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One of the worst movies I've ever seen

hyped garbage

Boring

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This film made such an impact on me when i saw it many years ago that i shelled out 90 pounds for a VHS before its release on DVD.Sally field proves herself as an incredibly gifted actress and a little more..Her performance is unmatched to this day in a role that surely is any actors nightmare.All performances are very convincing but the mother(Joanne Woodward) stands out too as a terrifying monster of a parent who tortures her daughter which are showed in very disturbing flashbacks.This movie is a film which should be praised for its ability to approach such a terrible subject and do so incredibly well.Remember this movie is 1976 which was ground breaking for the time....if you watch this for the first time then please watch the full version as this film deserves the attention.If you watch the cut down version you will kick yourself..I cannot stress enough how pleased i am for Sally that she got an Emmy for this movie because it's rare that real talent gets a nod.Please watch this movie but with one warning in mind..It will stay with you for years to come .....

I hadn't seen this in full ever, but some scenes which I did manage to see as a very young child are as vivid as when they were first broadcast. This makes viewing the movie, which is unusually powerful for ANY medium (TV, cinema) a dissociative experience. I don't know what's coming and all of a sudden a deeply-rooted image or sound slaps me in the face. This is a grueling, traumatizing, horrific movie, but one that is authentically so. It's hard to believe TV was ever this courageous, or so dramatically mature. In retrospect, I should not have been allowed to watch this before I was an adult.For some time, multiple personality disorder (or D.I.D.) was under a cloud. And whether or not it's true, this movie is frightening. I find the explanation that a personality fractures to cope with abuse to be feasible. Man is, after all, a social animal. And when the sole persona has no alternatives, a society might be created of alternate figures to displace negative qualities onto, and to generate missing supportive others, to aid in awful situations. I find the serially solo appearance of said personalities (and their lack of knowledge of the others) to be less probable. The book noted 16 personalities. OK, so you can list the attributes of 16 personalities. That's a dead end! What function does each of 16 personalities do for such a person? And the exponential reporting of cases since 1977 is suspect.Sally Field is so committed to the part, I'm sitting here with mye eyes welling up from some of her episodes (under the piano), and sometimes just the anxiety and anguish she shows in some scenes. I've never seen anything like it. It's harrowing. Joane Woodward does a beautiful job playing the exact right person for Sybil to chance upon. I cannot even imagine how nerve-wracking it must have been to watch this with commercials for Ex-Lax and Pepto Bismal interrupting key parts.The later portion the movie is compromised by a few overused, conventional devices, including the "What is Love?" and "Let me fix everything with a hug" tropes. And Brad Davis in a "super-sensitive 70's single-dad" role is a poor, dated touch. The character is pure sap. He creeps me out almost as frequently as the Mother episodes.

My psychology class watched this earlier in the year (in my last year of high school) and I have to say it disturbed the sh*t out of me. I can't believe a little girl actually went through all of that, no wonder she developed DID(Dissociative Identity Disorder), I could barely cope with watching the movie let alone go through it in real life! Makes me want to cry just thinking about it..I think child abuse is the saddest thing in the world, people putting their kids in tumble driers or whatever, I hate knowing that sh*it like that goes down all the time.. I mean there has got to be something seriously wrong with you when you treat a child that way. Hats off to the actress that played the mother, I don't think many people have the balls to play a part like that.

I read the book Sybil and saw the movie for the first time in 1976 as a student nurse. I've read the book probably three times and am watching the newly released DVD as I write. I don't find it hard to believe I am still so powerfully affected I am by this movie. Between this movie and Norma Rae, Ms Field was at the height of her career. Her performance is beyond believable. Joanne Woodward's character, Dr. Wilbur, I think is almost too perfect but still extremely affecting and sympathetic as Dr. Wilbur. Although the character of Richard Loomis is added for dramatic effect, the late (and wonderful) Brad Davis' performance as the caring neighbor and love interest is also quite moving. Sadly his death in 1991 took from us a very good actor. Sybil is drawing the green chicken now, her mother looking on and now going psychotic. It wasn't possible for me to see her insanity when I saw this the first time, but I can feel a little more sympathetic to her now (up from zero to one, maybe). As a drama this is also a superb show. We know from the opening scenes that something is terribly wrong, and the story slowly unfolds as more and more of Sybil's history is told until the final healing scene, which I do feel is a bit melodramatic but does nicely wrap up in 4 hours what actually took many more years to accomplish. I have cried and I have laughed over this wonderful movie, and am grateful that it has finally been made available on DVD. 10/10