RedGage

“This soul—This blind, deaf, mute—woman—Can nothing be done to disinter this human soul? The whole neighborhood would rush to save this woman if she were buried alive by the caving in of a pit, and labor with zeal until she were dug out. Now if there were one with as much patience as zeal, he might awaken her to the consciousness of her immortal-- “is what is said about Annie Sullivan. The Miracle Worker was written by William Gibson and directed by Arthur Penn. It is based on Annie Sullivan’s efforts to teach Helen Keller how to read and be able to communicate with other people. It starts out with Kate Keller (Helen’s mother) discovering that Helen is deaf and blind, and then soon goes on to Annie Sullivan arriving and teaching Helen. Annie endures through Helen’s tantrums and finally is able to start to teach her.

Patty Duke portrays Helen Keller very well. She had to go through numerous trainings to perfect depicting a blind and deaf person. She has shown these skills in many instances, including in one occasion where a cable above the stage broke, creating a loud snap, in which she didn’t even flinch, while Annie and the dog on stage jumped. To show that she is blind and deaf, she almost always walks with her arms outstretched, or she crawls on the floor. If she doesn’t like something, and is upset, she will furrow her brows, have down-turned lips, and will make animal noises, which is the start of a tantrum.

Annie Sullivan is represented by Anne Bancroft, who plays her unbelievably well. She does everything right, right down to the Irish accent. Annie’s independence is revealed in many places, especially when she steals back her suitcase from James at the train station. She has to show the times when she is having flashbacks by staring around as if she were thinking. Annie is one of the only people in the film who forces Helen to listen, which becomes very difficult to do in some cases.

The theme is shown in various ways. In almost the whole film, the theme relates to Helen. It shows many bars, which symbolizes Helen’s mind being locked in, since she is deaf and blind. Later in the film, Helen sees a baby chick coming out of a shell which is what Annie wants Helen to do; she wants Helen to learn to communicate. In a few instances, there is a contrast between black and white clothing, which is showing that the people in white have hope, while the ones in black are either indifferent or have no hope.

I would definitely recommend this film for all people to see. This is a very good representation of what really happened with Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller. The acting is very well shown by the main characters, Patty and Anne. The film is very inspirational, in that after seeing what Helen Keller went through, all of your challenges don’t seem as hard to overcome. I would hope that people of all ages will come and see this motivational film to learn about Helen Keller’s challenges and how she overcame them.