Rachel, Rachel (1968)

86% of critics liked it
(7 reviews)
75% of users liked it
(375 ratings)

Paul Newman made his directorial debut and Newman's wife, Joanne Woodward, stars as Rachel Cameron, a 35-year-old unmarried schoolteacher who feels as though she's wasted her life. Rachel's best friend, Calla Mackie (Estelle Parsons), invites her to attend a religious revival meeting. Here Rachel is… More Paul Newman made his directorial debut and Newman's wife, Joanne Woodward, stars as Rachel Cameron, a 35-year-old unmarried schoolteacher who feels as though she's wasted her life. Rachel's best friend, Calla Mackie (Estelle Parsons), invites her to attend a religious revival meeting. Here Rachel is swept up in the emotional fervor orchestrated by a young guest preacher (Terry Kiser). This is the first of several cathartic incidents which convince Rachel to kick over the traces and express her own needs and emotions. She has a brief sexual liaison with an old family friend (James Olson), and is delighted at the notion that she might have become pregnant. Rachel ends up alone and childless (her "pregnancy" was nothing more than a benign cyst), but still determined to forge a new life for herself. Based the novel A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence, Rachel, Rachel won New York Film Critics awards for both Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, and an Oscar nomination for Joanne Woodward. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 42 min.
Directed By: Paul Newman
Genres: Drama, Romance, Classics

In Theaters: Aug 26, 1968 Wide
On DVD: Apr 28, 2009

Critic Reviews

Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Woodward carries everything with her faultless performance.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Well-directed by Paul Newman, the film chronicles the ordinary life of its unsung heroine, a small-town spinsterish teacher, beautifully played by Joanne Woodward.
Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com
Fine acting all around (Joanne Woodward especially), and sensitive Paul Newman direction.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Pierluigi P

A bit flawed by the excess of flashbacks and oniric sequences. Nevertheless, amazing performance by Mrs. Newman
Greg S

Joanne Woodward stars a Rachel, a timid and sexually frustrated 35-year old schoolteacher who's desperate for a change in her life; a summer fling throws her emotions into chaos. A slow, quiet film about ordinary sadness and triumph; the movie requires a star turn from Woodward… More
Joanne Woodward stars a Rachel, a timid and sexually frustrated 35-year old schoolteacher who's desperate for a change in her life; a summer fling throws her emotions into chaos. A slow, quiet film about ordinary sadness and triumph; the movie requires a star turn from Woodward to pull it off, and gets it.
♥Robyn

found this movie slow moving and postively boring~!!!!!
First L

Paul Newman directs this at times great film about an old spinster school teacher who lives above a funeral parlor with her elderly mother. Well, the terms "old" and "spinster" are relative as she's only 35 years old. She does, however, conduct herself in… More
Paul Newman directs this at times great film about an old spinster school teacher who lives above a funeral parlor with her elderly mother. Well, the terms "old" and "spinster" are relative as she's only 35 years old. She does, however, conduct herself in the manner of a senior citizen. She tells her fellow school teacher Calla Mackie (Estelle Parsons), "I'm at the exact halfway point of life. After this year, I'm no longer ascending, I'm descending... into the grave". Very morbid thoughts, but she comes by them naturally though, as her father was a mortician and she grew up with some frankly traumatizing deaths being paraded before her eyes (not to mention the teasing she suffered at the hands of her peers because of her father's gruesome career). It's a sad life of a woman nearing 40. Joanne Woodward plays Rachel as a sort of updated version of "Marty", only she's stuck in the midwest with no visible hope of escape. Worse, it's the height of the sexual revolution, and spinster Rachel spends her saturday nights making sandwiches for her mother's bridge games. It's enough to give one an unstable mentality, and Rachel's head is filled with frequent morbid fantasies. When a childhood friend comes back to town, he openly admits to looking for "a little action". Instead of recoiling from his lewd sexual advances, she plays coy yet intrigued by his attempts to lure her away from her security blanket. Unlike Marty, Rachel doesn't seem to suffer from any great self-loathing, she's just resigned to the fact that life has ceased to grow for her, and that she's stuck until the day she dies. Director Newman displays a great talent behind the camera and Joanne Woodward gives one of her greatest performances as the emotionally charged Rachel. If it was incongruous at the time of the sexual revolution, this coming-of-age-past-your-prime melodrama has grown to be appreciated whereas other films from that era might seem dated and corny by today's standards.
jay n

Joanne Woodward is exceedingly fine here, the picture is slow paced but worthwhile for the superior acting. An interesting story of a repressed woman emerging from her shell.
Byron B

Newman directed his wife Joanne Woodward. From Newman's biography that I read, Paul Newman: A Life, I learned that the two of them agreed she was the better actor. Yet she didn't act as often in the movies. Woodward is Rachel, a woman who hasn't experience a lot in… More
Newman directed his wife Joanne Woodward. From Newman's biography that I read, Paul Newman: A Life, I learned that the two of them agreed she was the better actor. Yet she didn't act as often in the movies. Woodward is Rachel, a woman who hasn't experience a lot in life, is afraid of spinsterhood and taking care of her mother forever, and lives life through daydreams most of the time. This for all intents and purposes was an independent film when nothing but studio productions made it to the big theaters around the country. The low budget is reflected in the look of the film. Newman is practical with the camera and lighting and other technical aspects, but not very stylish. The movie has a small town feel since it was shot on location in Connecticut. Still the subject matter would probably have never flown in a big studio production of the time. I don't think edgy is the right word, but offbeat may describe the romance, characters and religious and sexual themes. It is a boundary pushing story that can often make you feel just a bit uncomfortable as you spend so much time in Rachel's head.
Walter M

Like many other people, Rachel Cameron(Joanne Woodward) has a tough time getting out of bed in the morning. Eventually, she does in order to go to her job as an elementary school teacher in a small town but not before her mother(Kate Harrington) asks her to buy her a candy bar. At… More
Like many other people, Rachel Cameron(Joanne Woodward) has a tough time getting out of bed in the morning. Eventually, she does in order to go to her job as an elementary school teacher in a small town but not before her mother(Kate Harrington) asks her to buy her a candy bar. At work, her friend Calla(Estelle Parsons) gives Rachel a plant and Leighton(Bernard Barrow), the principal, aka The Groper, asks her to a dinner party he is hosting. Rachel declines, having to go home to cater her mom's bridge night before masturbating herself to sleep. It's a shame because Nick(James Olson), an old friend, was at the dinner party. "Rachel, Rachel" is a sensitively told little drama that while daring for its time, might seem quaint to modern audiences, especially one word that could not be mentioned back then, and come to think of it, probably still cannot be in a movie. What's especially encouraging about the movie is that it never crosses the line by making its lonely heroine pathetic. A lot of that is due to Joanne Woodward's excellent performance, along with Paul Newman takng risks in his directorial debut in detailing the inner life and quiet desperation of somebody who is paralyzed by inaction. Mind the facile psychology but much of that has to do with Rachel being exposed at an early age to death, making her afraid of everything, especially being touched, no matter how innocent, and therefore any kind of human contact.