Line #19 Film/MyLeftFoot


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7	''My Left Foot'' is the 1954 autobiography of Irish cerebral palsy sufferer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christy_Brown Christy Brown]]. Paralyzed from birth, Brown is written off as helpless and incapable of doing anything. But Christy's indomitable mother never gives up on the boy. Using his left foot, the only part of his body not afflicted, Brown learns to write. He grows up to become a well-known author and painter.
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9	The novel was made into an [[TheFilmOfTheBook Oscar-winning drama]] in 1989 directed by Jim Sheridan, starring Creator/DanielDayLewis as Christy Brown and Creator/BrendaFricker as his mother.
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12	!!This film provides examples of:
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14	* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Christy to Eileen when they're out dining after the showing at Peter's gallery. It does not go well, [[AllLoveIsUnrequited as Eileen's already engaged to Peter]]:
15	--> "You meant Platonic love, didn't you? I've had Platonic love all me life, and you know what I say? [[PrecisionFStrike FUCK PLATO]]! And fuck any love that isn't a hundred percent commitment!"
16	** It all goes downhill from there, and is most likely the start of Christy's alcoholism (before, he would just drink socially)...
17	%%* BarBrawl
18	* CompositeCharacter: In the film version, the character Dr. Eileen Cole never existed. She was supposed to represent an amalgam of several people who helped Christy. Robert Collis was his mentor in every way -- in his education and physical development but, more than that, he encouraged him to paint and write. In fact, he proofread Christy's first book and contacted the publishers for him -- the lot. Dr. Patricia Sheehan, who had played a very important role in Christy's development, was very much against the portrayal of Eileen Cole in the film.
19	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Played Straight, Subverted, and Averted. At the time most of the movie takes place individuals with disabilities were seen as a burden and were expected to be put in an institution and just forgotten. The Brown’s neighbors certainly see Christy that way. However the Brown family obviously does not see it that way and instead care for him in their home. He’s clean, well groomed, well fed, etc. But they do just leave him to sit under the stairs all day since they aren’t aware that he does not have any intellectual deficiencies. But once they discover he has normal intelligence (arguably advanced) he just becomes another member of a huge family and his brothers take him playing with them everywhere they go. He’s also expected to pull his fair share and do every chore he’s able to do.
20	* ExtremityExtremist: The protagonist, an almost-total tetraplegic who is carried around in a wheelbarrow, uses his only working appendage -- guess which one -- to do some damage in a BarBrawl.
21	* {{Flashback}}: The way in which the story is told.
22	* GeniusCripple: The main character could only move his left foot due to cerebral palsy, but still wrote several poetry books and became very famous in Irish literary circles.
23	* HandyFeet: Christy has no choice but to use his left foot as a hand.
24	* IronicallyDisabledArtist: Christy was afflicted with cerebral palsy since birth. Only his left foot is completely controllable, and he uses it to paint with acrylics on canvas, and to pen books of poetry, which are acclaimed by critics. This makes Christy Brown a Genius Cripple who penned his autobiography, which became the basis for the screenplay.
25	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Christy's father. He comes across as somewhat cold at first, but when Christy writes "MOTHER" on the floor, he takes him for a drink. Perhaps his most heart of gold moment comes when he takes over from Christy's mother to build Christy a room.
26	* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Christy had 13 surviving siblings.
27	* ObfuscatingDisability: Christy hatches a plan to get free coal by using himself to distract the coalmen while his brothers loosened the truck's tailgate, causing the coal to fall out.
28	* OscarBait: And it worked, giving Day-Lewis his first Best Actor win.
29	* SophisticatedAsHell: Christy is a poet and a painter, but even he is prone to this trope. Dr. Eileen Cole just rolls with it when she offers to teach him speech therapy.
30	--> '''Christy:''' Fuck off.
31	--> '''Eileen:''' If you work with me, I'll help you say fuck off more clearly.
32	* TimeShiftedActor: Hugh O'Conor plays the 9-year-old Christy Brown, opposite Creator/DanielDayLewis playing him as an adult.
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Context Film / MyLeftFoot