Anna dei miracoli

I'm not certain if it was fate but it is very interesting that I had the chance to finally see "The Miracle Worker" a few days after the sad news of the death of Anne Bancroft.

The film, based on the play by William Gibson, is an extremely well-acted film, brilliantly opened up on the big screen. Anne Bancroft as teacher Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke as young Helen Keller are outstanding. Sullivan's determination to communicate to the deaf and blind Helen made for a compelling story on stage as well as on screen.

I understand that when Hollywood wanted to make this movie, the powers-that-be did not want Bancroft or Duke. After finally seeing the movie, I'm glad that director Arthur Penn and producer Fred Coe chose to make this movie outside the so-called Hollywood establishment.

One scene that was discussed in some other posts was the dining room in which Sullivan forces Helen to eat food from a spoon and not her hands. It almost felt like I was watching a fierce wrestling match. It was a physical, as well as an emotionally draining, sequence. A battle of wills between teacher and the unwilling student. It was brilliantly edited and directed.

The film was not without faults. According to the IMDb, a number of flashback scenes were filmed in their entirety but did not work out very well. Those scenes were incorporated within the movie and it looked rather clumsy. The scenes could have been easily edited out completely.

As with all plays adapted to the big screen, some scenes were a little bit stagy. But that involved just a few scenes and, overall, it did not ruin the movie.

What I really liked about the movie was that the filmmakers were very successful at not succumbing to sentiment. This movie could have easily been very corny and sappy. Perhaps Bancroft and Duke and their performances had something to do with that.

I've been a fan of Anne Bancroft for many years and I'm very glad that I had the chance to see her well-deserved Oscar-winning performance.

RIP Ms. Bancroft.