Long Day's Journey Into Night
by Sidney Lumet
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dean Stockwell, Jason Robards, Jeanne Barr, Katharine Hepburn, Ralph RichardsonDirector: Sidney Lumet
Brand: Lions Gate
Cinematographer: Boris Kaufman
Editor: Ralph Rosenblum
Producer: Ely A. Landau
Producer: Jack J. Dreyfus Jr.
Producer: Joseph E. Levine
Writer: Eugene O'Neill
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 174 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Republic Pictures
Movie Reviews of Long Day's Journey Into Night
Movie Review: Lumet meets O'Neill
Summary: 5 Stars
Playwright Eugene O'Neill is credited with single-handedly elevating the American dramatic stage play to a respectable level in the early 20th century, thanks to such timeless works as "The Iceman Cometh," "Mourning Becomes Electra," and "Anna Christie." This autobiographical work was published long after his death, earned a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1957, and was filmed on a small budget in 1962 with Katharine Hepburn starring, who sought out the role with her typical vigor.
The director was Sidney Lumet, whose only previous major work was his theatrical debut, "12 Angry Men," with Henry Fonda. He had also done a TV version of O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" in 1960. Just two years after this film he made "The Pawnbroker" with Rod Steiger, but it was the '70s before his career warped into high gear with such great films as "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Network," "Prince Of the City," and "The Verdict." Did I mention he's one of my favorite directors?
The material O'Neill provides here is heavily psychological, as he basically puts his own family on stage and peels away their outer facades, layer by layer. From the start we see that there are conflicts in every relationship within this family consisting of the aging actor and patriarch, his fragile wife of 36 years who's never been interested in theater, O'Neill's drunkard second-rate actor of a brother, and the baby of the family (O'Neill himself), and over the course of the 3 hours we share with this most dysfunctional of groups we see them walking on eggshells, then accidentally bruising one another and profusely apologizing, and ultimately savaging one another in the throes of drug and drink.
That sounds quite unappealing, but in the hands of a master like O'Neill we truly get to know these characters, their lives, their fears, their aspirations, and their souls. And Lumet's direction, choosing to limit the film to a fairly strict stage-faithful interpretation of the material, is as striking as ever, dollying slowly into a screen-filling closeup of the characters at moments when they are ultimately being revealed or, alternately, occasionally dollying down the hallway or down to the beach to show us the characters in a wordless revelation of their loneliness. In the later parts of the film his camera is often shooting from floor level as the characters tower over one another, dominating one another in mind, body, and soul. Beautiful, understated work, typical of Lumet.
Sir Ralph Richardson plays the aging star of stage, based on O'Neill's father, who made a career of playing "The Count of Monte Cristo." His emotive performance perfectly fits such a "Master Thespian," and he is as commanding a miserly patriarch as there ever was. Hepburn's delicate and demanding performance as O'Neill's mother is a roller coaster ride that ends in the night of madness, her family spent and helpless to aid her. Jason Robards, who reprised this role in the TV-theatre sequel "A Moon For the Misbegotten," is absolutely dead on as the wasted young man who lives down to his father's expectations and bares his soul more painfully than the others. And young Dean Stockwell shows how lazily he performed on TV's "Quantum Leap" many years later, here playing a nuanced and delicate character whose role often is to simply react to those around him; he's the baby of the family, the playwright as a young man who's not yet a playwright, seeing his world change for the worse right before his eyes.
It's a monumental work, this play and this film. Its title, like the best such work, is both literal and figurative. It's likely to leave you wrung out emotionally, so be prepared; it's worth the work on the viewer's part.
Summary of Long Day's Journey Into Night
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