Rent The Miracle Worker (1962)

A Terrible Isolation - The Miracle Worker review by MW

Patty Duke gives an extraordinary performance as the feral blind and deaf Helen Keller crashing around the house and garden with arms outstretched desperate to communicate with the outside world. Anne Bancroft is equally brilliant as her inspired and devoted tutor who endures countless violent tantrums in her dogged determination to connect with her isolated and frustrated pupil. It's a life-affirming story which largely eschews sentimentality.

A Gritty Portrayal - The Miracle Worker review by CP Customer

This film was made when real life could be portrayed without a strong dose of sentimentality. I had not seen this film since I was quite young and I am so glad I decided to watch it again now.

There are some long scenes which reflect the suffering of Helen and the determination of Annie. They are harrowing yet they really take the viewer on this difficult journey.

I defy anyone who does not shed a tear in the end, the love and gratitude showed to the teacher by the pupil in the final scene is touching and real.

Biographic Drama. - The Miracle Worker review by Steve

Adaptation by William Gibson of his own stage play which retained its two wonderful leads: Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan, the educator of the deaf-blind and near mute seven year old Helen Keller played by Patty Duke. Sullivan teaches the wild, unreachable child to communicate with the world through applying pressure to her teacher's fingers.

 Sullivan went to live with Keller's family in Alabama, 1887, with the South still destitute from the Civil War. Arthur Penn frames the story and its characters in the terms of the kind of heroism normally seen in war films or epics. And that feels appropriate. Sullivan's brave and astonishing enterprise is an act of phenomenal audacity, even though achieved in a domestic context.  

The film has an expressionistic look, with noirish lighting and distorted visuals. Sullivan with her pale, traumatised face, her own near blindness hidden behind black glasses looks like a visitation from a horror film. She is haunted by her own agonising past in a Victorian asylum, tortured with guilt for the handicapped brother she left behind.  

This is southern gothic. It is full of atmosphere, but is Bancroft and Duke that most endure, locked in the confrontation of their anguished, intimate world. There are long scenes of little or no dialogue, with no scoring and little editing. The Miracle Worker looks artistic, but feels real. The film is an extremely humbling experience.