Capra , who had originally contracted Wilson to write the screenplay just after the war but then dropped the project , said that although he thought Wilson did " a swell job " adapting West 's book , the movie was not produced because he felt " it would be a bad time to produce a picture that might be construed as being antiwar . But we let Wilson work on it until he had finished with it . " Wilson told HUAC in 1951 , " I feel that this committee might take the credit , or part of it at least , for the fact that '' The Friendly Persuasion '' was not produced , in view of the fact that it dealt warmly , in my opinion , with a peace-loving people . " " What happened to Wilson 's pacifist script after Capra dropped it , " notes film historian Joseph McBride , " reflected the political climate of the Cold War . When William Wyler directed the film for Allied Artists in 1956 as '' Friendly Persuasion '' , he had the story changed to make the Quaker youth ( played by Anthony Perkins ) become a killer . The Quakers in Wyler 's version , as Pauline Kael observed , ' are there only to violate their convictions . ' But some of the strength of Wilson 's conception remains , as in a scene of a crippled Union Army officer respectfully challenging the steadfast Quakers about pacifism in their meeting house . " '' Friendly Persuasion '' also became a footnote to world history in the 1980s when United States President Ronald Reagan made a gift of the film to Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev at one of their five summit meetings , suggesting that he view the film as symbolic of the need to find an alternative to war as a means of resolving differences between peoples . One Quaker commentator stated : " '' Friendly Persuasion '' seems to me to come about as close to truth and fairness as I expect to see Hollywood get in a treatment of Quakerism ; I recommend it to every Quaker parent , as projecting images their children ought to see and imitate ... I believe ( critics have ) woefully misjudged the film , on several counts : its place in American cinema , the characters and their roles , its historicity , and , not least , its value as an expression of the Peace Testimony . Here , for perhaps the only time , I think Ronald Reagan was closer to the truth when he commended the film to Gorbachev because it ' shows not the tragedy of war , but the problems of pacifism , the nobility of patriotism as well as the love of peace . ' " Only a week before the year 's Oscar nominations were announced , the AMPAS Board of Governors introduced a rule denying an Oscar to anyone who refused to talk to a United States congressional committee ; after the Writers Guild of America protested the new rule to no avail , they gave Wilson a Writers Guild of America Award for " Best Written American Drama . " At the 29th Academy Awards , '' Friendly Persuasion '' was nominated for Best Picture , Best Director ( William Wyler ) , Best Actor in a Supporting Role ( Anthony Perkins ) , Best Music – Song ( Dimitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster for " Friendly Persuasion ( Thee I Love ) " ) , Best Writing – Screenplay ( Adapted ) ( unnamed ) , and Best Sound Recording ( Gordon R. Glennan and Gordon E. Sawyer ) . Wilson 's name could not appear on the Oscar ballot because he was blacklisted . Wyler also had wanted his brother Robert and West to receive credit for rewriting the script , also including Wilson , but the WGA ruled Michael Wilson deserved sole credit for his screenplay
29th Academy Awards
29th Academy Awards
Friendly Persuasion (1956 film)