Broken Glass (1996) Online

Miller always finds something to self hate in every leading character in all his plays. Self hatred that brings each one inevitable bitter conflict and doom. From Death of a Salesman to All My Sons to A View From The Bridge to The Misfits to Broken Glass. All plow deeply within the lead male psyche, and those of his family, showing job/marital failure, sexual inadequacies and perversions, terrible parenting, incestuous desire/shame, substance abuse, and myriad other reasons to cause them to wonder why they were ever born. Gets a bit tiresome at times as it is really a one note song that never, ever lets up. A case could be made that all of his plays are merely successive acts in one play.

But, as he is so in tune with his human nature, and that of all humans, he writes all of these plays so well that we are always drawn into the human maelstrom we know he will create, and as a result, feel as emotionally exhausted at the end of each final scene as he surely did upon the final day of writing each one.

Broken Glass is no different, and no less exhausting. And no less terrific.

This filmed version of an Arthur Miller play is astounding for its emotional realism and deeply-felt acting. But be warned, the failure of a marriage is thrown into relief by the news of Nazi persecution of the Jews, and the only uplifting aspect of the drama is its incredible artistry. Nobody bares the Jewish soul like Miller, and the demonstrated truths of self-hatred are so intimate that it's an embarrassment to watch. (Hell comes to Brooklyn.) The script is terrific yet so flawed in its over-anxious concerns that it seems like an unknown work from the 40's, not the 90's when it was written. Henry Goodman, a DeNiro look-alike, is incredible as the tortured businessman who hates himself more than he hates his wife. Patinkin, Leicester, and McGovern are also terrific. A wonderful job on a great play, but I worry about the picture on the cover of the video which suggests a wistful romantic adventure. Ha!

Kudos to Miller and to all involved.