Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra (Broadway Theatre Archive)
by Nick Havinga
List Price:
Our Price: $25.86
You Save: $4.13 (14%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $21.99 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Bruce Davison, Jeffrey DeMunn, Joan Hackett, Roberts Blossom, Stellar BennettDirector: Nick Havinga
Brand: Image Entertainment
Editor: John J. Godfrey
Producer: Ann Blumenthal
Producer: Jac Venza
Writer: Eugene O'Neill
Writer: Kenneth Cavander
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 290 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-10-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra (Broadway Theatre Archive)
DVD Review: A House of Utter Grief!
Summary: 5 Stars
This 1978 production of Eugene O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra," is not to be missed. Inspired by Aeschylus' 5th-century BC "Oresteia" trilogy, O'Neill's tragedy, written in 1931, likewise consists of three dramas: "Homecoming," "The Hunted," and "The Haunted." These have been divided into several episodes on two discs. The production is so well done that I watched it straight through from beginning to end.
The actors, the settings, and the costumes are of such outstanding quality that one soon forgets the annoying colorisation of the era. Joan Hackett, surely one of the underrated actresses of the 20th century, infuses the character of Christine Mannon--the Clytemnestra of the drama--with an understated vulnerability that wins her the understanding, if not the sympathy, of the audience. Roberta Maxwell is Hackett's equal in her role as Christine's warped daughter Lavinia--the Electra surrogate--in whom smolder fires of jealousy against her mother and overwrought love for her father. It is fascinating to see Lavinia gradually evolve into the persona of her hated mother as the play progresses. Eugene O'Neill, in fact, has performed a remarkable reversal on the Aeschylean original, which moves from a situation in which the characters, bound by fate at the beginning of the drama, are eventually released as the plot unfolds. O'Neill's drama works from the opposite perspective. Instead of unfolding, the events of the tragedy spiral in ever-narrowing circles around Lavinia, until she is bound inextricably in a net of her own weaving.
Erich Segal's commentary at the end of each episode is especially enlightening, both in respect to O'Neill as a playwright and his concentration on Electra [Lavinia] whom, Segal notes, O'Neill considered a character that Aeschylus relegated to the sidelines in the "Oresteia". Those who remember Erich Segal only as the author who struck it rich with the Hollywood tearjerker "Love Story," need to be reminded that he had a PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard and was a professor of Latin and Greek at Yale. He is therefore qualified to present an informed commentary on the play. Despite the rather stilted camera work [i.e., look into camera A; now look into camera B] Segal's comments are both interesting and insightful.
Much effort and money went into this production for Connecticut Public Television, as is evident in the exquisite 1860's costumes and the elegant detail of the interior of the Mannon household. As in Aeschylus' "Agamemnon," the first play of his trilogy, the house itself is central to the tragedy. A Greek revival antebellum structure, its high porch, complete with fluted ionic columns and double doors, becomes a stage for the drama, and the black wreaths of mourning periodically hung on its white walls lend stark emphasis to the tragedy. O'Neill's ending to his trilogy makes Aeschylus' metaphor of the "witnessing walls" devastatingly explicit. Composer Maurice Jarre sets the mood with music which, in its subtle creepiness, is as unlike his opulent melodic scores for "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago" as it is possible to be.
Eugene O'Neill's trilogy may be from the previous century, but with the superb realization of his characters as performed by Hackett and Maxwell, it withstands the test of time.
More Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra (Broadway Theatre Archive) reviews:
1
1
Description of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra (Broadway Theatre Archive)
MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA - DVD MovieBestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
American Experience - Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary FilmParamount; Release date: 2006-03-21; DVD
Best price: $10.49
Price in other shops:
The Iceman ComethKino International; Release date: 2003-04-01; DVD
Best price: $17.37
Price in other shops:
Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (Broadway Theatre Archive)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2002-02-05; DVD
Best price: $19.95
Price in other shops:
Long Day's Journey Into NightImage Entertainment; Release date: 2005-05-10; DVD
Best price: $15.87
Price in other shops:
Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! (Broadway Theatre Archive)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2001-12-18; DVD
Best price: $21.93
Price in other shops:
A Touch of the Poet (Broadway Theatre Archive)Release date: 2002-07-30; DVD
Best price: $12.98
Price in other shops:
Long Day's Journey Into NightLions Gate; Release date: 2004-05-11; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2003-02-11; DVD
Best price: $10.71
Price in other shops:
Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (Broadway Theatre Archive)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2002-01-15; DVD
Best price: $96.99
Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten (Broadway Theatre Archive)ROBARDS,JASON; Release date: 2002-04-23; DVD
Best price: $18.72
Price in other shops: