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Sybil

Posted on December 26, 2022January 4, 2023 by Village Vidiot

“Sybil,” December 26, 2022 (1976), TV miniseries, DVD.  An Emmy-winning multi-episode drama and for best actress, this is likely the last of our Newman/Woodward orgy for a while.  Joanne Woodward was nominated for Best Actress, but Sally Fields rightly won in what was her first big dramatic role.  Of course, Woodward won the Oscar for “The Three Faces of Eve,” but in this she plays the shrink, Cornelia Wilbur, much better and with both more empathy and smarts than did her male movie counterparts in TFE.  But kudos to Fields playing the many-personalitied Sybil (a.k.a., Shirley A. Mason, a young woman living in NYC.)   Set in the now of the 1970s, the real Sybil with Wilbur was in treatment for eleven years during the 1950s and ‘60s to deal with brutal childhood abuse by her mother.  The film, written by Stewart Stern – no relation – (“Rebel Without a Cause,” “The Ugly American,” and “Rachel, Rachel”) created a sympathetic male suitor, well-played by Brad Davis, who helps make the film connect Sybil to the world.  While some have disparaged the book and it’s story as conjured by the therapist and manipulated by Mason, the film is gripping.  Once again, see it on DVD as the attached features, including Fields, Woodward, Stern, and others helped make this film work.  They do not include critiques by those who disparage the book and film.

 

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