Customer Reviews

Rachel, Rachel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Paul Newman made his directing debut with this story and he does a great job; whenever it threatens to bore, something always saves it. Rachel teaches by day, wearing simple, practical dresses and her hair up. By night she caters to her domineering mother by preparing refreshments for her parties. This sexually repressed spinster schoolteacher, however, gets one last chance at romance in her small Connecticut town. Woodward mixes just the right amounts of loneliness and sweetness in the leading role. Won Golden Globe and New York Film Critics awards for both Woodward and her husband Newman for best actress and best director respectively (they took home four awards between them).

This is a quiet, insightful film that is blessed with a wise and wonderful performance by Joanne Woodward. Directed by her husband, Paul Newman, this film explores the plight of a 35-year old woman who has come to the crossroads of her life. She is a decent, lonely and loyal person who realizes that she must make a major change in her life, or continue an unfulfilled and sterile existence in a small town that offers her no chance of real happiness. Paul Newman really shows his skill as a director in bringing this story to life. Here, Joanne Woodward proves that she is one of the finest, if not THE best, actress of her generation. She makes the viewer care about Rachel Cameron; you feel her loneliness, her despair, her fears, and finally, her hope for a better future. Woodward's skill as an actress has always been her courage to portray unglamourous, real women with all their imperfections and foibles. This is a great performance. The ensemble supporting cast in this film is also wonderful. The sadly underappreciated Estelle Parsons gives a gutsy performance as Rachel's equally lonely school teacher friend. Kate Harrington, as Rachel's demanding mother, and Geraldine Fitzgerald are also fine. This is a great slice-of-life film that, in its own quiet but powerful way, tells you a lot about the human condition. Kudos to Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman!

It was so important to Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman that they make "a little film that meant something", that they didn't even take a salary from Warner Brothers. Also, they invested much of their own money to get its deep message across.

This incredible film from 1968 continues to stand the test of time. Woodward received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her sensitive portrayal of Rachel Cameron, a 35-year-old New England spinster who lives with her domineering, possessive mother. Rachel's world is very limited, due in part to her mother's constant nagging and neediness, and Rachel's own-self doubt. This is the story of a lonely, isolated woman who looks to find love with a man from her haunted past and how she breaks out of her shell. Early on, finding a man and having a child is the only way Rachel knows to find validation and meaning to her life. By the end of the story Rachel realizes that the only person that can give her true validation is herself.

Estelle Parsons also gives a stellar oscar-nominated performance. Parsons plays Rachel's emotionally tormented friend and co-worker, Calla, who is also lost within herself and is desperately trying to grasp at something...anything.

Ahead of its time, RACHEL, RACHEL also gives a positive view of lesbianism and acceptance. The fact that the subject of homosexuality was even addressed was rare for a major studio release at that time.

Paul Newman's directorial debut has a powerful impact. RACHEL, RACHEL is a melancholy masterpiece that should not be missed.

I will also add, however, that this film is very intense and meant to be watched with no distractions, as its message is meaningful; the symbolism is at times subtle.

If any potential viewer is the type that leaves the room to do something while the movie is on, and then comes back to pick it up again, he or she shouldn't even bother as its message will be lost.

This is a great 1968 movie, making a long overdue debut on DVD. It stars Joanne Woodward as a single schoolteacher living in a small town.
The film mainly follows her interactions with the other people in town.
Joanne Woodward is terrific in a performance that brought her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn, ultimately, ended up sharing the award for"Funny Girl"and "The Lion In Winter",respectively. The movie marked the first time Paul Newman, Ms. Woodward's husband, had directed a film. He was as accomplished behind the camera as he was in front of it.Mr. Newman also had a first rate actress with his wife. The whole film is a well acted character study,with Estelle Parsons also being a standout. With the loss of Paul Newman in September 2008, this movie is a reminder of what a talent he was. It's a quiet,thoughtful,well made movie that I enjoyed and I hope you will too. Drew Levan

It has been a very long overdue to release this remarkable movie in DVD. A great film and very moving performance by Joanne Woodward (among her best performances along with her work in Sybil).

This is a very touching movie. The performances are very good. Paul Newman as a director is a natural. Great to see James Olson in any movie.

Based on the novel "A Jest of God" by Margaret Laurence, 1968's RACHEL, RACHEL marked the directorial debut of Paul Newman, and boasted one of Joanne Woodward's most moving, searching performances as a middle-aged schoolteacher trying to rail against her inhibited personality.

"I'm exactly at the middle of my life, and this is the final ascending year", laments Rachel Cameron (Woodward). Unmarried and still living at home with her mother, 35-year-old Rachel has fallen into a rut and seems to be sinking further with each passing day. It's only after Rachel is reunited with a childhood friend that she finds a possible way to finally "break" into proper adulthood via a torrid sexual affair, but at the end of the day, the one person who Rachel really needs to accept and love in her life is herself.

Joanne Woodward is heartbreaking yet defiant in her performance as Rachel, a character who seems to nicely dovetail with her breakthrough, Academy Award-winning Eve in "Three Faces of Eve". Estelle Parsons co-stars as Rachel's best friend Calla, a fellow schoolteacher, whose own feelings for Rachel are blurred by neediness and confusion. The cast also includes James Olson, Kate Harrington, Donald Moffat and Geraldine Fitzgerald.

The DVD includes the original "Jest of God" short film, and the trailer. Recommended.

In a variation on her "Long Hot Summer" role, Woodward plays a sexually repressed schoolteacher in a small New England town who realizes that life is passing her by... She is thirty-five, a virgin, and dominated by her mother... During the summer, she has an affair with an old schoolmate... It proves disappointing, but she now knows that she can be loving, and determines to leave town and do something about her life--a move that seems only tentatively hopeful...

Woodward gives her finest performance as the confused, frequently beaten but ultimately indestructible woman... She has an extraordinary ability to look natural or simple and still reveal an inner radiance...

There are many touching moments: her timidness at the religious meeting; her awkward experiences with men; her late-night discussion with a likable male friend; and, most unforgettable, her face causing change from joyous expectancy to merely suppressed hysteria to a painful outburst of tears when she discovers that, contrary to her hopes, she is not pregnant...

Newman shows a natural cinematic sense in his perceptive depictions of small town life, the frenzied activity of a revival meeting and the anxieties of a first sexual experience; and in his clever, rarely impressive juxtaposition of Rachel's present with her fantasies and childhood memories... He gets excellent performances from Estelle Parsons as another lonely teacher and James Olson as the cynical big-city man who lets Rachel down...

Both Newman and Woodward won Golden Globe Awards... Woodward won the coveted New York Film Critics' Award, and was nominated for an Oscar...

I saw this movie as a college student on a folding chair in an auditorium 4 years or so after it came out. 40 years later I frequently think of it and whole scenes are vivid in my mind. I'm almost afraid to see it again, it's been so clear to me for so long. I even remember the reactions of my then-boyfriend next to me. None of the other reviews I've briefly scanned here use the word 'feminist' but to me it was a profoundly empowering film. Sure, the lead character could be seen as an object of pity, but she was also figuring out how to fulfull her raw, desperately felt desires (for children, more than for male love) and doing it oddly on her own terms. When she tells her best friend (whose lesbian desire for her she gently acknowledges even as she rejects her) about her pregnancy, she explains that the father 'isn't real, I made him up' in a kindergarten-teacher voice that I found so poignant. She was explaining simply, kindly and directly TO HERSELF that her much-wished desire for romantic love was fantasy, at the same time that she was preparing herself, as she thought, to be a parent, her most profound desire. And her friend supported her beautifully. This was female power as I had not experienced it at that tender age. The hideous clinging power of the mother (yes, I had experienced that) was manifest and inescapable but Rachel absorbed her burden of responsibility into a broader vision of a fulfilling life and the closing scene left me believing that she succeeded- and without a man! I remember my boyfriend squirming and snickering beside me and how good it felt to identify with this woman who was feeling her way through the pure force of her own emotions through the labyrinth of responsibilty, desire, and love to find fulfillment.

"Rachel, Rachel", which won two Golden Globe Awards back in 1969 for "Joanne Woodward - Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama" and "Paul Newman - Best Motion Picture Director" and was also nominated for four Academy Awards.

The film would feature Paul Newman in his first directorial debut and wife Joanne Woodward as the main actress in a 1968 film that still is relevant today.

The film is about a 35-year-old school teacher Rachel Cameron. Rachel has a ho-hum life. She lives at home with her mother and takes care of her needs since her mother has a heart condition. Always at home, Rachel tends to imagine the worst things happening to her.

She feels her life is slipping away now that she is 35 and wants to be a normal woman. To be married, to have children but she's stuck at home.

Having to take care of her mother who has a heart condition and thus her life has been just work and taking care of her mother and each year as she gets older, she feels that her life is just continuing to get worse but Rachel, really wants to break out of her shell.

I would imagine that this film would strike a chord with many viewers at that time. I've read of how controversial the film was but with the film 41 years old, so accustomed to seeing things now, you can only imagine how shocking certain things were back then.

The film touches upon pregnancy and although not implicit, I would imagine abortion, two women kissing each other (one quick scene) and a use of a device which I am not quite clear what that thing was. Growing up and either having a life or staying at home and taking care of your aging parents, it was relevant then and it's still relevant now.

Paul Newman does a wonderful job for his directorial debut but what truly shined was Joanne Woodward's performance as Rachel. There were so many layers to this character. You wonder how miserable she is as an adult. Why does she dream about when she was young or the time with her father? Why does she feel compassion for a student who always misses school? There is sadness but yet a glimpse of happiness and then independence with the character of Rachel. A wonderful performance!

VIDEO & AUDIO:

The DVD is featured in a "matted" widescreen format preserving the aspect ratio of its original, theatrical exhibition, enhanced for widescreen TV's. For a 1968 film, the video quality was actually pretty good. I've seen films in the 70's exhibit a lot of grain but for a late 60's film, it looks as if the video source was kept in good condition and picture quality was overall pretty good.

The audio is Dolby Digital stereo. The film is dialogue-based, so no need for special effects or anything. There is music which was composed and conducted by Jerome Moross which was quite nice. But overall, the audio is all about the acting in this film!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"RACHEL, RACHEL" comes with two special features:

* Vintage "A Jest of God" Exhibitor Promo Footage (Silent) - About five minutes long, this silent footage features Paul Newman behind the camera and literally behind-the-scenes look at the filming.
* Theatrical Trailer - This is not your standard trailer. This trailer starts off with Joanne Woodward winning an Oscar back in 1958 for "The Three Faces of Eve" and then the film goes into Paul Newman commenting on the film, working with his wife and his directorial debut. A different type of trailer that didn't show just scenes from the film but behind-the-scenes photos of Paul Newman working with his wife and the cast.

JUDGMENT CALL:

The 1968 film "Rachel, Rachel" is now available on DVD and part of Warner Bros. "Paul Newman Film Series". One of the films showing tribute by Warner Bros. to Newman (who passed away on Sept. 2008) as an actor and director.

"Rachel, Rachel" is one of those films that an actress is given a chance to shine, that is if she could pull off a complex character such as Rachel. Joanne Woodward manages to pull it off.

Rachel Cameron is a woman that feels that her life of being alone, just taking care of her mother and not having any social life, no man in her life, no children and thus feeling old and her life going downhill.

As mentioned, the film was released in 1968 but 41-years later, I feel that this film still has its relevance because anyone who has to make a decision of taking care of their elder parents or have a life. I don't know how many times I was told by my grandparents that we must succeed in order to take care of our parents as they age. And for the character of Rachel, her father died at the time she graduated college and thus moved back home to take care of her mother. Her mother didn't want to be alone. Her mother felt that her daughter must be there for her at all times because of her heart condition. And so Rachel, showing her obligations as a daughter and caretaker but at the same time, feeling she was stuck in the small town, stuck caring for her mother. It was indeed a performance that was acted marvelously by Julianne Woodward.

As for Paul Newman, the man knows film. Having appeared in many films himself, there was no doubt that a popular talent would know what kind of shot he wanted and what performance he wanted to get. In fact, during the theatrical trailer commentary, he talked about how tough it was for him to direct his wife. But the two and also the rest of the cast and crew managed to pull it off.

I'm sure this film was controversial when it was released in theaters especially during that time in film. But I would assume the film also was important showing a woman's thoughts, emotions and her gaining the strength to become independent and able to make her own choices.

A classic worth watching!