The Miracle Worker
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Movie Reviews of The Miracle Worker
Movie Review: To Be Human One Must Feel Human
Summary: 5 Stars
THE MIRACLE WORKER touches so many nerves that it stands for accomplishing what all want but only a few know how to get. Before Patty Duke and Ann Bancroft played Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan on Broadway, few ever even thought about the plight of those who were denied sight, sound, and speech, but this movie shook up an unthinking but caring nation enough to realize that help was a function of infinite patience mixed with mental and physical toughness. There is no need to go into the plot about how one girl denied the use of her senses could rage against everyone and everything until taught by a woman who knew first hand how willpower could overcome disability. What makes THE MIRACLE WORKER work as a triumph of the human spirit are the many scenes that tested to the limit the ability and vision of Annie Sullivan to somehow penetrate the fog that clouded a mind that in its own way was struggling to reach out for a world of touch and smell that remained only as wisps in a memory before a dread disease robbed her of her senses. There is much face slapping, spoon throwing, and body slamming that stuns the audience with its violence but reaffirms the notion that such extreme actions must be used when nothing else works. This is a film of desperation. The Keller family desperately needs help for their daughter Helen whom they do not wish to institutionalize. Annie Sullivan desperately needs the Kellers not to interfere in a education that will get much worse before it gets better. And Helen herself desperately needs to find a way to come to grips with a brute world that refuses to allow her a sense of understanding or control. The climax is when Helen has an epiphany. When she douses her hand with water from the outdoor pump, she suddenly sees a connection between the finger alphabet games she had been idly playing with Annie Sullivan and the real world that she could touch but not internalize. THE MIRACLE WORKER makes us realize that education goes on all the time for everyone, but for some of us, we must first get our hands wet to know that.Movie Review: Still Powerful Acting Showcase for the Two Leads But Penn Also Deserves Acclaim
Summary: 5 Stars
Even though Anne Bancroft had been toiling in execrable B-movies like "Gorilla at Large" for a decade, it took the cinematic recreation of her much acclaimed Broadway performance as teacher Annie Sullivan to establish her in the front ranks. Patty Duke, then a prodigious child actress, also recreates her stage performance in the overwhelmingly primal role of the pre-adolescent Helen Keller, the subsequent author and social activist who lost her sight and hearing at nineteen months old. Yet, none of their virtuoso acting overshadows the considerable contributions of director Arthur Penn in making William Gibson's play resonate onscreen in this 1962 film. Using deep focus shadows and compositions and off-kilter camera angles to magnify the intensity of the drama, Penn lends the true-life story even greater emotional impact.
Gibson focuses his screen adaptation from the time Keller's condition is recognized by her parents to the moment of revelation at the water pump as Sullivan breaks through to Keller's capacity for understanding words and their meaning. There are moments of somewhat excessive theatricality, especially at the beginning, but as soon as the plot strips away to just Sullivan and Keller, the drama becomes more propulsive and involving. Speaking with a fey Boston Irish accent and often sporting dark glasses, Bancroft is nothing short of masterful especially in conveying Sullivan's unwavering principles. Duke makes the perfect complement by capturing not only the rawness of her character but also Keller's unabated search for knowledge. I still find many of the supporting performances too overwrought, especially the Keller family portrayed by Victor Jory, Inga Swenson and Andrew Prine. Although this film has been remade at least two times, including a version with Duke as Sullivan, make no mistake that this is still the definitive production. It is impossible not to be moved by the film's last ten minutes. Sadly, the 2001 DVD offers no extras.
Movie Review: Well Acted and Well Told Story
Summary: 5 Stars
This touching film is the story of the relationship between Helen Keller and her beloved "Teacher", Anne Sullivan. When Anne arrived at Helen's house, Helen, who was blind and deaf from an illness she had as a baby, is a wild child, spoiled rotten by her parents. Anne, newly graduated from The Perkins School for the Blind, is struggling with her own demons - surgery restored her eyesight, but her eyes are very sensitive, and she is haunted by the death of her brother, Jimmy. The first thing she does is finger spell words to Helen, showing her a doll and spelling the word "doll" out in sign language, even though she knows that Helen will not understand what she is trying to do. In one grueling scene, Anne also tries to teach Helen table manners, finally getting her to fold her own napkin. She finally convinces Helen's family to let her go away with Helen for two weeks to teach her discipline. The experiment is a huge success. The experiment is a huge success, but Anne is discouraged that Helen still hasn't grasped the concept of the meaning of words. She thinks it will take a miracle to reach Helen.
"The Miracle Worker" was a play before it was a movie and at times this movie comes across as a filmed play. This is a bit confining, but it works well in some scenes like when Anne and Helen stay in the cabin by themselves and especially the intense scene where Anne tries to teach Helen to eat from her own plate and not take food from other people's plates. The acting is terrific, both Anne Bancroft as Anne and Patty Duke as Helen deservedly won Oscars for their work. Although a bit old for the part, Duke is especially brilliant, viewers will really believe she is blind and deaf.
There are no extras on this DVD. I found it astonishing that, although there were subtitles in French and Spanish, there were no English subtitles. It's unbelievable that a large number of hearing impaired viewers will not be able to watch this inspiring film.
Movie Review: The Miracle Worker
Summary: 5 Stars
Have you ever had a miracle?
Title: The Miracle Worker
Producer: Mgm
Director: Arthur pen
Length: 107
Rated: nr
Released date: March 6, 2001
Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be blind, deaf, and not able to speak well Helen Keller does she has been blind deaf and not able to speak since she was six months old. She was a nine year old child that could not dress her self or keep her self clean. Helen's parents fought all the time because her dad wonted her to start school.
This was a grate movie because it taught me a lot of things that blind people have to go threw and how their parents feel for an example they might feel like your falling every day if you were blind you would probably have to go to a deferent and learn how to do sin language, what thing feel like for an example a dog, cat, and any other objects you would learn in the school you go to now.
This was a great movie because Helens teacher teaches Helen and hue ever is watching the movie how to do sin language. what it mean to your parents to have you around the house to help with the little stuff like picking up the paper you gruge out our knocked off the table you parents makes you do that even though you do it right now but that's be side the point there just treating you like if you was able to see.
This movie was also a great movie because the teacher in The Miracle Worker teaches Helen table manners after nine years. I thought it would be hard because I have seen how hard it is to teach a little kid table manners. It was especially hard for Helen.
Why I thought this was a great movie because it taught me how I might feel if one of my brothers or sisters was blind deaf and couldn't speak. I would wreck amend this movie to everyone that would like to learn more about the past.
Movie Review: "TWO OF THE BEST PERFORMANCES..."
Summary: 5 Stars
ever committed to film are on display in this 1962 classic by Arthur Penn. Based on the stage play of the same name, it tells the story of how Annie Sullivan brings light into the dark world of Helen Keller. This is one of the best films of any era.Patty Duke is amazing as Helen Keller. She is a young girl isolated in a way by her blindness, yet totally controlling of the environment and people around her because of it. Patty manages to capture the frustration Helen has, that of being an intelligent person unable to fully express herself and grow. She conveys this all without saying a word until the climatic moment at the end.
Anne Bancroft is Annie Sullivan. Partially blind herself, she is a young woman who has seen and experienced more than her share of poverty and misery in her life. It is her experience as a child of the institution that shapes the woman she has become and prepares her for the assignment she takes on in teaching Helen. Anne conveys vulnerability, strength, determination and compassion; and love, as exhibited in the closing scene where she is holding Helen and singing "Hush Little Baby" on the porch. It is a deeply felt and affective performance.
It is beautifully shot in black and white, which helps keep the film close to its stage roots. Victor Jory is the "Captain," Helen's gruff, no nonsense father, who doesn't know what to make of this young "Yankee" woman. Inga Swenson is Helen's younger, fragile mother, hoping for a miracle and reluctantly letting Annie take control of the daughter she loves. Andrew Prine is Annie's main supporter as Helen's half brother. They all lend terrific support.
I was 12 years old on that Christmas Day in 1972 when I first saw this film. I was deeply affected by Anne Bancroft's performance and became a fan for life. For anyone who wants to be an actor, this is required viewing. A CLASSIC!