Long Day’s Journey Into Night is an extraordinarily harsh and subversive discussion of the realities of the all-American family and the rocky foundations of the American dream, often portrayed in Hollywood narratives. Long Day’s Journey into Night is available to rent or buy on selected platforms.
Films set in one location, with a limited number of actors, are a true testament to the power of cinema. These films have a much harder time attracting audiences due to their limited creative resources, relying heavily on a solid screenplay, great acting, and innovative cinematography. Many of the classic chamber piece films we love originate from theatrical plays. Their limited use of space and heavy dependence on the actors’ performances create an intimate space that sucks us in and doesn’t let us go.
Sidney Lumet is probably best known for the political and social dramas he brought to the screen, such as Dog Day Afternoon (1975) or his directorial debut, 12 Angry Men (1957). However, one of his least-known yet brilliant works is a word-to-word adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s stage playLong Day’s Journey Into Night. Lumet was no stranger to stage productions, directing the star-studded The Fugitive Kind (1959), based on Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending and Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge (1962). Long Day’s Journey Into Night is often considered one of the greatest pieces of American literature and O’Neill’s magnum opus.
The semi-autobiographical play concerns the Tyrone family, including parents James and Mary and their two sons, Jamie and Edmund, over one long day in the summer of 1912. Its narrative is reminiscent of a classical Greek tragedy, focusing on the dysfunctional relationship between all four family members, with each character harbouring their own failures and unfulfilled hopes. James (Ralph Richardson) is an ageing actor who is constantly miserable, spending his days looking back on his life with resentment due to his typecasting. While his career has served him and his family well, he still regularly worries about ending up in a poor house due to his childhood of poverty in Ireland.
Meanwhile, Mary (Katharine Hepburn) has just returned from a sanatorium where she received treatment for morphine addiction; her reliance on the drug was forged by a complicated childbirth, for which she still blames James and the doctor he hired. Mary is overprotective of their younger son, Edmund (Dean Stockwell), but less so of her older son, Jamie (Jason Robards), who is also a failed actor with a hedonistic lifestyle that has led to alcoholism. Can past hurts and traumas be resolved in this dysfunctional family unit, or is it intrinsically broken and beyond repair?
Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a heady film that gains its unique power from transcending its initial premise as one family’s problems become a more profound dialogue on social issues ranging from solitude to addiction and isolation. Lumet’s film is full of poetic monologues that further isolate our characters, with their interactions built on individualistic dialogue rather than an ability to listen and care. Apart from the few outside shots of the porch and garden at the beginning, the plot unfolds within the house as the family slowly withdraws from the outside world and merges into the building’s darkness, the titular “Night” reflecting the twilight of their psyche.
The setting is almost exclusively limited to the ground-floor living room without even visiting the upstairs. This minimal choice of location allows the script to embrace its theatrical roots, yet the creative camerawork ensures we are not simply watching a recorded stage play. Black-and-white cinematography and the frequent use of unusual angles create a haunted-house effect that is further emphasised by shots of Mary’s ghost-like figure wandering through the rooms in delirium, wearing a long white gown.
The thick fog and the deliberately unsettling foghorn only intensify the gloom and melancholy, creating an uneasy feeling that stays with the audience, resulting in one of the most powerful, intense and authentic theatrical adaptations ever. However, O’Neill’s brilliant play and Sidney Lumet’s visionary direction do not exist in isolation. Long Day’s Journey into Night is about its performances as much as the writing and direction, just like all the best theatre. Each actor captures the duality of their character perfectly, simultaneously earning the audience’s sympathy and scorn as they drive each other toward self-destruction.
Ralph Richardson and Jason Robards are outstanding as the miserable father-son duo – the latter repeating the role he had also played on stage, their performances full of profound emotional energy and tenderness. Meanwhile, often written off as the least complex character in the piece, Dean Stockwell beautifully plays a tragic young man broken by family division.
Yet, make no mistake, this is Katharine Hepburn’s film with Mary’s character, the heart and soul of this story. Hepburn’s fragile, ghost-like figure with trembling hands and tragic melancholia is painfully realistic. While Hepburn holds the record for winning four Best Leading Actress Academy Awards, this is genuinely the role of a lifetime and possibly her most challenging and emotionally exhausting. Her talent shines through once we look back on the parts she is more famous for, like the ditzy Susan from Bringing Up Baby (1938) or the posh socialite Tracy Lord of The Philadelphia Story (1940). The range of characters she manages to display is flawless, with Long Day’s Journey into Night at the forefront of her acting abilities.
Long Day’s Journey Into Night is an extraordinarily harsh and subversive discussion of the realities of the all-American family and the rocky foundations of the American dream, often portrayed in Hollywood narratives. While the play is undoubtedly a landmark in American theatre, the film is one of those exceptional examples of cinematic history where everything lined up perfectly to create a masterpiece.
Follow Us