My Left Foot (1989)
Biography | Drama

This cinematic masterpiece is the brilliant portrayal of legendary Irishman Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis) who, despite having crippling cerebral palsy, learned to use his one controllable extremity - his left foot - to become an accomplished artist and writer. The Miramax Collector's Series proudly presents the release of the acclaimed motion picture that won Academy Awards® for Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Best Supporting Actress (Brenda Fricker) and earned Oscar® nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. This special edition of My Left Foot has been digitally re-mastered and features a wealth of bonus material on DVD!

Storyline: Christy Brown is a spastic quadriplegic born to a large, poor Irish family. His mother, Mrs Brown, recognizes the intelligence and humanity in the lad everyone else regards as a vegetable. Eventually, Christy matures into a cantankerous writer who uses his only functional limb, his left foot, to write with. Written by Reid Gagle

User Comment: Robert Reynolds (minniemato@hotmail.com) from Tucson AZ, 30 December 2001 • Let me state at the outset that I have Cerebral Palsy and I went into this film expecting to have to make allowances for the lead performance. I left the theater half-convinced that they'd cast an actor who had Cerebral Palsy in the role, even though I knew that was not the case. The performances were generally excellent, with a special nod to Brenda Fricker and to Hugh O'Conner (I believe that's his name) as the young Christy Brown. Christy is talented, brash, arrogant, at times vulgar and petulant-in other words, human. This film, along with Gaby: A True Story and the documentary King Gimp, are excellent portrayals of life with CP. By no means a complete portrait, but fine examples of the disabled as human beings. Most highly recommended.

Summary: A remarkable film and performances by Day-Lewis and Fricker.

User Comment: Walter Frith from Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA, 4 March 1999 • Daniel Day-Lewis' almost impossible performance as a man with cerebral palsy earned him a well-deserved Oscar in 1989 for Best Actor over the heavily favoured Tom Cruise in 'Born on the Fourth of July' and Morgan Freeman in 'Driving Miss Daisy'. The Academy was still riding the wave of awarding Dustin Hoffman a second Best Actor prize a year earlier for his performance as a mentally challenged individual in 'Rain Man' and since Day-Lewis' performance was superior to Hoffman's, the Academy had to recognize him. Day-Lewis probably would have won anyway as his performance was hard to ignore and he had never received any acting nominations from the Academy before this film despite turning in great work in such films as 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' and 'My Beautiful Laundrette.'

As Christy Brown, Daniel Day-Lewis makes his character unsympathetic as he doesn't want you to feel sorry for him. He achieved the great success of being an accomplished writer and artist. Director Jim Sheridan directs the film like a series of home movies that millions want to see.

Brenda Fricker won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress as Brown's mother and she is the real moral centre of the film and this film proves that Hollywood is capable of choosing small, lesser known films for Oscar consideration and 'My Left Foot' is a film that is uplifting without being sentimental.

Summary: Don't feel sorry for this character!

1990 Academy Award:
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Supporting Actress: Brenda Fricker
Best Writing Adapted Screenplay nominee
Best Picture nominee
Best Director nominee: Jim Sheridan

[CSW] -4.2- Christy Brown himself. Brown was born with the debilitating disease, Cerebral Palsy. His family misdiagnosed him as Mentally Retarded for most of his childhood, and he had little control over his own body. Yet he went on to become a painter and then a writer, using only his left foot to achieve these amazing feats. The movie portrayed how his family always included him in everything and didn't condescend to him or "enable" him in any way. This shows that you don't have to be wealthy or educated (they were neither) to have a progressive attitude towards disabilities. This is one of those movies that you need to see.
DVD - No D-Box.

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