June 5 - My Left Foot

Today’s movie is a biographical drama with scenes that happen on June 5. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

MY LEFT FOOT                     

Christy Brown is taken to a charity event and meets his handler, a nurse named Mary Carr. She starts to read his autobiography. Christy Brown was born handicapped on June 5, 1932. [6:56 to 8:57] He could not walk or talk, but was loved and supported by his family, especially his mother. When his mother has a stroke, Christy gets help. His father who had never really believed in him becomes a supporter when Christy, age ten, uses his left foot(the only part of his body he can really control) to write the word ‘mother’ with a piece of chalk on the floor. The family celebrate his seventeenth birthday [28:47 to 30:08]. Christy starts painting. He is included by the young people in his neighborhood in their activities such as playing street soccer and even sessions of ‘spin the bottle’. However, when he paints a picture and gives it to a girl he likes, she returns it to him. His father is laid off from his job and times become really tough. Christy, to his mother’s dismay comes up with a plan where his brothers are able to steal coal.  Christy’s elder sister, who was always very nice to him gets pregnant and has to get married and leave home. Christy’s mother who had hidden her savings in a tin in the fireplace finally saves enough to buy him a wheelchair. He meets Dr.  Eileen Cole, who takes him to her school for cerebral palsy patients and persuades a friend of hers to hold an exhibition of Christy’s art. However, at a dinner afterwards he learns she is engaged to be married. Christy considers suicide. He and his mother build Christy his own private studio, but his father soon thereafter dies of a stroke. His wake degenerates in to a bar room brawl started by Christy.  Christy starts writing his autobiography, My Left Foot. Dr. Cole returns and they resume their friendship. Meanwhile, at the fete Christy asks Mary Carr to go out with him and they leave the fete together. An onscreen message tells us they later got married.     

A very uplifting film that you should watch if you’re feeling depressed. Afterwards you should be thankful for how small your problems really are. Daniel Day-Lewis certainly deserved his Oscar for bringing out Christy Brown’s personality without using words. 

Christy Brown: The Life That Inspired My Left Foot by Georgina Louise Hambleton (Mainstream Publishing, London, 2007) at page 20 gives his birthdate

Awards – The film won the Best Actor  (Day-Lewis) and Best Supporting Actress (Fricker) Oscars. The film was also nominated for the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars at the 62^nd Academy Awards.

Screenplay - Jim Sheridan and Shane Connaughton

Producer - Noel Pearson                        

Director - Jim Sheridan        

                                

Runtime – 1 hour 43 minutes     

Released  - February 24, 1989                                                           

Starring –

Daniel Day-Lewis as Christy Brown

Brenda Fricker as Bridget Brown

Ray McAnally as Paddy Brown

Fiona Shaw as Dr. Eileen Cole

Kirsten Sheridan as Sharon Brown

Alison Whelan as Sheila Brown

Hugh O'Conor as young Christy Brown

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.