Long voyage vers la nuit

A long descent into the sick heart of a family that is as dysfunctional as any to ever hit the silver screen. This movie covers, in sometimes tedious detail, the idiosyncrasies of each member of the family. Mom, (Kate Hepburn) in an Oscar-worthy performance as the center of the family and a drug addict. She is almost too convincing as someone on the edge. Dad, (Richardson) as the miserly father too cheap to even give his sick wife and son the proper medical treatment. And the 2 sons played by Stockwell and Robards as the demented and damaged off-shoots of 2 very fragile human beings. If you look closely, O'Neil has made it so that it seems each individual is responsible for the way the family has turned out. And so it is with all of us. It is not just our parents but ourselves that effect the family tree and its health or lack of it.

This film version of the great American play is powerful and devastating. The cast is excellent. Hepburn is able to show the alterations in her character with subtle horror.

This story is a study in how humans lose themselves in the fog of drugs, alcohol, sex, disease, and other escapes from reality. None of the characters is willing to take responsibility for what is happening, and therefore they drift deeper and deeper into the night. The real horror is the fact that they could save themselves, but they never come out of the past or the fog long enough to take the first step.

The emotional impact of the play is incredibly powerful even as it is underplayed. This is one of the few films of a play that really works well and translates the emotions of the stage onto the screen without losing the depth and the catharsis.

Although this film retains the feel of a stage production, this seems to heighten the tension and emphasize how amazing these performances really are.

I've always felt that the play is well-suited to being filmed in black and white. The lack of color seems to bring out even more of the dreary agony that the characters are going through, as well as making the fog seem even more dismal and real.

Because O'Neill's play is apparently autobiographical, the suffering is amplified intensely. This film is a fantastic drama--but because of the length (around 3 hours) and the anguish that the characters go through, you need to be sure you're in the right mood before you sit down to watch it.

Let me be upfront about the whole thing & say that this film is difficult to watch. So much so that it took me multiple sittings to get through it. However, I am still glad that I stuck with it because as far as dysfunctional families go, this is a gold mine. All the characters obviously have familial affection but they can't forgive each other for past indiscretions. Each knows that they are failing to connect as a family but believes it to be someone else's fault. Having known two such families on a very personal level, I am amazed at how close this is to reality!

The matriarch of this family is a drug addict who loves her family dearly. But she also resents them for various reasons: her husband for being a miser & cheating on her, her elder son for being jealous and infecting his younger sibling in childhood (the sibling died of the infection) and her youngest son for the complications surrounding his birth, which led to her addiction. The family too loves her in return but resent her for not having enough strength and self-discipline to overcome the addiction, even though they also indulge in overdrinking! The father resents his sons for being lazy and often compares their 'privileged' upbringing to his own miserable upbringing. His absolute fear of poverty makes him unable to provide proper medical assistance to his family. Besides resenting his parents for their obvious failings, the elder son resents his youngest brother for being better liked by the parents & also for being more talented than him. And if you thought that the matters could not get any worse, the youngest son is diagnosed with TB! This family, which was already doing very poorly, is shaken to its core. And all you can do as a viewer is listen to each and every member & sympathize because they have all reached a point of no return. There is equal parts love & hate in their relationships & even the viewer can see that not much can be done to avoid further heart break & alienation that is soon to follow.

I just caught an interview with Sam Shephard on Fresh Air where he mentions that this movie was one of the reasons he got interested in the theater. He talked about the great performances of Jason Robards, Ralph Richardson, Dean Stockwell, and Katherine Hepburn. My memory of the movie goes back to the late 60's in Berkeley when I had just seen a performance of the play by the Berkeley Rep and then watched the film shortly thereafter in an on campus showing. I, too, was blown away by these performances. In my mind, they rank up there with the very best in the history of film as an ensemble piece of acting. The direction by Sidney Lumet was outstanding and the screenplay remained true to the original play which has never been a common practice in Hollywood. Perhaps these characters resemble members of my family a little too much but they have not been forgotten in the 30 plus years since I last saw the film.