My Left Foot (1989) a retrospective
Jim Sheridan’s Oscar winning debut and a performance for the ages from Daniel Day-Lewis
Accepting his golden statuette for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 1990 Oscars, and after besting Kenneth Branagh (Henry V), Tom Cruise (Born on the Fourth of July), Morgan Freeman (Driving Miss Daisy) and Robin Williams (Dead Poets Society), Daniel Day-Lewis first charmed the audience by stating his award had “provided me with the makings of one hell of a weekend in Dublin” before praising the performance of Hugh O’Conor (who in only his fourth film of his then young life provided the performance of a lifetime) and then of course the man whose “strength” and determination to paint, draw and leave a written “mark” of his life even after death, and which had inspired both of their performances in Jim Sheridan’s directorial debut film, Irish writer and painter, Christy Brown.
Born in 1932 with cerebral palsy and, for the purposes of this article blending the dramatisation of his life via Sheridan’s Oscar winning film based on Christy’s 1954 autobiographical account of his life “My Left Foot” and information gleaned from the matrix of the internet, Christy led a remarkable life us mere mortals can only celebrate in awe. A writer, poet and painter and, as the title of his book and the film on which it’s based which lead you to believe, was only achievable through sheer human will and the only limb of his body he had any semblance of control over. His ability to speak only came much later in life and via the encouragement of a doctor and carer brilliantly dramatised in the film as she replies to his caustic outburst:
“With speech therapy, I could teach you how to say “fuck off” more clearly!”
This propels us too far into Christy’s life and story but perfectly in line with Jim Sheridan’s brilliant film I rewatched last evening and adored from first minute until its glorious final frames. For Sheridan’s double Oscar winner (Brenda Fricker triumphed in the Best Supporting Actress category too for her portrayal of Christy’s determined mother Bridget ahead of Anjelica Huston and Lena Olin (Enemies, A Love Story), Julia Roberts (Steel Magnolias) and Dianne Wiest (Parenthood) begins and ends towards the final chapter of Christy’s life at a charity event and in between we follow a non-linear timeline back and forth to Christy’s early years (and remarkable performance from Hugh O’Conor) through to the present day charity event and his playfully and somewhat drunkenly obnoxious interactions with his handler and nurse, before back in time once more to his 17th birthday and the beginnings of Daniel Day-Lewis’ Oscar winning performance.
From a present day, hopeful date and impending marriage, we travel back in time once more to a large religious and God fearing Irish family (“If no-one can understand you, God can”) amid bleak pre World War II poverty. With money desperately short, an ever growing family to feed and a husband soon redundant from work, Christy’s mother saves whatever spare money she can in a tin hidden in the fireplace and not for a rainy Irish day and very much to the detriment of herself and her larger family, but to replace Christy’s wooden “chariot” with a desperately needed wheelchair and his only real means of leaving the house. From being wheeled around in a wooden box on rickety wheels to scrawling “MOTHER” with his left foot on a floor chalkboard, Sheridan’s film depicts the very highs and very lows of a remarkable life of arguably one of Ireland’s favourite and famous sons through his own otherworldly artistic and literary achievements and now immortalised in youthful death at the age of just 49 in this film and in the songs of Irish rock bands such as The Pogues and U2.
Ten combined Oscar and BAFTA nominations and four wins barely scratches the surface of this true life tale and 1989 film I heartily recommend to you. There’s a still larger tale to be told but not by me.
Instead, I’ll leave you in love and peace with Christy’s own words:
“Do you think I will ever be a poet? That is what I want to be more than anything else, for to me life is extraordinarily beautiful, and I want to sing about it, but at times I feel like a bird trapped in a cage without wings or voice”
Quote from a Christy Brown letter in the National Library of Ireland archive.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my two recently self-published books. Both are free to read if you subscribe to Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” or reasonably priced in both paperback and hardback. Go on, treat yourself or a loved one and help out an Indie Author! Buy the books if you’re financially able to. They also look far, far better in print!
We HAVE to keep the spirit of reading books alive and well.
Thanks.
"still life, with gooseberry" - link to Amazon
"Rasputin and Raspberry Jam" - link to Amazon
Thanks for your interesting discussion of this amazing film!
It wouldn't be the last time Day-Lewis and Sheridan would be in the running for Oscars.