MY LEFT FOOT (1989)

“Do you mean platonic love when you said you love me? Ohh…than fuck Plato. Fuck all the love that is not 100 percent commitment!” shouted a weird looking crippled man on the screen.

I was 12 years old when I watched Oscar Awards for the first time on television. I didn’t understand or know anything about the movie then & with passage of time I do forget the name of the actor who won the best actor Oscar that year but I do not forget the name of the film. Its- ‘My Left Foot’.
Well after watching the film today I must say the performance & role of Daniel Day Lewis will stay in my heart as long as I love cinema. It’s not just method acting of cerebral palsy person which won him this award. It’s more than that. It’s the intensity of his acting which makes the everlasting impression of an accomplished actor.
And it’s not only his acting only but great supporting acts from all other actors including nice balanced act by Brenda Fricker as Christy’s mom who also got Best supporting actress for the same film. Overall it’s a class film & brilliantly directed by Jim Sheridan.

The movie is screen adaptation based on autobiographical book of Christy Brown.
Christy was born as 10th child in an impoverish family. Christy is so disabled with cerebral palsy from his birth that not single voluntary muscles found working except one- his left foot. He discovered this & slowly gained control over it. He started writing a word to appeal to the one person who can help him tap his potential: “Mother”. It is the first of many words & works that he accomplished as painter & writer with his left foot.
This is all Christy used to overcome his haunting loneliness, rage & repressed sexuality to stun the world with his unparalleled brilliance of true artist.
What I also love about the film is the fun & hope it spreads throughout the film; otherwise most of the films dealing with such a subject either become heavy in tone or tragic in the end. Instead it ends so beautifully- a rose offering to a woman with whom he shared his rest of the life surprisingly.

The movie is really a triumph of human spirit over the ultimate destined adversity.
An extra ordinary film. Catch it.

Ratings-9/10