Long Day's Journey Into Night

Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Performance!
Review: This is one of my all-time favorite films. The plot build-up is pure writing genius, and the actors in this film live up to that writing. Katharine Hepburn is remarkable, as usual, as the confused mother and wife. Ralph Richardson and Jason Robards give tremendous performances, as well; but I'm most impressed by the impeccable acting of Dean Stockwell as the younger son. This is a film where the emotion and tragedy builds to points that send shutters down the spine! If I had to pick 5 movies to take to a deserted island, this would be at the top of the list.

Rating:
Summary: ACTING EXCELLENCE
Review: This greatest of Eugene O'Neill plays is brought to the screen with a wealth of talent with Hepburn, Richardson, and Robards giving magnificent once-in-a-lifetime performances as members of the doomed Tyrone family. The play was totally autobiographical and when O'Neill died in 1951, his widow, Carlotta gave permission for the play to be performed 5 years later (O'Neill stated in his will that the play was not to be produced until 25 years after his death!)

Rating:
Summary: Good Theatre translate to Excellency on Film
Review: The screen adaptation of Eugene O'Neil's masterpiece manages that rarest of feats - it enhances the play. I don't think the film is particularly "stagey", but it certainly has the feel of a play in the sense that there's an unbroken superiority of acting. Katharine Hepburn stands out. Her mannerisms are perfectly suited to the character she portrays, and for once the rest of the cast is equally superb. It's a gem of a film, it encapsulates the very best of American acting, and it deserves all the praise one can bestow upon it. A classic. And a thoroughly emotional, thought-provoking one.

Rating:
Summary: character study of perfection
Review: hepburn is transformed in every sceen. nuances from the play not only dialogue make the performances unbelieveable. every line is a moment in time. alcohol,morphine,and family all are totally explored. verbally and visually mesmerizing. hepburn is old,young,strungout,and youthfully innocent. all are brilliant. study characters, and acting!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Great Stage Tragedy Translates To Film with Power Intact
Review: With a power which is cumulative rather than moment-to-moment, some unsophistocated viewers will find "Long Day's Journey Into Night" slow; those capable of and willing to make the necessary intellectual and emotional commitment, however, will find it both absorbing and powerful. A very faithful film adaptation of the famous Eugene O'Neil drama, the film is particularly noteworthy for standout performances, with Jason Robarbs recreating his award-winning stage performance. Hepburn, cast against type as an emotionally vulnerable and self-destructive morphine addict, proves her talent with what is quite possibly the single most powerful performance of her career. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Great play; great acting, especially by Jason Robards.
Review: Jason Robards, undoubtedly one of America's finest actors, brings the role he initiated on the stage to this film of O'Neill's beautiful, intense, autobiographical play. All players are good and true to their roles, but Robards' performance as Jaime O'Neill, Eugene's tortured and unfulfilled brother, defines the character in a way I haven't seen since, and probably won't again. This is a magnificent play; everyone should be fortunate enough to see it, if only to be exposed to truly well-written dialogue in this age of vapid action movies.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and beautiful film of O'Neill's masterpiece
Review: Under Sidney Lumet's superb direction, Sir Ralph Richardson, Katherine Hepburn, Dean Stockwell and Jaosn Robards, Jr. convey the beauty and pain of a masterpiece of American drama. The tension builds slowly to a devestating and emotionally wrenching conclusion, as each member of the Tyrone family confronts the knowledge that the ties of love cannot save them from the unfulfilled dreams and illusions of a past that continues to haunt them in the present. With the somber black-and-white cinematography and the stark intensity of Andre Previn's solo piano score setting the mood, the actors give some of their finest performances, capturing all the power of O'Neill's masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Not for all tastes.
Review: First, the performances by Hepburn, Robards, and Stockwell are top notch. Noone else could have performed any of the roles better. But this film is basically a three hour argument. Everyone fights with everybody else. There are other movies with less than happy endings which I love, but seeing this one once was more than enough.

Rating:
Summary: Well done movie adaptation of O'Neill's drama
Review: I have seen this movie several times, and not once have I regreted the evening. It is a masterpiece that still haunts, and something new is found in it every time!

Rating:
Summary: Lumet meets O'Neill
Review: Playwright Eugene O'Neill is credited with single-handedly elevating the American dramatic stage play to a respectable level in the early 20th century, thanks to such timeless works as "The Iceman Cometh," "Mourning Becomes Electra," and "Anna Christie." This autobiographical work was published long after his death, earned a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1957, and was filmed on a small budget in 1962 with Katharine Hepburn starring, who sought out the role with her typical vigor.

The director was Sidney Lumet, whose only previous major work was his theatrical debut, "12 Angry Men," with Henry Fonda. He had also done a TV version of O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" in 1960. Just two years after this film he made "The Pawnbroker" with Rod Steiger, but it was the '70s before his career warped into high gear with such great films as "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Network," "Prince Of the City," and "The Verdict." Did I mention he's one of my favorite directors?

The material O'Neill provides here is heavily psychological, as he basically puts his own family on stage and peels away their outer facades, layer by layer. From the start we see that there are conflicts in every relationship within this family consisting of the aging actor and patriarch, his fragile wife of 36 years who's never been interested in theater, O'Neill's drunkard second-rate actor of a brother, and the baby of the family (O'Neill himself), and over the course of the 3 hours we share with this most dysfunctional of groups we see them walking on eggshells, then accidentally bruising one another and profusely apologizing, and ultimately savaging one another in the throes of drug and drink.

That sounds quite unappealing, but in the hands of a master like O'Neill we truly get to know these characters, their lives, their fears, their aspirations, and their souls. And Lumet's direction, choosing to limit the film to a fairly strict stage-faithful interpretation of the material, is as striking as ever, dollying slowly into a screen-filling closeup of the characters at moments when they are ultimately being revealed or, alternately, occasionally dollying down the hallway or down to the beach to show us the characters in a wordless revelation of their loneliness. In the later parts of the film his camera is often shooting from floor level as the characters tower over one another, dominating one another in mind, body, and soul. Beautiful, understated work, typical of Lumet.

Sir Ralph Richardson plays the aging star of stage, based on O'Neill's father, who made a career of playing "The Count of Monte Cristo." His emotive performance perfectly fits such a "Master Thespian," and he is as commanding a miserly patriarch as there ever was. Hepburn's delicate and demanding performance as O'Neill's mother is a roller coaster ride that ends in the night of madness, her family spent and helpless to aid her. Jason Robards, who reprised this role in the TV-theatre sequel "A Moon For the Misbegotten," is absolutely dead on as the wasted young man who lives down to his father's expectations and bares his soul more painfully than the others. And young Dean Stockwell shows how lazily he performed on TV's "Quantum Leap" many years later, here playing a nuanced and delicate character whose role often is to simply react to those around him; he's the baby of the family, the playwright as a young man who's not yet a playwright, seeing his world change for the worse right before his eyes.

It's a monumental work, this play and this film. Its title, like the best such work, is both literal and figurative. It's likely to leave you wrung out emotionally, so be prepared; it's worth the work on the viewer's part.