gavin6942 One day and night with the dysfunctional Tyrone family. Mary is an unstable mother addicted in morphine that recalls moments of her life in the past to escape from her reality. The Irish patriarch James is a cheap and alcoholic man and former successful actor. The older son Jamie is an alcoholic idle man that loves and envies his brother and is blamed by his mother for the death of his younger brother. Edmund is an aspiring writer that has tuberculosis and tried to commit suicide.I have never been a fan of Katharine Hepburn and this film is a great example of why. Despite being considered a great actress, it is clear that she is really a great stage actress. Her words and actions are always exaggerated, which is perfect for the stage but looks silly on screen.Because this was a play, it might make sense to act it as a play. Indeed, the lack of locations makes it very much still a play. But Hepburn shows us the difference -- she is still over-acting, whereas everyone else is toned down and realistic. Dean Stockwell is especially excellent. Why did Hepburn never learn to act on screen?

Claudio Carvalho The film spends one day and night with the dysfunctional Tyrone family. Mary Tyrone (Katharine Hepburn) is an unstable mother addicted in morphine that recalls moments of her life in the past to escape from her reality. The Irish patriarch James Tyrone (Ralph Richardson) is a cheap and alcoholic man and former successful actor. The older son Jamie Tyrone (Jason Robards) is an alcoholic idle man that loves and envies his brother and is blamed by his mother for the death of his younger brother. Edmund Tyrone (Dean Stockwell) is an aspiring writer that has consumption (tuberculosis) and tried to commit suicide. The theatrical "Long Day's Journey into Night" is an adaptation for the big screen of a play and recommended for fans of the author only. For average viewers, it is a long, boring and depressive film with a day of a dysfunctional American family from the beginning of the Twentieth Century. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Longa Jornada Noite Adentro" ("Long Journey Into Night")

zetes It doesn't help much that I watched this acclaimed film version of a Eugene O'Neill play right after suffering through a far more obnoxious filmed play (William Gibson's Two for the Seesaw, made the same year). Frankly, I just don't care for the theater, and these films underline pretty well the reasons why. I look at theater as a bunch of people (or two, in the case of Seesaw) on stage bellowing at each other for however many hours (three, in this film's case) while somehow refraining from falling victim to laryngitis. Long Day's Journey Into Night suffers from a lot of clichés: drug addiction, alcoholism, disappointment in lives, and, God help me, consumption (which I thought was just a disease made up by poets and playwrights, but it turns out it's just tuberculosis; "consumption" does sound cooler). Lumet tries to inject some filmmaking into the picture (as he did wonderfully with the equally stagebound 12 Angry Men a few years earlier), mostly in its beautiful final moments (the cinematography, I must admit, is fine throughout, though I really like '60s black and white), but mostly it's very static and is comprised of people talking steadily for the 180 minutes, give or take about three minutes of silence (the film's best moments). I'll give this a slight pass, however, for the acting, as stagebound as it may be. The acting to which I refer is not just Katharine Hepburn's, though hers was very good, too. Dean Stockwell, in my estimation, gives the film's best performance. Jason Robards and Ralph Richardson round out the cast. I thought they were both a bit overwrought, but not bad.

connch Eugene O'Neils "Long Days Journey Into Night" can be seen as the blueprint from which later family character dramas were drawn. Not the first and arguably not the best, it nonetheless is a remarkable play in the way it dramatizes the emotions that tear a family apart and keep them together.After a clunky opening meant to draw attention away from the play's inherent staginess and a too forced and unrealistic scene between Jason Robards (as Jamie) and Ralph Richardson (as James Tyrone), "Long Days Journey Into Night" soon turns into something stronger and it is all due to Katherine Hepburn.Whatever preconceptions one has of Hepburn's abilities, her sometimes high toned, even snobby attitudes, occasional lapses in credibility (see "Dragon Seed" or "Song of Love" or "Sea of Grass), her knockout performance here is staggering. This is the perhaps the last time Hepburn would truly act in one of her films. Four years would pass before she'd be seen in a movie again and it would be in the reprehensible "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". After that movie and the following year's performance in "The Lion in Winter", Hepburn passed from actress into legendary woman status that effectively wiped away her ability to really perform.In "Long Days Journey…" Hepburn is amazing. The role of Mary is one that could easily pull down an entire production if not acted right. Its scenery chewing potential is great and Hepburn walks a high wire act all the way through. You hold your breath waiting for her performance to falter and strike a false note, to see the acting going on. There's no sentimentality or vanity about the performance: it's harsh, upsetting and terrifying. And exhilarating. Performances like these are what make people want to act in the first place. It is truly thrilling to see a performance of this energy and concentration. A consummate pro giving it their all in top form. The only performance that I can think of that equals it is Vivien Leigh's in "A Streetcar Named Desire".As for the movie itself, it's really a filmed play slightly opened up. The acting by the rest of cast is excellent from Richardson to Robards to Stockwell down to Jeanne Barr as the cook. They all seem to willingly recede when Hepburn is on.