![]() ![]() ![]() Brown," she says, "you know that smoking is not good for you." "I didn't ask for a f - psychological lecture," he replies. Trying to get her out of the way for a second, he asks her for a light for his cigarette. But a hired nurse is watching him with a gimlet eye. He has a pint of whiskey hidden in his jacket pocket, with a straw to allow him to sip it. He is backstage in the library of a great British country home where he is soon to be brought out to be given an award. Perhaps concerned that we will mistake "My Left Foot" for one of those pious TV docudramas, the movie begins in the middle of one of Christy's typical manipulations. Like many geniuses, he was not an easy man to live with, and the movie makes that clear in its brilliant opening scene. Tiny and twisted, bearded and unkempt, he managed, despite his late start, to grow into a poet, a novelist, a painter and a lyrical chronicler of his own life. Jim Sheridan's "My Left Foot" is the story of Christy's life, based on his autobiography and on the memories of those who knew him. ![]() ![]() He belongs on the same list with Helen Keller, and yet it is hard to imagine Christy being good company for the saintly Miss Keller, since he was not a saint himself but a ribald, boozing, wickedly gifted Irishman who simply happened to be handicapped. The story of Christy Brown is one of the great stories of human courage and determination. ![]()
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