Analysis Of The Film My Left Foot

Daniel-Day Lewis portrayed the character, Christy Brown, beautifully in the film, “My Left Foot”, directed by Jim Sheridan. The film focused on the story of Christy Brown, a man born with cerebral palsy, which only allows him to control his left foot and to at first speak in mumbled sounds. Christy was born into a very large and poor Irish family that tries to hide him from the community due to the embarrassment, except for his mother, who sees his true intelligence and potential. As Christy grows older, he begins to complete tasks with his left foot that at first seemed impossible, like writing a word, painting a picture, holding objects, and even kicking the front door to save his mother. A major theme in the film is, “he struggle to overcome extreme obstacles and triumph is a testament to the human spirit”. Even though Christy’s cerebral palsy restricts him from doing selected activities and causes people to view him differently, he eventually finds a way to overcome what he is restricted of accomplishing and makes the most out of what he is capable of.
One of the biggest challenges that Christy had to face was to interact socially with others. Mr. Brown kept young Christy hidden from the insensitive stares and comments made from the people living in the community. People would constantly make rude remarks about Christy while him being present to him them. They would talk about how he was a burden to his mother when blaming him for when she fell down the stairs and that there was no way for him to kick a ball to earn a goal. The audience grows empathy toward Christy as we watch how society underestimates and looks down on him while he is unable to defend or speak up for himself. As the film progresses, Christy grow...

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...abulary when Dr. Elieen Cole started to help Lewis’s character improve in moving and speaking. Dr. Cole specialized in developing therapies to treat patients with cerebral palsy and made a huge impact in Christy’s life by assisting him to reach his full potential with his art. At first, Christy was hesitant about the therapy sessions, but eventually allows Dr. Cole to work with him at home. For an exercise to help Christy speak, he was told to read the Shakespearian play, “Hamlet”. Christy read the famous lines, “to be or not to be”, which means to live or not to live. Christy eventually responded to the quote by taking action and achieving his goal of having his art that was beautifully painted by his left foot displayed in a gallery. Christy’s obstacle was to be able to control his disability, and successfully achieved his goal by working hard with Dr. Cole.