For those of you who are faced with mental challenges, developmental delays, disorders, or physical limitations, either because you parent a special child or face your own life struggles, Hollywood pays tribute to you. Regularly.
In fact, it is interesting to note that if you look closely at Oscar-winning movies over nearly the past two decades, a great majority of “Best Picture” winners or nominees contain a theme or character with some kind of disability.
1988 : Rain Man – The Story of an Autistic Savant and his brother, who must learn to co-exist.
1989: My Left Foot was the runner up to Driving Miss Daisy. My Left Foot is the story of a severely disabled man with cerebral palsy.
1990: Awakenings, which was the runner up to Dances With Wolves. Awakenings was the story of a doctor who developed a treatment for catatonic people, which temporarily “awakened” them.
1991: The Prince of Tides, runner up to Silence of the Lambs, was the story of a man trying to overcome the emotional scars of sexual abuse in his childhood.
1993: The Piano, runner up to Schindler’s List. The Piano was about a mute woman who “speaks” and learns to love through the emotion of her piano music.
1994: Forrest Gump, winner for Best Picture, was about a man of low-intellect who is able to accomplish amazing things.
1996: Shine, runner up to The English Patient, is about David Helfgott, who suffered numerous mental breakdowns and was institutionalized, but was able to “shine” through with his brilliant piano playing.
1997: As Good As It Gets, runner up to Titanic, about a man who steps out of his disabling OCD behaviors by falling in love.
1999: The Sixth Sense, runner up to American Beauty, about a young boy with a peculiar sense of seeing and conversing with deceased persons.
2001: A Beautiful Mind, winner for Best Picture, about professor John Nash, a brilliant mathematician, who battles schizophrenia.
2004: Ray, runner up to Million Dollar Baby for best picture, is the story of Ray Charles, who rises above the challenges of blindness to become one of the greatest musicians of all time.
Why so many themes with disabilities? I think Hollywood, despite its many misguided pursuits, recognizes that overcoming physical or mental limitations is part of the human experience. Triumph over adversity is something we like to see portrayed again and again. It lifts our spirits, and inspires us. It feels good. And ultimately, it sells a whole lot of tickets.
There are many other movies about disabilities I can name, like Mask, Radio, Nell, Horse Whisperer, The Other Sister, etc. How many more can you think of?
Information from this blog was obtained from wikipedia.org, and Bill Baer at MSN.