Deliverance

It's an admiring biography of Helen Keller, in which she and Annie Sullivan play their current roles. Looking at it, I can see the roots of THE MIRACLE WORKER, but ....

Well, like many admiring biographies, it seems a hagiography of a miracle woman. Accustomed to the later work, I view Annie Sullivan as the one who did all the hard work, a John the Baptist to Miss Keller. In this version of the story, once the possibility is opened to her, the world falls to her insatiable curiosity, Miss Sullivan becomes little more than her extension, and even the girl who hated her as a child seeks her aid when her son is blinded in the Great War.

I suppose it it ridiculous to expect a more balanced telling in this period, when the opportunity, the simple chance of Miss Keller's accomplishments were so outrageously slight. The world is always searching for heroes, and Miss Keller's accomplishments were heroic. But what of Miss Sullivan's accomplishments?

The headline on this piece wasn't written by me. It is from an enthusiastic review of this film from a newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. It's the Madison Capital Times, December 08, 1919, Pg. 8. I found the review fascinating. It gives us a better perspective on the takeaway that many audience members had at the time. The Great War, the War to End All Wars, was over. While modern audiences focus on the powerful scene of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller at the water pump or Annie translating what was being taught in Helen's college classes, many in 1919 were energized by this film's focus on peace.

What follows are not my words. This is the review that ran in that Madison paper more than 100 years ago.

"HELEN KELLER, born deaf, dumb and blind, SEES; it is the world that is BLIND.

"That is the thought that comes after seeing Helen Keller in the powerful motion picture "Deliverance" which opened a week's engagement at the Fuller last night. The production portrays the life of this wonderful woman,-a woman who has mastered language and science; a woman who, though blind and deaf, sees the coming of the new day of brotherhood of love and world democracy.

"How refreshing it is to witness such a picture as "Deliverance" after having seen so much of the tainted and bought and tawdry propaganda that flits across the screen these, days. It isn't the kind of a picture that the Duponts, war profit kings just arrived in the field of commercialized picturedom, would send out into the land. It is an HONEST picture, carrying honest gospel.

"Only those who are blind who do not see the TRUTH."

"That is one of the things that "Deliverance" has Helen' Keller saying.

"Helen Keller, though born with seemingly impenetrable walls of darkness about her, has broken down all barriers and today she sees the light of a NEW DAY while millions in the world are groping along in the dingy and musty lanes of the old order.

"Though deaf and blind, Miss Keller plainly sees the futility of war as an instrument for the settlement of disputes between men and nations. Though deaf and blind, Miss Keller has the vision which points to the brotherhood of man as the substitute for the bayonet and the machine gun. Though deaf and blind, Miss Keller sees the coming of a new industrial democracy where the man who produced will retain a larger share of the products of his toil; where the strong will not oppress the weak; where organized wealth will not exploit the disorganized poor.

"In fact, Helen Keller sees so much these days that those who are BLIND are calling her a RADICAL. Those who are BLIND to the new order that is coming over the world proclaim Helen Keller's vision as an evidence of Bolshevism and Socialism.

"Think of it! Millions who are BLIND showing their pity for Helen Keller who SEES.

"And isn't the struggle that Helen Keller has waged to emancipate herself from darkness the same struggle that all men women with VISION have to wage? Are not men struggling in darkness today, fighting for millions groping in darkness, encouraged because they have the vision to see the light on the peaks beyond?

"Are not the great figures of history men who, like Helen Keller, have broken down the dark walls of the past and have seen the light of the new day ahead?

"We wish every man, woman and child in Madison could go to the Fuller this week to witness this production. Take a day away from the grimaces and caprices of Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford and let Helen Keller make you see-SEE for one night.

"Helen Keller has consecrated her life to the great task of making a BLIND world SEE.

"Only those that are blind who do not see the truth" says Helen Keller.

"And much of the world is BLIND to the TRUTH in these days."

There is a damaged and incomplete print of this film in the Library of Congress; some effort is underway to make it available on video.

It's a shame that the 1919 film 'Deliverance' has the same title as a much better-known film about hillbilly sodomites. 'Deliverance' (this one) is a clumsily-made film, poorly paced, yet it's absolutely compelling because of the true story behind it.

This film is the life story of Helen Keller, made with her active participation. Inevitably, this movie covers the same ground as the much better-known 'The Miracle Worker'. 'Deliverance' is organised in a triptych format, depicting Helen Keller's life in three acts: as a child, as a young woman, and in the present day (1919) when she is an inspirational world figure.

We see Helen at age six (played by a very impressive child actress), utterly blind and deaf from infancy: mute, cut off from nearly all human contact. (Ms Keller lost her eyesight and hearing to scarlet fever, but this is not adequately explained in the film.) We see the famous scene in which Anne Sullivan pumps water into Helen's hand whilst spelling out the manual alphabet word for 'water' into her fingers. Despite the tableau staging, these scenes are profoundly moving because we recognise them as real events. The early sequences are largely marred by the depiction of some stereotypical black servants in the Keller household. In real life, Keller's father had been an officer in the Confederate army, but somehow I find the Keller family's servants more servile than they need to be for a story set in this time and place.

The middle sequence shows Helen Keller in her 20s, now able to speak (crudely) and attending college with Anne Sullivan translating the texts into Braille for her. This film does not dwell on the central irony of Helen Keller's life: namely that, in order for her to interact with the world, another person (Anne Sullivan) had to dedicate her own eyes and ears to Helen Keller's purposes.

Also, because this is a silent film, we are all necessarily deafened along with Ms Keller, and cannot fully grasp the isolation of her own silent existence within the world of hearing people (as this entire film is set in silence). I've heard Hellen Keller's voice in some sound-era newsreels: it's a shame that 'Deliverance' (lacking a soundtrack) is unable fully to convey her efforts to be able to speak coherently whilst unable to hear her own words.

In the final and most inspirational sequence, we see the real Helen Keller working tirelessly as a public figure to improve conditions for other blind people, and helping them to learn useful trades. (Another irony: none of those blind people could have appreciated this film.) Speaking directly to the camera, she also conveys (via silent-film titles) her belief in an almighty and benevolent deity. What a remarkable woman Helen Keller was. Much of 'Deliverance' is clumsy, but every frame of this movie is fascinating, and some of it is positively riveting. I'll rate 'Deliverance' 8 out of 10.