Is It Always Right to Be Right?
Is It Always Right to Be Right?
| 31 October 1970 (USA)
Is It Always Right to Be Right? Trailers

The world is divided into factions, on opposite sides of issues; each side is, of course, right. And so the gap between the people grows, until someone challenges the absolutist view of what's "right."

Reviews
GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.
Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Keira Brennan The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
Robert J. Maxwell It's a brief and penetrating parable about a land in which people thought they must be "right" and to admit otherwise was a sign of weakness. Nobody said, "You might be right." Nobody said, "I could be wrong." The population was divided on many issues and the gulf between them grew.This won an Academy Award in 1970 and the groups described now look a little dusty with age -- doves and hawks, young and old. But the moral remains the same, though the self-righteous groups are now different.The message is that we have to overcome our sense of certainty and build bridges across those gulfs to find common ground. It's easier said than done because building a bridge between two antagonistic groups requires at least two heroes, one on each side of the chasm. The heroes must not only appeal to the group across the gulf, who are likely to throw rotten fruit at them because they are "enemies." The heroes must also brave the insults of the group they BELONG to, because they'll be scorned as traitors to the cause or the race.The issue is tied to the concept of manliness. If an armed man approached Clint Eastwood and ordered him to get out of town, would Clint Eastwood reply, "Can't we sit down and talk this over before one of us gets hurt?" No. No, he wouldn't. Neither would John Wayne. That concept of masculinity is a little limited. Japanese kamikaze pilots left little dolls and haiku behind for their loved ones. On the night before a battle, Greek generals would discuss philosophy and write poems. Any warrior doing that today would have one foot in fairydom.Those gulfs look wider today that they did forty-five years ago and not much seems to have changed. During his campaign, one man said, "I'm not going to change my mind because it's made up, and I'm not the kind of guy who changes his mind once it's made up." We liked that so much we elected him president.It's a conundrum and possibly there is no solution. Of course I may be wrong.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Is It Always Right to Be Right?" is an 8-minute animated short film from 1970 and regardless what you may think of the spoken contents here, this film's main problem is the animation, which looks pretty bad even for soon 50 years ago. The texts in here are spoken by Orson Welles and are a mix of intelligent, intellectual and pretentious quotes about how it is easier to live together with other people in terms of finding common consensus. I myself did not enjoy the watch. It is pretty pathetic to see this child-like animation and then hear these heavy words coming out of Welles' mouth at the same time. For me, it wasn't working. I may be wrong, but this is not a good short film and certainly not Oscar worthy. I guess they just wanted to awards the big name that came with this movie as this was nothing usual in the Animated Short Film category. Don't watch.
swan_point I used this movie in many management and employee classes as a government training and organizational development consultant. In 8 minutes you get a vivid picture of how polarizing views (being "right")can result in everything coming to a halt. The footage includes animation, actual footage of Vietnam anti-war protesters and those who reacted to them, and much more. While much dated when I stopped using it in the early 90's in favor of videos, it's as relevant today as it was in 1970. I left the film when I retired in 1997 and found out later that it was tossed out with all the other 16mm training films. It was powerful enough for me to never forget and would use it today in my consulting business if I could find a copy to convert to DVD.
scook-3 I used this film with high schoolers in the middle 70s. I believe it's a good time to remind students again of the tremendous gap we sometimes experience when so many of us feel we have the only right answers. This film depicts various groups and the great divide among them so vividly, that I still recall the images and Wells' booming narrative, even though it's been almost 30 years since I've seen a copy. It's a great open-ended examination of truth, and how different points of view affect us all. The issues may have changed since the 70s, but attitudes have not, and those issues still divide our nation. The Hawks and Doves, the Old and Young, etc. battle it out, believing Right is Might. The message of tolerance is clearly conveyed. I would love to find a copy to share with today's teenagers.