DVD Review: Sybil - 30th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition

By April MacIntyre Aug 5, 2006, 18:27 GMT

Based on a true story, Dr. Cornelia Wilbur (Joanne Woodward), an experienced psychiatrist, is faced with one of her most stressful cases: Sybil Dorsett (Sally Field) a late-20-year-old school teacher, who suffered such a harrowing upbringing, she consequently developed over 16 different personalities. ...more

"The people, the people, the people" can rejoice, finally the DVD release is here of the multi-Emmy award winning 1976 TV production starring Sally Field as Sybil - based on the real events of a woman possessed by 13 different personalities.
 
Sally Field won an Emmy for her performance in this television movie; Joanne Woodward was nominated as well.  After all this time, Sybil remains a superbly acted film displaying the phenomenon of multiple personality disorder.  It was also first seen back on television when I was 14, vividly illuminating that a career path in the psychiatry or mental health fields was definitely not one for me.

The eponymous movie is based on Flora Rheta Schreiber's book, an account of the 11 year treatment that revealed all of Sybil's struggles and the integration of her multiple personalities into one.  The real-life "Sybil," the late Shirley Ardell Mason, insisted up to her death in 1998 that every word was true.

Sally Field busts out with several distinct Sybil personalities; they're all annoying except for Vicky, a bon vivant Francophile that has Sally looking natty and chic, the most grating personality was Sybil Ann-a child who had a penchant for breaking any windows nearby.  

Again, seeing Sybil years ago revealed to me that having the saintly patience to dissect and deal with exotic mental maladies could never be my vocation.  As soon as Sally rants about the "people," and has a sit down with, surprise! Her religious fundamentalist repressive father, it is no wonder the root of so many mental illnesses lies in childhood mental, sexual and physical abuse delivered with an unhealthy dose of religion to help it "go down" easier.

Director Daniel Petrie does an excellent job showing us Sybil's fractured mental state.  The art department, headed by production designer Tom John creates perfect surreal settings where each of Sybil's personalities manifest, waiting for their chance to take control.  The blackout sequences in the beginning, when Dr. Wilbur is just getting a handle on how sick her new patient is, are executed very well.

Sybil's intensity in the film is best demonstrated by the interaction of the two female leads in their psychiatric sessions.  There is no gratuitous violence in the flashback sequences, but enough visual and scripted groundwork to get how damaged Sybil became at the hands of her religiously fervent mentally ill parents.

That said, I can't deny the film Sybil's power to deliver the dramatic goods, most notably in the performances of Joanne Woodward as Sybil's saint of a therapist and a young Brad Davis as Loomis, Sybil's tenacious boyfriend.  Actress Martine Bartlett also raises the hair on your arms as her unforgettable performance as Sybil's criminally creepy mother.

Dear old mom. The doctor finally enables Sybil to combine her fractured self by taking a trip to a secluded park to break down Sybil's defenses.  Here she finally faces the worst of her many childhood tortures, a daily routine that involved an enema bag, administered by her mother.

That leaves Sybil herself, played by Sally Field.   This performance put her on the serious actress map, after her stint as a flying nun, it was certainly the best work she had done to that date. Fields followed this dramatic coup de grace up with Burt Reynolds in seventies classic, Smokey and the Bandit.

Special DVD features include a retrospective documentary Examining Sybil (a featurette with exclusive interviews with cast members Sally Field and Joanne Woodward, writer Stewart Stern, producer Peter Dunne, and close friends of the real Sybil); Sybil Therapy Session; and the Paintings of Sybil -Gallery of never-before-seen artwork, by the real Sybil .

It is definitely worth watching, and if you saw it years ago, it was interesting to note just how much the seventies production values, especially in costuming, music and set decoration elements have evolved.

Sybil - 30th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.