Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13949 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-05-11
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 180 minutes

Customer Reviews

Another Hepburn Triumph
I never cared much for Katherine Hepburn's acting until she reached middle and began her triumphal progress to a very robust old age. Her acting just got better--in part because she was given more substantial material & roles to play. I saw her on stage once. The play wasn't anything to speak of--and Hepburn had broken her leg & was confined to a wheel chair. But from the moment she rolled herself on stage the actress RADIATED. I was sitting in probably cheapest seat in the very last row of the house--and I didn't feel I was missing anything. KH filled the entire theatre with her stage presence. I know how corny this sounds, but KH had a magnetic aura.

In terms of this particular film, Hepburn is certainly at her most commanding. The signs of Huntington's disease she suffered from (resulting in tremors, particularly of the head) are barely discernable. They actually fit the role in that the symptoms could pass off as part of the addictive process of the character she was portraying. I also think that LONG DAYS JOURNEY was playwright Eugene O'Neil's best work--probably because it hit so close to home. It is basically a 4-character play (5 if you include the Irish maid who represents an outsider momentarily peeking in at the most dysfunctional of dysfunctional families.)

The 4 people--Father, Mother & 2 adult sons--represent 16 possibilities of familial addictive relationship--addiction, co-dependency, enabling, etc. Everyone is addicted to something; with the mother it's shooting morphine, the father is an alcoholic & egotist & the sons are both alcoholics with physical & behavioral problems. The interplay between the family is often painful to watch, but they are snared together--probably because no one else would put up with them.

The Lion in Winter
Suddenly, Last Summer
Katharine Hepburn: Film Collection

Borrrring Snoozefest!!
It is all talk. The performances are good but the film is much too long and what could have been an excellent character study comes off over-the-top and theatrical. Hepburn is unflatteringly photographed and her mannerisms are distracting and annoying as well as her "cheese grating" voice. Sir Ralph RIchardson, Stockwell and Robards do well by their roles but I just couldn't get to care about their characters because the film put me to sleep within ten minutes of watching it and I had to watch it in spurts (took me 17 days)to complete the viewing.

Long Day's Journey Into Night
Sidney Lumet's slow-burning adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's semi-autobiographical play depicts a theatrical family's slow disintegration with haunting precision. Ralph Richardson is ideally cast as the fading family patriarch, while both Robards and Stockwell (O'Neill's proxy) are superb as the two sons, each consumed by their own afflictions. Hepburn executes a tour-de-force as the fragile, brain-addled Mary Tyrone, a spectral symbol of the family's decay from within. Lumet wisely sticks to the letter of the play, and the results are unforgettable.