Themes: Split Personalities, Haunted By the Past, Doctors and Patients
Main Cast: Sally Field, Joanne Woodward, Martine Bartlett, William Prince, Jane Hoffman
Release Year: 1976
Country: US
Run Time: 122 minutes
Plot
The multiple award-winning made-for-TV movie Sybil was based on the book by Flora Rheta Schreiber. Sally Field won an Emmy for her portrayal of the title character, a substitute teacher in New York who has developed multiple personality disorder. As a coping mechanism to deal with the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, Hattie (Martine Bartlett), Sybil created separate personalities: aggressive Peggy Lou, suicidal Mary, baby Sybil Ann, and several others. Joanne Woodward plays Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, the psychologist who diagnoses Sybil's condition and helps her to get over it. William Prince and Jane Hoffman play her father and stepmother, while Brad Davis appears as her would-be boyfriend Richard. Originally shown in 1976 as a two-part special on NBC for a total of almost four hours, but most home video versions have been edited down to two hours. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
The film, originally 198 minutes long, was initially shown over the course of two nights on NBC in 1976. Due to high public interest, the VHS version of Sybil, released in the 1980s, was edited, with one version running 122 minutes and another, extended version running 132 minutes. Several key scenes, including Sybil's final climactic "introduction" to each of her 16 selves, are missing in both versions. The film is shown frequently on television, often with scenes restored or deleted to adjust for time constraints and the varying sensitivity of viewers. The DVD, however, includes the full 198 minute version originally displayed on the NBC broadcast.
External links
[1]Link to The Daily Texan article on "Sybil" (1976) by Gerard Martinez
