Arthur Miller: Writer | Rebecca Miller | NYFF 2017
Not many playwrights saw the immense success that the great Arthur Miller enjoyed on the New York stage, responsible from great plays such as “Death of a Salesman,” “The Crucible,” “All My Sons” and many, many more. These are some of the most quintessential American works of all time and just a small part of Miller’s great career. His life and fame wasn’t just limited to work as he also entered a whole different world of celebrity due to his tumultuous marriage to superstar Marilyn Monroe.
These subjects are all thoughtfully touched upon in Arthur Miller: Writer, a documentary about Miller directed by his very own daughter, Rebecca Miller. Coming from family, this allows us a real thoughtful and personal exploration of Miller’s life, offered from the perspective of someone who was obviously very close to her father. Being so close with him, she had hours of footage of personal conversations and moments that she captured on film that never saw the light of day until now, 12 years after his death in 2005.
We navigate the waters of his life growing up and the strain that the Stock Market Crash of 1929 had on his parents who lost all their fortune. This caused an understandable amount of friction in their relationship was a motivating factor that helped him with the basis for what would become Death of a Salesman. Miller thoughtful looks into the failure of his marriage to Mary Slattery, who was left behind after he gained notoriety and eventually met Marilyn Monroe. She explores the rocky relationship that both endured before moving on his marriage to Rebecca’s mother Inge Morath.
What makes this such a delight is that we get to see Miller using both of her perspectives to create a documentary about Miller that is informative, enlightening and wholesomely entertaining from start to finish. Of course a counterpoint would be maybe she holds back on looking too critically at her father which makes the documentary feel like a retrospective that on objective look at Miller’s career at large, but this unique perspective from his loving daughter and the one of a kind footage she provides is what charmed me about Arthur Miller: Writer and is a must-see for any fans of his work but also a welcome journey of discovery for those who are somewhat unfamiliar with Miller outside of his work.
Rating: 7.0/10
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