Miracle en Alabama

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.

I bought this movie after having not seen it for a while, and watching it again was intensely powerful. I had never cried during the "water" scene, but I did this time. The scene in the dining room is magnificently filmed and exhausting to watch...to think Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft performed that scene every night on Broadway! Supposedly they wore multiple layers of padding. I don't know why they didn't create a new category for the Oscars that year, Best Double Performance in Leading Roles. They both richly deserved the Oscars they won, but I really couldn't choose between a leading role and a supporting role in that movie since Duke and Bancroft created such a beautiful and moving partnership. Having read a great deal about Helen Keller, including her own autobiography, I am still always amazed by her story and accomplishments. This movie is a brilliant testament to human strength.

I don't think I've seen a movie with such amazing performances in a LONG time! The more work I see of Anne Bancroft, the more I'm impressed with her craft. I've never seen Patty Duke in anything before, so needless to say, I was blown away by her performance as well.

The most intense acting is done without any dialogue, especially where Anne Sullivan insists that Helen learn how to eat properly.

Such incredible performances (very Oscarly deserved!) and even more incredible story to boot!

Where do I begin? Shall I speak of Mrs Bancroft's performance,one of the finest you can watch on a screen?Shall I tell about Patty Duke's tour de force?Shall I praise the mind-boggling work of Arthur Penn,directing the long fight around the table?This movie is a miracle in itself.Behind her dark spectacles,the teacher hides buried terrors,that's why she's bound to understand her unusual pupil.She knows that the solution to her problems lies in herself,that the family is a prison .The parents do not see(or do not want to see) that they erect a wall between their daughter and the world outside by poisoning her with protection.That's why Annie seems brutal,hard on Helen.She could not have broken the wall if she had been a "nice" teacher.Among all Penn's great movies ,"miracle worker" is the only one that has an optimistic end.Since,other directors have tackled autism(children of a lesser God,rain man)but no one has surpassed this black and white gem.