Sybil
Tags: psychological, sadist

Plot synopsis:
After suffering a small breakdown in front of her students, Sybil Dorsett is given a neurological examination by Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, a psychiatrist. She admits to having blackouts and fears they are getting worse. Dr. Wilbur theorizes that the incidents are a kind of hysteria, all related to a deeper problem. She asks Sybil to return at a later date for more counseling.
Later that evening, Dr. Wilbur receives a late night call from someone who identifies herself as Vickie and says Sybil is about to jump out a hotel window. Dr. Wilbur rescues Sybil, who denies knowing Vickie. Suddenly Sybil becomes hysterical and begins speaking like a little girl. This little girl introduces herself as Peggy, and Wilbur realizes that Sybil is suffering from dissociative identity disorder.
Vickie introduces herself to Wilbur at the next session. Vickie, who knows everything about the other personalities, tells Wilbur about some of them, including Marcia, who is suicidal and wants to kill Sybil, and Vanessa, who plays the piano although Sybil has not played in years and swears she forgot how to play piano.
Over the weeks, each of the personalities introduce themselves to Wilbur. At the same time, the personality Vanessa falls in love with a charming neighbor named Richard.
Wilbur finally explains to Sybil about the other personalities. As proof, Wilbur plays the session's tape to allow Sybil to hear their voices, but when a voice that sounds like Sybil's mother Hattie speaks, an infant personality named Ruthie emerges. Wilbur is unable to communicate with the pre-verbal child and must wait until Sybil returns.
Life becomes more chaotic for Sybil as the other personalities grow stronger. The personalities make Dr. Wilbur a Christmas card, but Sybil made everything purple, a color that frightens Peggy. Dr. Wilbur hypnotizes Vickie and asks about the purple. Vickie relates a memory of a time Sybil's mother locked young Sybil in the wheat bin in the barn. Thinking she was smothering, Sybil used her purple crayon to scratch on the inside of the bin so someone would know she had been there.
Vanessa invites Richard and his son Matthew to have Christmas dinner, after which Richard spends the night in Sybil's apartment. Sybil has a nightmare and awakens as Marcia, who tries to throw herself off the roof. Richard rescues her and calls Wilbur. Soon afterwards, Richard moves away, crushing both Sybil and Vanessa. Once again confronted with her diagnosis, Sybil attempts to convince Wilbur that she has in fact been faking all of the other personalities the entire time and denies that multiple personalities exist within her.
Wilbur goes in search of Sybil's father, who mentions that Sybil's mother Hattie was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, but denies that she ever abused Sybil. Wilbur also seeks out Sybil's paediatrician. The doctor gives Wilbur a frightening account of extensive scarring he found while treating Sybil for a bladder problem. Finally, Wilbur visits the old Dorsett house, where she discovers the green kitchen Sybil's selves have described many times. She also finds the purple crayon scratches inside the wheat bin. She takes them back to New York City to prove all the memories really happened.
Dr. Wilbur takes Sybil for a drive, during which Peggy reveals the horrific physical and sexual abuse she suffered at her mother's hands. After Peggy exhausts herself, Sybil emerges, remembering everything that Peggy has just said. Finally she is able to express her rage against her mother.
Dr. Wilbur hypnotizes Sybil to introduce her to the other personalities. Sybil, who has always been frightened of Peggy, meets her at last and is surprised that she is only a little girl. Sybil embraces a weeping Peggy. A voiceover from Dr. Wilbur explains that after this incident, Sybil recovered her memories and went on to live a full and happy life.

Review: Vivid, unsettling true story given enormous stature by Joanne Woodward and Emmy-winning Sally Field..
And then there is Sybil Dorsett...Sally Field is unforgettable as the titular victim of incessant child abuse, a woman who dissolved into SIXTEEN separate and distinct personalities in order to cope with a mother who inflicted indescribable childhood tortures.
Woodward won an Academy Award decades earlier as a similar victim of MPD (multiple personality disorder) in a curious but ultimately heavy-handed and very dated film "The Three Faces of Eve." Woodward is superb here as a professional clearly out of her element but determined to find a light at the end of the tunnel for this poor, unfortunate girl.The late Brad Davis, as an unsuspecting acquaintance who wants to get to know Sybil better, adds a tender, sympathetic chapter to Sybil's turbulent life, while William Prince and Jane Hoffman are compelling as Sybil's bloodless father and stepmother who offer puzzling, ignorant  explanations to Sybil's "problem."  Charles Lane has a significant scene as Sybil's small-town doctor (as a child) who failed to report his examination findings, and little Natasha Ryan, in flashback sequences, must be commended for reenacting the more harrowing details of Sybil's childhood torment.
Bartlett, a respected stage actress little seen on film, was known for another bizarre but fascinating screen role as a crazy, self-abusing mental patient in "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden."  As Hattie Dorsett, she displays subtle, calculating menace, which makes her even more terrifying, as she devises a number of "games" to inflict on her only child.
Hopefully seeing this dark, disturbing, but ultimately important TV-movie will inspire you to read Flora Rheta Schreiber's best selling book, which details Sybil's childhood, blackout episodes (the real Sybil once woke up finding out she had missed the entire sixth grade(!), therapy sessions, the battle of alter-egos for control of Sybil, and the subsequent unifying process, through the professional vantage point of Dr. Wilbur and with more depth.
Sally Field is awesome as she portrays a woman who was abused as a child by her mother and has developed multiple personalities as a result.
I saw this film a few times, and loved Sally Field's performance.
The way she unlocks the real Sybil is by therapy with a Dr. Wilbur.This film does not portray childhood as rosey and bright;We see the poor child hung up by a rope as the mom administers an enima.We see the mother lock her in a dark box.From the film,We understand the "hands' of evil belonged to a person Sybil dearly loved and trusted.
What a moving, outstandingly brilliant film starring Joanne Woodward, Brad Davies and Sally Field who won an Emmy for her unforgettably, rare and treasuring performance as the susceptible and disturbed Sybil!Psychological drama, based on a true story; Sally Field stars as Sybil Dorset, a 20-something supply-teacher who suffered unspeakably horrifying treatment from her volatile mother (Martine Bartlett) and subsequently developed sixteen different personalities.
With the help of her caring psychiatrist (Joanne Woodward), she slowly but surely learns how to identify herself.Sally Field could have been the Meryl Streep-like actress of this generation.
Before watching Sybil, I was unaware of her erratic next role and as such was intrigued upon discovering she played a woman with multiple personalities.
I may need to consider delving into her CV for some good movies to get a hold on.The only problem with the video I managed to snatch off eBay was that fact it was a pirate copy AND didn't even get to the end of the sodding film!
With a range of special features, including commentary from both Sally Field and Joanne Woodward, a documentary on Shirley Ardell Mason - the real Sybil who passed away back in 1998 and a selection of different languages - including Spanish and French - for non-English speaking viewers.
The movie Sybil is about the life and lives of at least 16 different people all sharing the body of one person.
Joanne Woodward, who in this film has switched roles from her Oscar winning performance in The Three Faces Of Eve, where she played a woman with MPD, does an equally outstanding job.
I saw this movie over twenty years ago and I will never get it out of my mind, "what that monster did to her in the green kitchen."  Joanne Woodward is as fine as silk, as she always is.
There's a small performance in this movie that haunted me more than almost anything else in the film; the part of the grandmother, played by Jessamine Milner, who was as much a victim and prisoner in the home of her psychotic daughter as Sybil was.
As Shirley Mason's (aka Sybil)long time friend, I was included in the documentary about the making of the movie.
This film made such an impact on me when i saw it many years ago that i shelled out 90 pounds for a VHS before its release on DVD.Sally field proves herself as an incredibly gifted actress and a little more..Her performance is unmatched to this day in a role that surely is any actors nightmare.All performances are very convincing but the mother(Joanne Woodward) stands out too as a terrifying monster of a parent who tortures her daughter which are showed in very disturbing flashbacks.This movie is a film which should be praised for its ability to approach such a terrible subject and do so incredibly well.Remember this movie is 1976 which was ground breaking for the time....if you watch this for the first time then please watch the full version as this film deserves the attention.If you watch the cut down version you will kick yourself..I cannot stress enough how pleased i am for Sally that she got an Emmy for this movie because it's rare that real talent gets a nod.Please watch this movie but with one warning in mind..It will stay with you for years to come ......
I think this was Sally Field's best acting movie out there.
I've met one person with multiple personalities, but this movie gives a good idea as to what the person goes through, and until I saw the picture of the "real" Sybil, didn't realize this was a true to life story.What that "monster" did to a child is beyond what anybody should do to somebody else, ESPECIALLY a child.
These days she would be blamed and convicted with child abuse and never see her child again, Sybil actually grew up and actually became an adult despite what her mother did to her.Just the whole plot of where the psychiatrist gets the personalities to come out and of course, Sally Field playing that many personalities, she was wonderful.
These days somebody like that would be institutionalized or sheltered, but I'm glad to see the real Sybil that she actually did go to college and have most part of a normal life.I give it 10 out of 10 stars, just the story of a woman that was abused so bad that I guess her body protected her and made multiple personalities.
Field portrayed the real life lead by Sybil, an intelligent woman plagued by illness, and living on the $40.00 per month her father sent her to live in a dilapidated New York City tenement.Joanne Woodward is excellent as Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, the eminent psychoanalyst who delved into Sybil's past to discover the root of her illness.
It is quite interesting during one scene where Wilbur speaks to Sybil's pediatrician, who, while reading the files from her childhood, realized the extent of physical abuse the child had endured.Hattie Dorsett, Sybil's mother, was brilliantly portrayed by Martine Bartlett ("I Never Promised You a Rose Garden").
I 100% agree with the comments that say that it is about time already that this movie needs to be DVD released SOON!!The most important achievement that I feel that this movie accomplishes in it's conveyance of Sybils' story, is that it draws the viewer into a compassionate relating to the main character.
Definitely worth a buy and watch, because all I can say is "wow!" Get this movie if you like watching anything that deals with really weird scenarios and personality disorders.All I can say is that Sybil should be seen as a classic movie and so well filmed for the time that it came out.
I can't believe a little girl actually went through all of that, no wonder she developed DID(Dissociative Identity Disorder), I could barely cope with watching the movie let alone go through it in real life!
Makes me want to cry just thinking about it..I think child abuse is the saddest thing in the world, people putting their kids in tumble driers or whatever, I hate knowing that sh*it like that goes down all the time..
Sally Field was an unlikely choice by the acting standards of the time to take on the disturbed Sybil.
Sybil's mother (played by Martine Bartlett) is the portrait of evil, and she is a great actress, because you really believe she is a monster.
Joanne Woodward is so awesome in the movie and of course, Sally Field couldn't be any better.
And like any great thriller, I could feel the tension building throughout the film as the psychiatrist led Sybil ever inward to face her terrifying past with its final horror of the green kitchen and the monster mother who tortured her there.
I agree with comments made with the performances, of Joanne Woodward (Dr. Cornelia Wilbur) and Sally Field (Sybil Dorsett), however I must say this film (although old as it is) still scares me to death.
This film (weather you like it or not) WILL make you open your eyes and see the pain that this woman goes through in everyday life.Plot - (after I've shown myself up he he) A woman in her late 20's suffers from multiple personality Disorder (MPD) or now know as Disassociative Identity Disorder (DID)and has 16 different personalities, while in therapy Dr. Wilbur discovers what a horrific childhood Sybil (now known as Shirley Ardell Mason) had.
Then you see Sybil facing all of the Multiple personalities, and after she had done this she can now remember what happened to her as a child!
Although the validity of the diagnosis of Multiple Personalities and Repressed Memories are still subject of debate, and until this day a lot of controversy exists over the book (apparently most of it was fabricated, specially the part of multiple personalities, which was mostly the result of suggestion by Dr. Wilbur to make things more interesting and monetize over the story), this is a very involving movie, with incredible acting and that dated very well.
Kudos for Sally Field and her amazing rendition of a psychiatric patient, and also for Joanne Woodward and Brad Davis, and their respective moving performances as Dr. Wilbur and Sybil's neighbor.This was initially made for TV, shown in 2 parts and having a total run of 3 hours.
It's very well directed and edited for its time, and everyone's acting is incredible.Some people say that this movie was a breakthrough in treatment of Multiple Personalities (called DID nowadays, which stands for Dissociative Identity Disorder), while others blame it for the creation of an "industry of Repressed Memories".
Sally Field does a wonderful job recounting the true life story of the process that 'Sybil' underwent with the help of her therapist to deal with her multiple personalities.
As always, JoAnne Woodward does a superb job playing the therapist.This is a difficult movie to watch at times because it retells the trauma that 'Sybil' went through, but it is a very good film because the actors make you forget they are acting.
I don't know why I watch movies like this because I can't stop thinking about them and I feel bad for a long time.
Sybil is definitely a movie that everyone should watch, because things like this really happen, and people should be aware..
In the movie Sybil, we are treated to one of the most amazing tours-de force I have ever seen in the performance by Sally Field.
Joanne Woodward provides the perfect foil by giving Sybil support, love, and a safe place to finally tell the horrible secrets harbored by her 16 personalities.
Sally Field and Joanne Woodward's Best Film.
Forget Sally's other movies, Sybil is her best performance to date even though it is a television miniseries.
For people who do not understand multiple personality disorder, people like Sybil have suffered early childhood torture and horror at the hands of adults.
Since 1976, child abuse has become a dramatic cliché, multiple personality disorder has become a discredited diagnosis, and Sally Field has become a laughingstock.
Our collective view of mental illness has become much more sensitive and compassionate in the last few years and I don't doubt much of that is due to the influence of "Sybil." Plus, Tears for Fears named their 1985 album "Songs from the Big Chair" as an homage to "Sybil," so you can see the kind of impact it had."Sybil" is a lightly fictionalized version of a 1973 book (itself heavily fictionalized, according to some experts) about a young woman who copes with her horrifically abusive mother by dissociating into 16 personalities.
As fine as Field and Woodward are, though, the most vivid and disturbing performance is that of Martine Bartlett as Hattie, Sybil's wacko mother, whom we see in flashbacks.
Sally Field broke out of the "Flying Nun" mold as Sybil Dorsett, a woman whose abusive childhood has caused her to have sixteen personalities.
This is affecting her regular life to the point where she finally has to meet with Dr. Cornelia Wilbur (Joanne Woodward) to straighten it out.Sally Field was quite impressive playing the sixteen different roles as one person, and Joanne Woodward was equally impressive as the psychiatrist.
Based on a true case, Sally Fields plays an adult, psychologically transformed from years of physical abuse and torture by her mother.Joanne Woodward tries to help Sybil through the memories that will free her and let her become one.Contains explicit scenes of abuse.
Worth the watch, but this is no average Sunday night movie.July 2006 Update:Over the years, several people have emailed me to ask where they could purchase a copy, or when it would be on TV and I JUST saw a commercial that "Sybil" is coming out on DVD next week!
so anyway...I finally get around to watching this tv movie about 27 years later...sally field's big breakout and a neat little role for brad davis...not much i can add at this late date except to suggest that one may want to do a bit of comparison shopping on nutty moms and watch piper laurie in "carrie" which was also released in 1976...very similar dramatic track considering the 2 movies were so vastly different....
Whereas the book presents issues in a factual, almost unemotional, way, the movie gives a sense of the horror Sybil faced as a result of growing up with a mother like Hattie Dorsett.
I read the book Sybil and saw the movie for the first time in 1976 as a student nurse.
"Love doesn't hurt, Sybil, love heals." Dr. Wilbur (Woodward) makes this comment to her tormented patient, the child/woman, Sybil (Field).
It is fascinating watching "Sybil" after reading Sally Fields impressive autobiography, "In Pieces"."Sybil" is the story of Sybil Dorset, a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder triggered by physical abuse at the hands of her mother when she was a child.Sally Field reveals in her autobiography that her stepfather sexually abused her as a child.
Disturbing reading, but it shows that she he had a resilient spirit, allowing her to achieve much in life."Sybil" was Sally Fields breakout role after years of playing "Gidget" and "The Flying Nun".
Eventually her psychiatrist, Dr Cornelia Wilbur (Joanne Woodward) helps Sybil unravel what has caused her to retreat into the different personalities.Although Sally Field felt that movies roles were often limited for someone who looked perennially youthful, here her unique mobile features helped her change from personality to personality.
The revelations about what happened to Sybil as a little girl are still awful to watch as her mother administers "treatments" that seemed inspired by Doctor Mengele.There is another echo from Sally Field's performance as Sybil and her own life.
Originally presented on television in late 1976 with a hefty dose of commercial breaks, which are unfortunately more than apparent in the anniversary DVD presentation, "Sybil" is based on the true story of a Kentucky woman who developed multiple personalities to deal with the abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her nutjob mother.
Under the care of psychiatrist, Cornelia Wilbur (played with great strength and understanding by Joanne Woodward), Sybil's personalities are revealed to us one by one as we slowly discover the root cause of her illness.
Also, my favorite part in the movie was when Sybil said "One day I woke up, and I was 2 years older." I think to show at that time in the 70's a real document of a person with that particular condition as graphic as portrayed on television was pretty bold.
Of course, we know that SYBIL is one of the great Made-For-TV biographies, and that Sally Field gives the performance of her life.
It's a movie about a young woman suffering from dissociative identity disorder caused by an abusive mother, who I believe had schizophrenia -- though that isn't mentioned.
It's an interest, more-or-less straightforward story of a woman with multiple personality disorder, named Sybil here, and played by Sally Field.
This review assumes you have read other reviews...Whether or not Multiple Personality Disorder exists, the fact is that this film is about the emergence of the real deal: the truth about the lives of a very disturbed mother who subjected a small child to agonising abuse.