Perhaps because I am old, and lived through the 60s, and was a French major - I think in order to truly understand this play you have to truly understand the revolution of the 60s vis a vis the French Revolution. In both instances the participants thought they were doing the best thing possible for all the people, and in both instances the participants lost sight of their original goals. Jean Paul Marat is ultimately vilified for the people he killed, just as the Black Panthers, the Weathermen, the Yippies and other groups; and in the end, regardless that their actions hurt more than they helped, everyone was trying to do their best for the people. I mean to say, Marat is a pathetic character, condemned by nature to suffer his last days with a debilitating skin disease. In the case of the 60s radicals, we have been condemned to see the world we envisioned turn away from our ideals and turn us into caricatures and stand up routines. At least those of us who didn't wind up going to prison or dying outright. The play is wonderful, and speaks truth through the mouths of those condemned to an insane asylum. We are forced to re-evaluate our notion of insane.

The play absolutely deserves every award it has received. It's a serious but blackly humorous -- or humorously black -- discussion of politics, philosophy, and just what constitutes sanity, with enough madness to hold our attention and enough roots in the real world that we can't easily dismiss the points it makes.In the film there are few directorial choice that I might quibble with, and there is one (not very important) change I definitely disagree with... but overall it's a surprisingly good job of translating the first Broadway production to the screen.(I have both the Caedmon complete recording of the Broadway production and a copy of the film, and I've played de Sade, so I'm a bit more aware of the details than most viewers would be. Alas, I can't read German so I can't compare any of these to the "real" original.) If you can find a good live production of Marat/Sade, see it. If you can't, or if you want to revisit it, the film isn't too far behind.

I was in college when PBS in the U.S. showed Marat/Sade. I was blown away by the remarkable performance of Glenda Jackson. I had never heard the name before, but I was certain she was a great actress who would have a brilliant career. With all the outrageousness on the screen, with the layers of her characterization -- a deeply disturbed woman putting in great effort to parrot her scripted lines in a staccato voice -- she truly disappeared into this "inmate" portraying the role of Charlotte Corday.I've watched it again today for the first time in almost 40 years. And it still impresses me. Plus, I turned out to be right. Glenda Jackson proved herself to be one of the great actresses of her generation. Her decision to leave acting is a loss to all of us. I wish I could see what she would do with a new character at her present age.

Part of the reason what makes this movie so unique is the actors & actresses having to act like their in a asylum and from what conditions they (inmates/patients) have and to act with those conditions. this movie really moved me it was so realistic like i was there. the camera work played the eyes of what you saw as not all inmates had really a role they were the background sound effects or group to in-act the story as they were in a steamer room/wash room and the room was well used. once in a while as the actors inmates characters comes out of character and towards the end of the movie the inmates becomes out of control. you got to like it as De Sade plays as play director. DID they really have Woman and Men Together in a Insane Asylum back in the early 19th century? I didn't know there was piping like that in the steam room/washroom back in 1808.? OH by the way one of the three narrator's looks like gram-pa from the the TV series the Munsters as this movie was made in 1967 it could very well be if you like plays or poetry or a rhythmics acting this is a movie for you