Sybil Movie Review

Sybil (1976)

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Written by: Stewart Stern (screenplay by), Flora Rheta Schreiber (based on the book by)
Directed by: Daniel Petrie
Starring: Sally Field, Joanne Woodward
Rated: TV-14

Plot
A young woman's childhood was so harrowing that she developed sixteen different personalities to cope finds a doctor that wants to help her.

Verdict
It's disturbing due to the insinuation and depiction of child abuse. Sybil created a defense for the abuse by disassociating. So many people in her life failed her, but she's now found a doctor committed to helping her manage this condition. Field delivers a terrific performance, but this type of movie has been done, and being a television movie this is too long for the story told. Sybil's mom is more unnerving than some of the worst villains. Her actions are sickening.
It depends.

Review
This two-part made for television movie also stars Joanne Woodward as Dr. Cornelia Wilbur. Woodward was in one of the earliest movies to depict Dissociative Identity Disorder as the patient in The Three Faces of Eve (1957).

The opening theme music is unsettling, and that feeling only gets worse. Grade school teacher Sybil (Sally Field) takes her class to the park where a squeaky swing causes a brief flashback to a troubling memory. What that memory depicts is unclear, but it leads to a breakdown. She goes home to lie down, waking up to a trashed apartment having just punched through her window. She goes to the doctor for the injuries where neurologist Dr. Wilbur is called. Sybil keeps 'waking up,' unaware of where she is and having lost time.

Sally Field plays Sybil Dorsett

We begin to see Sybil's other personalities. When she looks in the mirror she sees a completely different person. These personalities were generated in her childhood, all of them being kids. As Dr. Wilbur continues to work with Sybil, we discover her mother was mentally and physically abusive. Sybil was tortured for minor infractions. Her mother would blindfold and bind her before locking her in a chest.

Dr. Wilbur is fascinated by the condition while grieving that a child was treated so poorly and had to develop such a defense. Field provides quite the performance with so many different roles in one person. One of Sybil's personalities has a relationship with Richard. He has to know she's strange but maybe he attributes that to her being a teacher. Ultimately, he leaves her.

Forced to confront her diagnosis, Sybil tries to convince Dr. Wilbur she doesn't have Dissociative Identity Disorder. It's a valiant effort as somehow she knows what the other personalities know, when before she had been isolated. Sybil doesn't want to admit it because doing so acknowledges what her mother did and her father allowed to happen. Sybil refuses to acknowledge such a thing.

Joanne Woodwardm Sally Field play Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, Sybil Dorsett

Dr. Wilbur goes to Sybil's hometown to prove what happened. She finds evidence of the abuse, and the amount and type is appalling. Her father denies Sybil's mother ever abused her. Wilbur even visits Sybil's pediatrician who admits there were several signs, but he did nothing. He's contrite, but that changes nothing at this point. It's a lot of people hoping it couldn't possibly be true, ignoring what's apparent. Wilbur talks to Sybil who admits she was afraid of hope and thinking she could be cured. It's a breakthrough as Dr. Wilbur admits how much she cares for Sybil. It's been a long time since Sybil has felt loved. Sybil finally confronts what happened and the personas she's created to cope. The final sequence is strong, depicting her physically meeting the child personas and embracing them.

This movie is difficult to take. Abuse, especially child abuse is not easy to watch. That's what turns me off this movie. Field delivers a great performance, but we have to delve into a dark story to see it. So many people let it happen, and that's the most troubling part.