It takes patience to sit through a 3-hour long movie, even if it is a re-creation of the greatest work of drama written in this country during the 20th century. I personally took a break in the middle of this film, ate dinner, and then came back and watched the rest of it. But Act IV I saw intact. Thank God. It was one of the most intense and insightful moments I have ever seen in a movie, revealing exactly how the present is inextricably bound up with the past. The lives of the characters are representative of OUR lives. Ralph Richardson and Jason Robards were powerful and shattering. Dean Stockwell was also quietly intense, and only Katharine Hepburn struck an incongruous note with her grotesque performance. Then again, in the context of the film, it makes sense for her character to be split off from the others. Have patience with this film - it takes a _long_ time to get to where it's going, but once it gets there, it has the potential to change the way you look at the world. Andre Previn's brief but haunting piano theme is incredibly effective; Sidney Lumet's direction is stagebound but competent. While it is true that O'Neill may never have written this masterpiece if he weren't a dissolute drunkard, think how many masterpieces he could have written if he'd been sober!
Review of Long Day's Journey Into Night
