Miracle en Alabama

I'm not certain if it was fate but it is very interesting that I had the chance to finally see "The Miracle Worker" a few days after the sad news of the death of Anne Bancroft.

The film, based on the play by William Gibson, is an extremely well-acted film, brilliantly opened up on the big screen. Anne Bancroft as teacher Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke as young Helen Keller are outstanding. Sullivan's determination to communicate to the deaf and blind Helen made for a compelling story on stage as well as on screen.

I understand that when Hollywood wanted to make this movie, the powers-that-be did not want Bancroft or Duke. After finally seeing the movie, I'm glad that director Arthur Penn and producer Fred Coe chose to make this movie outside the so-called Hollywood establishment.

One scene that was discussed in some other posts was the dining room in which Sullivan forces Helen to eat food from a spoon and not her hands. It almost felt like I was watching a fierce wrestling match. It was a physical, as well as an emotionally draining, sequence. A battle of wills between teacher and the unwilling student. It was brilliantly edited and directed.

The film was not without faults. According to the IMDb, a number of flashback scenes were filmed in their entirety but did not work out very well. Those scenes were incorporated within the movie and it looked rather clumsy. The scenes could have been easily edited out completely.

As with all plays adapted to the big screen, some scenes were a little bit stagy. But that involved just a few scenes and, overall, it did not ruin the movie.

What I really liked about the movie was that the filmmakers were very successful at not succumbing to sentiment. This movie could have easily been very corny and sappy. Perhaps Bancroft and Duke and their performances had something to do with that.

I've been a fan of Anne Bancroft for many years and I'm very glad that I had the chance to see her well-deserved Oscar-winning performance.

RIP Ms. Bancroft.

This movie made a strong impression on me when I saw it on Tv as a lad and I have revisted it a few more times but it had been a decade since i saw it last and my daughter had a done a book report on Helen Keller recently and was very moved by her story and I mentioned the Miracle Worker, so we rented it and viewed it tonight and it still packs a wallop and the performances are first rate. Patty Duke won the best supporting oscar that year and deserved it (even though she beat out Mary Badham who played Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird -- what a year for young actresses!!!)and Anne Bancroft is amazing as the tough, determined Anne Sullivan. A wonderful film.

Powerfully directed by Arthur Penn and supported by two Oscar-winning performances, The Miracle Worker dramatizes the early years of Helen Keller, the blind and deaf mute who became a famous author and prominent Socialist. Anne Bancroft's first lead role is as Anne Sullivan, Helen's lifelong teacher and friend and her performance is compelling. Patty Duke is also outstanding as Helen, portraying the disturbed child as she works to overcome bad manners and temper tantrums, the result of being overly indulged by her well meaning but ineffective parents. Moving into a small cottage away from her parents, Anne, who was partially blind herself, assists Helen with some tough love and begins to teach her to spell with her fingers.

Until this point, Helen had no understanding of the meaning of words. This changed when Anne led her to the water pump and spelled out the word water as she pumped the water over Helen's hand. She is said to have learned thirty words the same day and eventually learned to read. In 1904 Helen graduated from Radcliffe College, becoming the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The film could have easily descended into melodrama, but Penn keeps his focus and the result is enormously moving without being maudlin. The Miracle Worker is a miracle.

Although I am a long-time Patty Duke admirer, and thus far from objective, this film still stands the test of time. This is the kind of filmmaking that prompted me to fall in love with the movies. Brilliantly inspired writing by William Gibson, from his equally inspired play. Intelligent, austere direction by Arthur Penn (one of the true gentlemen and masters of the American cinema); Penn had the sense to retain the inate artistry and grit of the original stage play and simply allow the camera to capture the actors' intuitive - albeit, well rehearsed, performances, recreating their stage roles which generated an unheard-of 19 curtain calls when it first graced the stage in its Philadephia opening. The film, in stark, black and white, speaks total reality to the film audience of 1962 - and, of course, well beyond that year. Finally, one would be hard pressed to think of another film that so exquisitely defines the term "2-character" study. Bancroft and Duke deliver A-plus, no bones about it, top-drawer, performances. It is a film about the undaunted human spirit and our need to communicate. Although much has been written about 11-minute breakfast donneybrook, which is certainly wonderful cinema to behold, the entire film is breathtaking from opening credits to the final scenes. I dare anyone to even breathe during the climactic water pump scene when teacher Annie Sullivan finally "connects" and communicates with her "unreachable" charge, the deaf, blind, young Helen Keller. It's an absolutely astonishing, "can't take your eyes off it," moment of celluloid. Duke, Bancroft and Penn worked beatifully to create this incredibly touching masterpiece of dramatic filmmaking, which is not without its moments of "comedy," as all fine dramas are capable of conveying. It is a film which breathes life - and it is especially brought to life by two of the best actresses America has ever produced. The Miracle Worker is a story and film portraying real human courage, patience and individual, personal will. It continues to live in my memory as a work of art that has rarely been equalled before - or since - on screen.

I haven't seen acting like this in a long time! Patty Duke's portrayal of young Helen Keller shocked me with its intensity, rightness, and sensitivity. Anne Bancroft also played a tough role and did so brilliantly.

The other supporting roles were, of course, a bit stilted in the traditional Southern way, but added to the drama nonetheless. I still gave this movie a "10" despite having issues with the way director Penn handled the flashback scenes...a bit cheesy and not quite in keeping with the underlying plot in all cases. That said, the dinner scene with Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft is 100%+ riveting in a way seldom seen and the movie deserves its accolades just for that scene alone.