StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

jacobs-greenwood This wonderful, tear-jerking and eventually heartwarming, compelling true story of the early (the breakthrough) years of Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan, who stubbornly helps the belligerent violent child to overcome the frustration due to her handicaps (blind, deaf, and dumb) and learned to communicate (e.g. through sign language) is an essential biographical drama which earned Academy Awards for both Anne Bancroft (Best Actress Oscar on her first nomination) as Annie and Patty Duke (Best Supporting Actress on her only nomination) as Helen; both actresses were reprising their roles from the play, for which Bancroft had received a Tony Award.The film's director Arthur Penn (his first nomination), its screenplay (William Gibson's only recognition from the Academy) adapted from Keller's own book, and B&W Costume Design (also Ruth Morley's only) were also nominated for Oscars. Victor Jory plays Helen's stern father, Inga Swenson the loving mother that had spoiled her 'helpless' daughter to brink of institutionalization, and Andrew Prine plays the brother that sometimes suffered from a lack of attention.

janinequinlan Anne Sullivan, played brilliantly by Anne Bancroft was Helen Keller's teacher in real life and in film The Miracle Worker. Anne Sullivan was an American orphan born with trachoma which lead to her to be almost completely blind. She had a series of botched operations but in The Miracle Worker she could see, certainly more than Helen Keller, and her remembrances of her past trauma are depicted in a hazy visual dream-like state.Keller is played by Patty Duke, also a world class performance.Both won Oscars in 1962 for this movie.Sullivan was from immigrant, penniless Irish parents and was delegated to almshouse until age 14 when she was admitted to the Parsons School for the Blind. Her brother died in the almshouse while there perpetuating the trauma of her experience in that institution.Adept at finger spelling and armed with her own history of resilience, Sullivan takes on Helen Keller. Helen is little more than a human being who eats with her hands from everyone's plate, engages in temper tantrums that would make Jimmy Connors blush, and can only communicate in the most rudimentary form . Her family has all but given up on her when they enlist Anne Sullivan for employment as her a dogged teacher and governess for Helen.Sullivan had a gift for diagnosing and treating Keller's difficult communication problem. She transforms Helen Keller from something like a feral animal to a human being. In this sense she is a health leader not just a teacher and an intuitive caretaker.Ms. Sullivan achieved in two weeks something of a miracle. She was able to accomplish this due to her ability to empathize and look back on her own past to prevent Helen's future from being as dismal as hers might have been. "We used to play with the rats" when describing one of her childhood experiences to the the Kellers in the almshouse. The turn of the century was a terrible time to be institutionalized and conditions were characteristically inhumane.When Anne Sullivan arrived in Tuscumbia, Alabama, she was at odds with the Southern position on pre and post-slavery. The Kellers used to own slaves and this created immediate tension. Sullivan's political leanings were socialist and she was a suffragette, to boot.Sullivan's methodology was akin to family theory models which involve removing the child from the home, and in Keller's case, the overprotective arena. The family members display enmeshment perpetuating Helen's lack of social and intellectual progress. Additionally, current studies have shown that overprotective parents may be a factor in victimization and bullying of children(Georgiou, 2010). Certainly Keller would have a difficult time integrating in a new and strange environment such as an institution.ReferenceGeorgiou, S. N. (2008). Bullying and victimization at school: The role of mothers. British Journal of Educational Psychology. 78, (1), 109–125.

Petri Pelkonen This is an autobiographical movie of Helen Keller (1888-1968).She becomes blind and deaf as a baby, and her life, and the lives of her parents is a battle after that.They hire a woman called Annie Sullivan (1866-1936), who has also been blind, to tutor the child.She does much more than that.The child is difficult , but Annie won't give up, no matter what.The Miracle Worker (1962) is directed by the great Arthur Penn.I borrowed the DVD from the library on his 88th birthday on Monday and liked the movie a lot.The screenplay is based on William Gibson's play from 1959.Anne Bancroft gives a powerful performance as Annie Sullivan.Bancroft was a masterful player of both dramatic and comedic parts, and here she gives a terrific dramatic performance.But there's a little comedy in her acting as well, just look at the good girl-bad girl scene, where she does some funny facial expressions.Patty Duke isn't any worse as Helen Keller.It's just amazing how she plays that very demanding part.There's a lot of physicality in both Anne's and Patty's performances, so it certainly wasn't an easy movie for either one of them.They both won an Oscar they deserved.Victor Jory and Inga Swenson are marvelous as Helen's parents, Captain Arthur Keller and Kate Keller.Andrew Prine is brilliant as James Keller.Kathleen Comegys is wonderful as Aunt Ev.The movie has lots of memorable stuff.All those teaching scenes are ones, where there's a lot of violence with a lot of face slapping and such.But Annie finally gets to her, teaching her letters and the meaning of things.One beautiful moment is when Annie sings Mockingbird to Helen.It's most touching in the end to watch the breakthrough at the water pump.This is a classic that will stay in your mind.

kenjha Based on a true story, this is the film version of the stage play about the relationship between a deaf, blind, and mute girl and her teacher. The film is generally entertaining, but everything from acting to direction is overdone. It seems Penn thought he was still working on the stage. He has his cast overact and scream as if he wants to make sure that the deaf people in the back row of the theater can catch it all. Bancroft and Duke both won Oscars because these are the types of showy performances that win Oscars. The grainy and out of focus flashback scenes to Anne Sullivan's childhood are meant to be artistic but come across as cheesy.