Left Field Cinema

There is a point, about half way through this film where a pub of mourners sit and drink to a fallen family member. Amongst the crowd of faces is Christy Brown played by Daniel Day-Lewis, Christy has cerebral palsy and is not the finest singer in the world, but despite this he decides to sing a song for the memory of his loved one. A disrespectful patron of the pub makes the general statement: “will somebody shut him up” at which point all of those sat with Christy join in with the singing as a sign of unification against this one disparaging grunt. This is satisfying enough, but what makes this moment a classic confrontation in cinema is what follows: the irritable patron continues to make disparaging remarks about the Brown family, a fight looks sure to begin but Christy calms his brothers down and slowly rolls in his wheel chair so that he is sat opposite the patron who stands towering above him. The patron rather glibly states “I don’t fight cripples” and without a moment of hesitation, to the point where it’s hard to discern if the patron even managed to finish his sentence, Christy uses his left foot to violently kick the patron’s glass from his hand and in doing so instantly begins a full scale bar brawl. This scene surmises the character of Christy Brown in many ways, never afraid to speak his mind, never considering his disability a hindrance, but perhaps in many respects an advantage, and most importantly not taking any crap from anyone. The patron might not fight “cripples”, but this “cripple” is sure as hell going to fight you.

My Left Foot is a true story which follows real life Irish painter and poet Christy Brown and his family. Told in flashback, beginning with Christy arriving as the guest of honour at a fundraiser and then rewinding many years to Christy birth, troubled childhood, painful adolescence and difficult transition into an artist. It is a biography picture, one which catalogues a life full of meaningful trials and tribulations and strength in the face of adversity.

For those familiar with the film but who have never seen it, it is easy to marginalise this a mere performance piece, that if it were not the extraordinary work and acting ability of Day-Lewis then this film wouldn’t be remembered. A similar argument could be made for last years PT Anderson film There Will be Blood, but in both cases the assertion is incorrect. It is true, Day-Lewis’ performances in both films probably represent the highest aspirations of actors and performers across the globe (although his critics assert that his acting style is exaggerated and over the top – and they’re not without a case). The part of Christy Brown would be in many respects the most challenging of Day-Lewis’ career to date and the one which solidified his reputation as one of the worlds greatest actors. But if we look beyond this performance we find a cast of superb supporting characters, Brenda Fricker as Christy’s mother Mrs. Brown who brings an understated tenderness and truly maternal spirit to the role, always watching out for Christies best interests at the expense of her health and her wallet at times, or Ray McAnally as his father Mr. Brown, the petulant somewhat irresponsible drinker who stoically stands by his disabled son, when Christy is born a local drinker comments to Mr. Brown that “his breeding days are over now”, Mr. Brown responds by head butting the drinker, such violent outbursts although never witnessed by Christy are later repeated by him as he grows older, despite being one of many Brown sons, he is in many ways the one who resembles Mr. Brown the most. Mr. Brown loves his children but never allows himself to truly connect to any of them. Such a part would have been very easy to villianise, but My Left Foot is unwilling to take such easy routes towards its conflict. An excellent scene in the second act shows Mr. Brown organising Christy’s brothers to help build Christy a separate room to work on his art in, Mrs. Brown rather astutely points out to Christy that this action is the closest he’ll ever get to hearing his father tell him that he loves him. Mrs Brown contrasts this emotional distance by being unconditionally devoted to Christy, the only one who knows what he’s capable of, the only one who truly understands him both before and after his ability to speak improves through speech therapy. There is indeed a wider sense of familial love in My Left Foot which is rarely captured on film without resorting to mawkish sentimentality, the Browns are a typically large Catholic family, and Christy is one of thirteen survived children out of the twenty-two born altogether, a more clichéd depiction of this scenario would see Christy abandoned by his family as the burden becomes too great for them, but this never happens in My Left Foot, instead Christy faces the more realistic challenge of finding romantic love, which is ultimately what this film is all about.

Through his life Christy falls in love or at least becomes deeply infatuated with a number of women, none of whom return his affections. One young girl kisses him on the cheek and says he’s the best of the lot when they play spin the bottle. Despite her kind remark she is uninterested in him as a lover as becomes painfully apparent when she returns a painting he’s done for her with his titular left foot, the only limb he has full control over. Later, Christy falls for his speech therapist, a development which fills Mrs. Brown with trepidation as she makes the case that too much hope can be a bad thing and worries about how Christy will recover from a broken heart if it doesn’t work out. A stand out scene is during dinner at a restaurant, Christy confesses his love to her, she says she loves him too, but Christy knows that she only means platonic love, he screams “fuck Plato!” and begins to berate her for her lack of emotional understanding. Heartbreak is something we all suffer from at one time or another, but Christy seems to have more than his fair share.

Jim Sheridan the films director deserves much credit for his balanced approach to the subject matter of disability. It’s an area which film makers frequently mishandle, an area which is in fact easy to mishandle. From the days of the deformed Bond villains, where disability was looked upon as something which would embitter men and turn them into monsters in more ways than one, to the more vomit inducing likes of Forest Gump, where the disability is regarded as an obstacle that the character can over come if he puts his mind to it and really really really tries to run without the leg braces, they’ll just fall off and he’ll be perfectly fine! Isn’t that lovely! Such patronising bilge is not welcome in the world of My Left Foot, and thankfully so. What most disabled viewers find irritating in films centred around disabled characters is what has been described as the pity-fest. Over egging the script with “woo is me” moments can be just as offensive. This is the one area My Left Foot comes dangerously close to, although Christy rarely feels too sorry for himself, he is continually frustrated by the hand life has dealt him and acts out very aggressively, sometimes head butting tables to indicate his deep seated dissatisfaction with a situation. Members of the disabled community took offence with Day-Lewis, an able bodied actor, playing the part, saying that the role should have gone to an actor with cerebral palsy instead. This is a grey area, on the one hand we can see that Alec Guinness playing an Indian professor in David Lean’s final film A Passage to India in 1984 was at the least mis-judged and at worst down right offensive - but where does this end? Surely an Indian actor would have been better suited for the role, but does that mean that English actors should no longer play Americans and vice versa, crossing races is unacceptable but crossing nationalities isn’t? Should only disabled people play disabled characters? Should only lawyer’s play lawyers, police officers play police officers? I think the case of Christy Brown is somewhere in the middle of this debate, and whether you think the decision to cast and able bodied person in the part was ethically dubious or not you can not deny the power of Day Lewis’ performance. Not only does he accurately portray a man with cerebral palsy but also does a flawless Irish accent to boot. But often we forget another charmed performance in this film when we praise Day-Lewis to the realms of acting God, and that is the other performance of Christy Brown from that of child actor Hugh O’Conor who portrays our struggling artist in his youth. Given the age of the performer, O’Conor does an exceptional job and holds his own against the legend of Day-Lewis, something that not many adult actors can do, the likes of Leonardo Dicaprio, Cameron Diaz, Madeline Stowie, and many others have been swallowed up by Day-Lewis’ on screen gravitas, so extra praise should go to O’Conor for not being over shadowed.

My Left Foot is a wonderful film and a truly overlooked gem in cinema; it is touching, funny, emotional, challenging, and filled with beautifully realised character moments throughout. It never descends to the level of heart string tugging, and refuses to ever cheapen it’s protagonist by either canonising or villianising him for his disability but rather presents us with a man who like everyone at one time or another struggles to find romantic love in this world.

M.Dawson