm fuzzy ending. I'm recommending it to my friends and family hartly.

This a heart warming story of how holding on to the thing you love doing can change the world.