era@ncar.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold) (08/22/90)
Index Number: 9939 In an article I posted earlier this year about the movie "My Left Foot", I sensed there was something missing, but couldn't put my finger on it at the time. The following writer seems to have supplied what was missing: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A TALE OF TWO MOVIES by Nancy Becker Kennedy [Reprinted here with the author's permission] It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. This year the viewing public saw two Oscar-nominateed films about disability, _Born on the Fourth of July_ [BOTFOJ] and _My Left Foot_ [MLF]. One of the films set back the cause of social justice farther than it had been in decades. The other brought us light-years ahead. The viewing public doesn't seem to know how to discriminate between what is a progressive film about disability and what isn't. People made the mistake of thinking _Whose Life Is It Anyway?_ was a brave new film about disability when it in fact was the oldest message in the world - "I'd rather be dead than disabled." They are making the same mistake in thinking that BOTFOJ is a progressive new film about disability. Well I'm here to say IT IS NOT! BOTFOJ does the same thing Ron Kovic does whenever he speaks or writes. He proves that war is awful (which it is) by saying "I'm the proof. See, the war broke me and made me half a man." This is a message that every backward attitude about disability is based on. We don't need to hear it anymore, and it isn't even true. I don't mean to minimize the initial calamity of rebounding from a disabling accident. I can testify it's a horrible adjustment but I emerged whole again, a very "new improved" version for having undergone the experience. This is a self-esteem vaccine I have to give myself every day to believe in myself in a toxic environment of pity and dismissal brought on by schmaltzy exploitations like BOTFOJ. It isn't true of me. I am whole. It isn't true of Ron. Ron lives an enviable life. I've been at parties where he hangs out with the likes of Jane Fonda and Bruce Springsteen and holy cripes he was popping champagne at the Berlin Wall with his buddy Oliver Stone. His life isn't half as shabby as he'd have you believe when he gets on his "I'm only half a man because of the war" routine. MLF, on the other hand, was the greatest thing to enhance the image of disability since the sports chair and the love scene in _Coming Home_ (ironically, also inspired by Ron). The fantastic thing about MLF was that it showed everyone for the first time (me included) just where we should put prejudice. Christy Brown never internalized the terrible messages he got from society. If someone patronized him, he put it right back in their face. The woman who was seductive to him but wasn't serious was forced to "put up or shut up" when he plainly told her he loved her. When the woman he would later marry tried to dismiss him politely, but dismiss him nonetheless, he made her take responsibility for her answer. He didn't let her off the hook. So often we are so embarrassed by ourselves because of belittling social messages that we take in the negative messages and become shy. Christy Brown didn't. He had tremendous ego strength and consistently refused to be dismissed or treated less than what he was - a brilliant, energetic, very able and potent man. Another treat we got from MLF was the unexpected pleasure of a portrayal of a family that never ignored their disabled relative, even when they couldn't communicate with him or discern how much he was able to understand. This was, to be sure, a contributing factor to the ego strength that allowed Christy Brown to believe in himself and deflect demeaning social prejudice. Both films showed there is an interest in the disability experience. And in all fairness to even BOTFOJ, I think the popularity of both films showed an interest in seeing disabled characters who aren't "too good to be true." Both these characters were difficult and neither film whitewashed the pain of living with a disability. Both avoided the sappy sentimentality I think we're all sick of. But we must continue to educate people to see the difference between a progressive message about disability and a backward one. The differences are subtle and easy to miss. Any character who shows wit and intelligence and some sense of being "with it" is a welcome sight to me. But we must be careful that the characters in _Whose Life_ and BOTFOJ who seem charismatic are not mistaken as positive characters when they take in the prejudice of the outside world and feel they are second-class citizens. We have to remind ourselves, and the public, that a good disability image is one of a person who believes in his or her own worth and potency in spite of the barrage of negative messages telling us we're not. [Nancy Becker Kennedy is an actress, writer, and disability rights activist living in California. This article appeared in the Summer 1990 issue of _Spinal Network Extra_.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Ed Arnold * NCAR * POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 * 303-497-1253(voice) 303-497-1137(fax) * era@ncar.ucar.edu [128.117.64.4] * era@ncario.BITNET era@ncar.UUCP * Edward.Arnold@f809.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG