Disability and the Oscars
By Robyn Hunt (robyn@iecho.co.nz)
It's Oscar time again, complete with the usual hype and hysteria so beloved of Hollywood. Speculation runs rife about who will win the most coveted awards.
This year I have heard several reviewers say that a 'handicapped' performance will stand a good chance.
An article by Tom Shone of the British Telegraph group advises, among other things to 'Play the disabled,' if an award is aimed for. He claims, 'This is the only sure-fire way of reassuring the Academy voters that a performance has occurred.'
I set out to check his theory and found a good deal of truth in what he says. Forrest Gump, As Good as it Gets, Scent of a Woman, The Silence of the Lambs, Rain Man, My Left Foot, The Piano, and Children of a Lesser God have all won various Oscars over the last twenty years or so.
All include disabled characters of one sort or another in leading roles. It is interesting to note that male disabled lead characters outweigh female leads six to two.
This year's Oscar wannabes include Sean Penn playing an intellectually disabled parent in I Am Sam, Judy Dench playing the role of British novelist Iris Murdoch during her last years with Alzheimer's disease in Iris, and Russell Crowe as mathematician and Nobel Laureate John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. Nash has had lifelong paranoid schizophrenia.
Male leads continue to predominate over females.
Iris is different from the usual categories much beloved by Hollywood. There is the tormented artist David Helfgott in Shine, or mad bad and dangerous to know Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, or disabled person struggling against enormous odds Christy Brown in My Left Foot. Iris Murdoch is anything but the loveable but limited Forrest Gump, being one of the finest literary minds of her generation.
A deliberately 'small' movie, Iris is unusual in featuring the life of an older woman. (Kate Winslet plays the younger Iris.) It is a 'true life' story, another plus according to Shone in the Oscars competition.
The film traces the disintegration of a sharp mind and a strong personality, providing flashbacks to the young Iris and her lust for life. It is a pity, and a real weakness in the film that her considerable literary achievement is glossed over.
Judi Dench pays Iris convincingly and with integrity, avoiding playing the role in stunt mode as often happens with actors playing intellectually disabled or autistic characters.
It is a shame that we still see reviewers using such descriptions as 'afflicted,' 'crippled by,' 'mentally retarded,' and 'handicapped,' among other negative terms appearing in reviews. Labeling characters in advance may prejudice the viewers' ability to make their own judgements. They certainly diminish a performance so rich in its humanity as Judi Dench playing Iris Murdoch.
While it may not be possible for an actor with Alzheimer's to play that role, it is surely time to see more disabled actors in the cinema, playing the roles of disabled people and others.
Who will win the Oscars on March 25th this year? We can be sure that emotion and sentiment will have as much to do with the outcome as they usually do.
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