Film Adaptation
The play was adapted into a movie in 1986 directed by Gene Saks with the screenplay by Neil Simon. The cast featured Jonathan Silverman as Eugene, Blythe Danner (Kate), Bob Dishy (Jack), Brian Drillinger (Stanley), Stacey Glick (Laurie) and Judith Ivey (Blanche). Roger Ebert, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "The movie feels so plotted, so constructed, so written, that I found myself thinking maybe they shouldn't have filmed the final draft of the screenplay. Maybe there was an earlier draft that was a little disorganized and unpolished, but still had the jumble of life in it.... The movie was directed by Gene Saks, who directs many of Simon's plays on both the stage and the screen, and whose gift is for the theater. His plays have the breath of life; his movies feel like the official authorized version. Everything is by the numbers."
Read more about this topic: Brighton Beach Memoirs
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“Is America a land of God where saints abide for ever? Where golden fields spread fair and broad, where flows the crystal river? Certainly not flush with saints, and a good thing, too, for the saints sent buzzing into man’s ken now are but poor- mouthed ecclesiastical film stars and cliché-shouting publicity agents.
Their little knowledge bringing them nearer to their ignorance,
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