| Bless the Beasts and Children | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Stanley Kramer |
| Screenplay by | Mac Benoff |
| Based on | Bless the Beasts and Children byGlendon Swarthout |
| Produced by | Stanley Kramer |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Michel Hugo |
| Edited by | William A. Lyon |
| Music by | Barry De Vorzon Perry Botkin Jr. |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 109 minutes 102 minutes (TCM print) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Bless the Beasts and Children is a 1971film adaptation of theeponymous novel written byGlendon Swarthout. It was directed byStanley Kramer and starsBill Mumy andBarry 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 thefilm rights, whichStanley Kramer eventually won.[1] Kramer negotiated withColumbia Pictures for the right to produce and direct the film,[2] which made its world premiere at theBerlin Film Festival in August 1971, as theUnited States's entry in the international competition.[3][4] Kramer later commented onSoviet reception of the film, stating that they "viewed [the film] as a preachment againstKent State andMy 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 | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Song – Original for the Picture | "Bless the Beasts and Children" Music and Lyrics byPerry Botkin Jr. andBarry De Vorzon | Nominated | [5] |
| Berlin International Film Festival | Golden Bear | Stanley Kramer | Nominated | [6] |
| OCIC Award | Won | |||
| Interfilm Award | Won | |||
| Genesis Awards | Classic Film Award | Won | [7] | |
| Grammy Awards | Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special | Perry Botkin Jr. and Barry De Vorzon | Nominated | [8] |
Themusic for the film was composed byBarry De Vorzon andPerry Botkin Jr. Their score included an instrumental selection titled "Cotton's Dream", which was later rescored to become thetheme song of thesoap operaThe Young and the Restless, produced by Columbia's television division, nowSony Pictures Television. In late July or early August 1976, whenABC's sports summary programWide World of Sports produced a montage of Romanian gymnastNadia Comăneci's routines during the1976 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]. Thefilm's soundtrack also containsits theme song, performed byThe Carpenters. The theme was released as the B side of The Carpenters' single "Superstar", which reached #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 and #3 inCanada.[10]