American Experience - Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film

Wonderful film that illuminates O'Neill and this work. Essential viewing for students studying Long Day's Jouney into Night.

It has been said that great conflict makes for great drama. The life of Eugene O'Neill is living proof of this fact. His was a life of physical, emotional, and spiritual anguish, and yet he is arguably the greatest American playwright, an artist whose work still speaks to us today. As a matter of fact, it was the very torments that he lived through that fed his genius. His Muse was his pain, and this is what this film explores in detail. The man that we encounter in this documentary is not one who was crushed by his trials, but rather, he was a survivor, who used his experiences to create some of the greatest works of dramatic literature to ever grace a stage. He was a man who was truly dedicated to his art, and this film gives us a chance to realize and appreciate exactly what that means. Narrated by Christopher Plummer, and drawing on interviews with playwrights and actors of today, we are given a chance to see what made Eugene O'Neill the man that he was, and to appreciate just what he has done for the American stage. It is the portrait of a tortured soul, who at the same time was a great artist.

*I have seen countless documentaries and nonfiction T.V. programs that depressed me due to subject matter, but this one is starkly different--it creates a profound sense of sadness in me. O`Neill was able to take the sadness of his family and create something of value, something most cannot do with such personal devastation. The interview subjects all add to the whole, there is not an ounce of fat in it. [It could have been twice the length to expand the focus to include more on the plays only briefly touched on.] As a portrait of an imperfect man who created great art, it is unique. I think the subtle but powerful score and the excerpts read by Plummer and others add up to a great impression/introduction to O`Neill, and I`ve watched this four times, and each time have been moved. If you are at all interested in the subject, get this dvd.

Ric Burns' 2006 documentary, "Eugene O'Neill", is the finest, most profoundly moving film biography I have ever seen. Done in a quiet, introspective fashion, and aided by Brian Keane's hauntingly beautiful music, we are taken inside the life of a great writer and inside the workings of his great masterworks. Extensive time is given - deservedly so - to "Long Day's Journey Into Night", his greatest play and one that, near the end of his life, brought O'Neill back home to his childhood.If you are a fan of O'Neill, you will enjoy this film immensely. If you have not yet discovered his work, this film will lead you, as it did me, to seek him out. The narration, performances and visual materials (photographs, film clips and manuscripts) are all first rate, combining to produce a film biography worthy of America's greatest playwright.

American Experience - Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film Utterly moving, well made documentary about America's first and greatest playwright. Written by Barbara and Arthur Gelb, the difinitive biographers of O'Neill. Narrated by Christopher Plummer (none finer)and both the Gelbs - with tour-de-force acting from excerpts of O'Neill's works by Al Pacino, Jason Robards, Zoe Caldwell, Liam Neeson, Robert Sean Leonard, Vanessa Redgrave. Additional narration by no less than two of the former Deans of the Yale School of Drama (arguably the finest in the country): Robert Brustien and the late Lloyd Richards. As an acting major at the Yale School of Drama(66), I had the privilege to peruse a few pages of O'Neill's original manuscripts. (O'Neill's works are housed in the Yale Bieneke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.)

I was writing an English paper about Long Day's Journey into Night. All the websites gushed over O'Neil and his works as genius. I wrote a paper based on this information, but did not think it felt authentic. When I watched this DVD and saw the emotional pain he felt; the life he went out to live on his own. Subsequently how all this misery and questioning was funneled into his writings (even some of his creative writing process) affirmed that O'Neil was a genius. But the price O'Neil had to pay for his genius was great. Any lover of drama or American literature will consider this a must have.

Built around the idea of what it costs in emotional and psychological terms to be an artist, Ric Burns's captivating docu-portrait is disquieting rather than celebratory, and ultimately quite moving. O'Neill's cathartic personal struggles, like those of so many creative minds, fed into plays like "A Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "The Iceman Cometh," but exacted a hefty toll on the man himself. Kushner and theater director Brustein highlight what made O'Neill's unrelentingly savage moral vision so effective--and his technique unmatched--while Pacino, Redgrave, and Zoe Caldwell demonstrate why the finest actors always sought to interpret his works.

I liked the format. Done in the usual "Ric Burns" great style.Very informative totally about Eugene O'Neill. Now I will pursue watching as many O'Neill plays as possible.