A Story of Visionaries Without Sight: The Miracle Worker (1962) Review

elen Keller is almost 7 years old, and her family still cannot talk to her. Their last hope before locking her away in an institution is to contact the school for the blind in the hope that they can help her.

Helen’s parents heard of Laura Bridgman of Perkins Institution for the Blind, a person who overcame the odds and received an education despite not having her sight, hearing, or even a sense of smell. Perkins Institution for the Blind told Helen’s parents that they would send someone. They sent the 20-year-old Anne Sullivan.

Anne was also blind, but some of her vision was restored after multiple operations, though it deteriorated again later. At the age of 8, Anne and her brother were abandoned at an institution, similar to the one where Helen will be sent if Anne can’t help her.

Since it’s the 1880s, institutions like that are living nightmares where society isolates what it considers outcasts. In the movie, Anne recalls Tewksbury Almshouse as inhabited by elderly, crippled, and blind individuals, prostitutes suffering from tuberculosis and epilepsy, dangerous individuals, and those who are mentally unstable. Anne’s brother died 3 months after they arrived at the institution. There were even rumors of canibalism.

Anne, truly alone, desperately wanted to escape the institution, to get an education. And one day, while state officials are inspecting the institution, she bluntly asked for help. And that brave moment changed her life completely. At 14 years old, despite her not knowing how to read and write, she is accepted to Perkins Institution, the first school in the USA dedicated to the blind. Her ambition drives her to learn everything she missed. She also befriends and learns the manual alphabet from Laura Bridgman, the woman that managed to overcome her unfavorable odds. Laura taught Anne Sullivan how to form letters with her fingers into the palm. The same technique Anne later used to bring Helen Keller towards a deliberate and educated life.

So, in just six years, Anne went from being abandoned and illiterate to being a sent representative of the Perkins school, specialized in communicating with the deaf and blind. And only because of her ambition to defy the odds and told the state inspector: “Mr. Sanborn, I want to go to school!”.

These last paragraphs aren’t shown in the movie, but Anne Sullivan’s story is amazing and deserves its own movie. A prequel to “The Miracle Worker”. And if you can make that happen, remember to involve me in the project.

In the movie

Anne Sullivan arrives at the Keller estate. From the moment she meets Helen she starts writing words in her palm. Helen is a lively character and from their first meeting locks Anne inside her room and steals the key. She is also forceful to get her way done. But Anne treats everything with exemplary professionalism.

She sees a 7-year-old girl who doesn’t know how to communicate, not a blind girl with symptomatic behavior. Anne’s methodology is to write everything in Helen’s palm, knowing (and hoping) that one day Helen will make a connection between the word and what the word means.

In the movie Anne Sullivan had only two weeks to bring a convincing result, because her methods of teaching require separating Helen from her family. Those two weeks were negotiated with the Keller family with great difficulty.

Acting, Directing, Cinematography

The Miracle Worker is based on a stage play written by William Gibson. Arthur Penn directed both the stage play and movie. And both actors: Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, reprise their roles. Both actresses won Academy Awards because of the roles in the Miracle Worker and the movie was nominated for three other Oscars, including Best Director.

Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke fully embody their roles as Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller. Some scenes are art-house long, almost 10 minutes in the same location, and it’s like watching a documentary. Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke have a tempered acting style, more suited to the all-revealing camera.

While the extended cast is more theatrical and dramatic with exaggerated facial expressions and a performative speaking style, more suited to a theater audience. And I’m specifically thinking of Victor Jory as Captain Arthur Keller and Inga Swenson as Kate Keller.

The movie starts of stylistically strong with chiaroscuro lighting, shadow figures on the wall, symbolic shots. It starts out very much like an earlier expressionist film. But it quickly renounces the expressionist style. It becomes progressively lighter in tone and gains humor.

Even with the lighter tone it still did not become a “classic” cinematic experience. It very often has a filmed stage play aesthetic. The indoor scenes often made it feel like a stage set, not a real location. The action sometimes plays out in stage play spatial logic, for example when James Keller visited Anne after hearing her scream. That window where visitors peek in reminded me of theater set design.

Takeaways

Mark Twain was the first to call Anne Sullivan a “miracle worker”. The movie reminds us that it is important to be surrounded by people that understand you. Anne treated Helen like she was a child, not a “case”. And this is mentioned by Helen Keller in her own recalling of those events.

Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller spent the rest of their lives together. At first, she was a teacher, then she became a lifelong friend. Helen Keller went on to become one of the most remarkable persons in history, exactly as Mark Twain predicted when he recommended her to Henry H. Rogers, a wealthy industrialist and financier. Mr. Rogers generously sponsored Helen Keller’s education and helped her pursue her goals.

This movie will pierce your heart with sadness, awe and joy. It’s a biography, drama and sometimes a comedy. It is a lesson on humanity, perseverance and professionalism.

Further Reading:

• “The Story of My Life” by Helen Keller (1903)
• “Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy” by Helen Keller (1936)
• “The Miracle Worker” by William Gibson (1957)
• Mark Twain and Helen Keller’s Special Friendship
• When Helen Keller Met Charlie Chaplin and Taught Him Sign Language (1919)
• Media History Project: Pressbook for “The Miracle Worker”
• AFB Formative Years: Perkins School