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Miracle Worker (1979), The
Shout Factory // G // March 10, 2009
List Price: $14.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Film:
My first experience with "The Miracle Worker" wasn't with Arthur Penn's highly-acclaimed 1962 film or with Helen Keller's autobiography that it's based off of, strangely enough. It was with the paperback "script" version of William Gibson's adaptation, an odd introduction of sorts to a story about a young blind/deaf/mute girl learning to break the communication barriers separating her from the outside world. There's something conveyed through the raw lines of the play, however, that speak well to the nature of Helen Keller's untamed movements and the gravity that they possess when positioned against her teacher, Annie Sullivan.
Paul Aaron's rendition of "The Miracle Worker", the 1979 Golden Globe-nominated TV film, offers a slightly different outlook on the narrative by latching even more firmly onto its theatrical essence. Primarily brought together to showcase the talents of Melissa Gilbert, it concentrates heavily on stage space and character posturing to keep the spotlight on performance values. It's become a sturdy teaching tool for younger students learning about Gibson's play and the facets of screenwriting, primarily for its slightly warmer focus on the two leads. But that doesn't mean it's a superior adaptation, since its stiffness in the first act creates a bit of a barrier to climb to get to the heart of the matter.
"The Miracle Worker" embodies the easily-recognizable late '70s production values of 19th Century America to a fine point, feeling like a "Little House on the Prairie" rendition of Helen Keller's story. It captures the Keller family as they struggle to bottle up the near-undomesticated Helen (Gilbert) enough to stop her wildly thrashing everything around her. Her mother (Diane Muldaur) enlists the help of Annie Sullivan (Patty Duke), a young teacher for the visually impaired with a tough past of her own, to try and crack the young girl of her habits and, hopefully, engage her enough to teach communication skills. It marks a thoroughly appealing dynamic with Patty Duke as the inexperienced teacher, marking her return to the narrative 17 years after her performance as Helen Keller in the '62 film.
Aaron's rendition of "The Miracle Worker" stumbles a bit at the beginning, showing the production's steadfast drive to rush towards the Gilbert-Duke pairing that highlights the second and third acts. We're introduced to the rest of the Kellers -- Charlies Siebert as Helen's father, Stanley Wells as the brother -- and they're textually adequate, but the lackluster, stiff attention placed on their characters really shows when compared to the two forthright actresses. Muscling past this monotonous carbon-copy of the play's introductory pages makes for a watch-checking introduction, but it's worth it once Sullivan arrives and the core material comes into focus.
Melissa Gilbert and Patty Duke, as expected, ensnare all the focal attention once their characters meet on the Keller's front porch, which instantly kicks the physical drama within "The Miracle Worker" into gear. They bring several iconic scenes to life with their volatile-then-delicate chemistry, from their initial tiff in the bedroom when Annie Sullivan begins to show Helen the in-hand symbols to the now-famous water spout scene. The most vivid and dramatically potent of their bouts is their violent breakfast soiree in the dining room, the plateau they hit just before striking the deal with the Captain that would change both of their lives. It's one of the few examples where this television version comes close to the same weight as its theatrical perdecessor.
Soaking in "The Miracle Worker" largely swings on the effectiveness of the physical interplay between the actresses playing Sullivan and Helen Keller, which largely works in Aaron's production. Most of its success leans on Patty Duke. She clearly knows how to interplay with the Sullivan-Keller dynamic, which isn't a tough one to negotiate with an actress guided to flail about and seem disconnected with the world. Her experience with Anne Bancroft shows in her reverse depiction, as she can delve into her previous experience as Helen to grab a hold of the proper dominance-forming aggression with Annie Sullivan. Melissa Gilbert does a fine job as Helen Keller as well, though we're left persistently reminded of Patty Duke's upstaging, Oscar-winning turn. The two of them had nearly twenty (20) years of considerable stage and screen renown to muscle through in order to craft a successful spin on their chemistry that would appeal to the "Prairie" crowd, and they do so admirably.
Paul Aaron built a fine low-scale adaptation of Gibson's play that places key emphasis on first-rate portrayals of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller, but it's simply not as absorbing or emotionally resonant as Arthur Penn's theatrical film. They cater to similar themes and virtues -- patience, most prominently, with Annie Sullivan working her "miracle" with Helen -- but Aaron's film focuses more on doing stiff, word-for-word justice to William Gibson's source material than concentrating on narrative flow or tone. But, needless to say, most of the same touching scenes carry a similar weight, if being a bit overdrawn. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do -- bolster Patty Duke and Melissa Gilbert's performances and mirror the material in a melodramatic, play-based fashion -- without much in frills or notables outside of its marquee names.
The DVD:
Video and Audio:
Speaking of "no frills", that's the best way to look at Shot Factory's presentation of "The Miracle Worker", both in audio and video strength. Offered in its original 1.33:1 full-frame image, the transfer looks like it was pulled from a low-grade (potentially VHS) source without much in the cleaning-up department. It's exceedingly blurry, sports frequent ghosting, and suffers from some hairline and pinhole print damage fairly often. On the other side of things, the colors aren't handled all that bad -- minus the inherent blooming present in the source print -- and the costume/hair work can be seen relatively clearly in each scene.
The 2-channel audio track does about the same sort of job, staying audible and discernible while showing every year of its age. Vocals are muffled and scratch the upper and lower frequencies, but they rarely get too inaudible to distort our comprehension of the dialogue. On the music side of things, the score has just as hard of a time, getting a bit scratchy when it pushes too high or low. It doesn't sound good, but it rarely hinders the experience.
Special Features:
Outside of an Audio Description Track available to narrate the film for seeing-impaired individuals, we've also got a Photo Gallery with a series of production shots -- most of which hover around the water pump scene.
Final Thoughts:
Paul Aaron's "The Miracle Worker" gets a lot right when adapting William Gibson's play, but it has a hard time in finding a balance between theatricality and rigidness. This actually works to its benefit as a tool to showcase the dynamic between Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan in a theater-like space, both of which are performed well by Patty Duke and Melissa Gilbert. Still, it's a pleasantly melodramatic rendering of a naturally compelling story, one of determination and struggle that can be very influential if taken in the right context. For most, it'll be worth a Rental to see their performances matched against those from the '62s film -- but for educators, it's easily recommended at the price as a teaching tool.
Thomas Spurlin, Staff Reviewer -- DVDTalk Reviews | Personal Blog/Site
My first experience with "The Miracle Worker" wasn't with Arthur Penn's highly-acclaimed 1962 film or with Helen Keller's autobiography that it's based off of, strangely enough. It was with the paperback "script" version of William Gibson's adaptation, an odd introduction of sorts to a story about a young blind/deaf/mute girl learning to break the communication barriers separating her from the outside world. There's something conveyed through the raw lines of the play, however, that speak well to the nature of Helen Keller's untamed movements and the gravity that they possess when positioned against her teacher, Annie Sullivan. Paul Aaron's rendition of "The Miracle Worker", the 1979 Golden Globe-nominated TV film, offers a slightly different outlook on the narrative by latching even more firmly onto its theatrical essence. Primarily brought together to showcase the talents of Melissa Gilbert, it concentrates heavily on stage space and character posturing to keep the spotlight on performance values. It's become a sturdy teaching tool for younger students learning about Gibson's play and the facets of screenwriting, primarily for its slightly warmer focus on the two leads. But that doesn't mean it's a superior adaptation, since its stiffness in the first act creates a bit of a barrier to climb to get to the heart of the matter.
"The Miracle Worker" embodies the easily-recognizable late '70s production values of 19th Century America to a fine point, feeling like a "Little House on the Prairie" rendition of Helen Keller's story. It captures the Keller family as they struggle to bottle up the near-undomesticated Helen (Gilbert) enough to stop her wildly thrashing everything around her. Her mother (Diane Muldaur) enlists the help of Annie Sullivan (Patty Duke), a young teacher for the visually impaired with a tough past of her own, to try and crack the young girl of her habits and, hopefully, engage her enough to teach communication skills. It marks a thoroughly appealing dynamic with Patty Duke as the inexperienced teacher, marking her return to the narrative 17 years after her performance as Helen Keller in the '62 film.
Aaron's rendition of "The Miracle Worker" stumbles a bit at the beginning, showing the production's steadfast drive to rush towards the Gilbert-Duke pairing that highlights the second and third acts. We're introduced to the rest of the Kellers -- Charlies Siebert as Helen's father, Stanley Wells as the brother -- and they're textually adequate, but the lackluster, stiff attention placed on their characters really shows when compared to the two forthright actresses. Muscling past this monotonous carbon-copy of the play's introductory pages makes for a watch-checking introduction, but it's worth it once Sullivan arrives and the core material comes into focus.
 |  |
Melissa Gilbert and Patty Duke, as expected, ensnare all the focal attention once their characters meet on the Keller's front porch, which instantly kicks the physical drama within "The Miracle Worker" into gear. They bring several iconic scenes to life with their volatile-then-delicate chemistry, from their initial tiff in the bedroom when Annie Sullivan begins to show Helen the in-hand symbols to the now-famous water spout scene. The most vivid and dramatically potent of their bouts is their violent breakfast soiree in the dining room, the plateau they hit just before striking the deal with the Captain that would change both of their lives. It's one of the few examples where this television version comes close to the same weight as its theatrical perdecessor.
Soaking in "The Miracle Worker" largely swings on the effectiveness of the physical interplay between the actresses playing Sullivan and Helen Keller, which largely works in Aaron's production. Most of its success leans on Patty Duke. She clearly knows how to interplay with the Sullivan-Keller dynamic, which isn't a tough one to negotiate with an actress guided to flail about and seem disconnected with the world. Her experience with Anne Bancroft shows in her reverse depiction, as she can delve into her previous experience as Helen to grab a hold of the proper dominance-forming aggression with Annie Sullivan. Melissa Gilbert does a fine job as Helen Keller as well, though we're left persistently reminded of Patty Duke's upstaging, Oscar-winning turn. The two of them had nearly twenty (20) years of considerable stage and screen renown to muscle through in order to craft a successful spin on their chemistry that would appeal to the "Prairie" crowd, and they do so admirably.
Paul Aaron built a fine low-scale adaptation of Gibson's play that places key emphasis on first-rate portrayals of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller, but it's simply not as absorbing or emotionally resonant as Arthur Penn's theatrical film. They cater to similar themes and virtues -- patience, most prominently, with Annie Sullivan working her "miracle" with Helen -- but Aaron's film focuses more on doing stiff, word-for-word justice to William Gibson's source material than concentrating on narrative flow or tone. But, needless to say, most of the same touching scenes carry a similar weight, if being a bit overdrawn. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do -- bolster Patty Duke and Melissa Gilbert's performances and mirror the material in a melodramatic, play-based fashion -- without much in frills or notables outside of its marquee names.
The DVD:
 |  |
Video and Audio:
Speaking of "no frills", that's the best way to look at Shot Factory's presentation of "The Miracle Worker", both in audio and video strength. Offered in its original 1.33:1 full-frame image, the transfer looks like it was pulled from a low-grade (potentially VHS) source without much in the cleaning-up department. It's exceedingly blurry, sports frequent ghosting, and suffers from some hairline and pinhole print damage fairly often. On the other side of things, the colors aren't handled all that bad -- minus the inherent blooming present in the source print -- and the costume/hair work can be seen relatively clearly in each scene.
The 2-channel audio track does about the same sort of job, staying audible and discernible while showing every year of its age. Vocals are muffled and scratch the upper and lower frequencies, but they rarely get too inaudible to distort our comprehension of the dialogue. On the music side of things, the score has just as hard of a time, getting a bit scratchy when it pushes too high or low. It doesn't sound good, but it rarely hinders the experience.
Special Features:
Outside of an Audio Description Track available to narrate the film for seeing-impaired individuals, we've also got a Photo Gallery with a series of production shots -- most of which hover around the water pump scene.
Final Thoughts:
Paul Aaron's "The Miracle Worker" gets a lot right when adapting William Gibson's play, but it has a hard time in finding a balance between theatricality and rigidness. This actually works to its benefit as a tool to showcase the dynamic between Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan in a theater-like space, both of which are performed well by Patty Duke and Melissa Gilbert. Still, it's a pleasantly melodramatic rendering of a naturally compelling story, one of determination and struggle that can be very influential if taken in the right context. For most, it'll be worth a Rental to see their performances matched against those from the '62s film -- but for educators, it's easily recommended at the price as a teaching tool.
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