The Miracle Worker – DVD Review

DVD Reviews, Reviews

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The first time I saw The Miracle Worker, I felt rather guilty about all the Helen Keller jokes Id told on the school bus. My favorite was: How did Helen Keller burn her fingers? She was reading the waffle iron. After witnessing the intense therapy that it took for Annie Sullivan to get Helen Keller to communicate, the jokes werent funny. The original film starred Anne Bancroft as Annie and Patty Duke as Helen. Both would win acting Oscars for 1962. The movie on the DVD was the remake done In 1979 for TV. Patty Duke swapped roles and became the teacher. Who would play the deaf and blind Helen? Melissa Gilbert of Little House on the Prairie fame dropped her cute girl act to become the wild child of Alabama.

Helen is completely out of control. Her parents have no idea what to do for their daughter since its impossible for them to communicate with her. She cant see or hear anything. The opening scene has her bounding through a field. Its a familiar image involving Gilbert from her other TV gig. But instead of being sweet, shes aggressive like dog. The family gives the girl space to do her thing. But that all changes when Helens mom brings Annie Sullivan to the house. Annie is shocked at how theyve let the child grow feral. She realizes that even trapped in a world of darkness and silence, Helen must know that she can communicate with the world. Shes not truly isolated. What follows is a long hard struggle for Annie to break Helen of her savage ways. She also wants to teach her sign language.

Because this is a TV movie, theres an economics of angles in The Miracle Worker. Theres no distracting editing with jarring close ups and wild camera moves. This production is a classic ’70s movie of the week. The style ultimately allows the two actresses to work off each other instead of interrupting their interaction with rapid editing. Patty Duke takes the role of passionate authority after all those years of being identified as Helen Keller without a hitch. Shes extremely physical in her treatment of the girl. Shes doing whatever it takes to establish a connection and set conditions. Its easy to imagine thered be a lawsuit with such hands on approach in todays special needs classes. Melissa Gilbert taps into the moment before Kellers break through. Its easy to imagine at the end of each day the two actresses apologizing for getting a little rough on the set. The Miracle Worker makes us realize that what changed Helen Keller wasnt a joke.

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The video is 1.33:1 full frame. The transfer is from videotape so its a soft image. The audio is mono. The levels are high enough to get your ears filled when Annie and Helen struggle. The movie is Closed Captioned so the hearing impaired can follow the story. Theres also a track with Audio Descriptions for the Blind.

Photo Gallery of production shots.

The Miracle Worker continues to be an inspiring story about the extremes that Annie Sullivan took to make Helen Keller discover how to communicate to a world she couldnt see or hear. Patty Duke and Melissa Gilbert get to the heart of this challenge.

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Shout! Factory presents The Miracle Worker. Directed by: Paul Aaron. Written by: William Gibson. Starring: Patty Duke, Diana Muldaur, Charles Siebert and Melissa Gilbert. Running time: 98 minutes. Released on DVD: March 10, 2009. Available at Amazon.com

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.