List Price: $24.98You Pay Only: $19.99 You Save: $4.99 (20%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0012569701458
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 18, 2006
Running Time: 187 minutes
Sales Rank: 5003
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: November 14, 1976
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 07/18/2006 Rating: Nr
Amazon.com:
The word 'landmark' is fairly used in the case of Sybil: this 1976 TV movie brought new frankness to television, it raised the quality bar for the made-for-television movie, and it utterly changed the career of a future Oscar-winning actress. The film was based on the bestselling nonfiction book about a multiple-personality patient and her exhaustive therapy. It opens with a brilliant series of scenes that suggest how a young woman named Sybil (Sally Field) experiences unexplained blackouts, which brings her to the attention of a psychiatrist, Dr. Wilbur (Joanne Woodward). The film unfolds around the searching therapy sessions, laced with flashbacks to Sybil's toxic childhood. There's also a tentative romance between the lonely Sybil and a manchild (Brad Davis) who lives across the alley. Most notably, of course, there are the appearances of Sybil's alternate personalities, who express her strangled emotional life. Stewart Stern's sensitive script seems to flow organically from one scene to the next, and director Daniel Petrie frequently allows the camera to observe the acting acrobatics in long, challenging takes.
Woodward, who won an Oscar for playing a multiple-personality patient in The Three Faces of Eve, is all nurturing warmth as the steadfast doctor. But really this film was a sober coming-out party for Sally Field, who astonished viewers at the time by erasing all memories of Gidget and The Flying Nun, the bubblegum roles she'd mostly been known for. Field's work is anguished but non-actor-y, and despite the character's hidden personalities, she seems as clear as day in her performance. The production won four Emmys, not surprisingly including nods for Field, Stern, and Outstanding Special (Drama).
The 187-minute movie takes up one disc; the second disc has informative featurettes about the making of the film. Examining Sybil is an absorbing hour-long documentary with comments from Field and Woodward, as well as executive producer Peter Dunne. It is dominated by the spellbinding storytelling of Stewart Stern, who developed the screenplay by spending time with the real Dr. Wilbur and listening to tapes of her sessions with Sybil. His tale of Sally Field's unlikely audition triumph is a small movie in itself. The Paintings of Sybil presents a generous selection of paintings by the real Sybil (who became a professor of art), along with recollections by one of her friends. Something listed on the DVD cover as 'Sybil Therapy Session' is misleadingly titled, suggesting some kind of actual footage or transcript of the real Sybil and her treatment; in fact, it's Stewart Stern describing the harrowing process of listening to the doctor's tapes. The real Sybil (now deceased) remains protected, as she should. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Sybil
A well done film version of this tragic story. I am studying advanced psychology and this film served as a good teaching tool; giving an indepth insight into the dark recesses of mental illness.
Rating: - Absolutely breathtaking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been wanting to see this movie for so many years and finally did! Well worth the money and probably the best movie I've ever seen! Sally Field has always been wonderful in my opinion, but this is her best work out of them all. Watching the second disc that has movie extras just makes it even more breathtaking! ***** Definitely 5 stars! A MUST SEE!!!!
Rating:  - sybil
A very good film on an important subject. Sally Fields really shines as the title character(s) as does Dan Petrie's excellent direction. Hard to believe that this was a MOW over thirty years ago.
Rating: - For some, just waking up is an adventure most will never live
I work professionally with mentally ill people. I've been one myself (Bipolar. I figured out years ago how to turn that around.) So I've always been curious about Sybil. And as always, I am a 70's movies addict.
This is not the kind of illness I normally work with but many years back I did, at times, work with people like this. I felt for their pain but the disease utterly fascinated me!
The presentation of the illness interested me to some degree in Sybil. However, I was more intrigued by what happened to Sybil to cause her personality to fracture into an entire group within her. What horrendous load was put upon her that this was her reponse? And I was blown away by Sally Fields' ability to do this role! The energy and emotion involved must have wiped her out. I was truly impressed with her acting skills. This role was work!
But the overall theme makes me remember, as I tell so many others, "Be nice. You never know what the other guy is up against. You never know the pain some people carry but keep hidden."
Rating: - Sybil
I ordered this video thru Amazon and received it before the anticipated shipping due date. I received free shipping also. I have wanted this movie for a very long time and was not disappointed....it's even better than I remembered it. Sally Field is such a wonderful actress and this was a phenomenal protrayal of a woman having multiple personalities. I would highly recommend this movie.
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