View Full Version : Movies about spinal cord injury
Wise Young
12-05-2010, 11:34 AM
I realize that many people here may not have an interest in watching movies about somebody with spinal cord injury, in the same way a doctor may not have interest in watching doctor movies. However, movies represent the lives of people with spinal cord injury to the general public and so I try to watch them when I find them. So, I thought that I would start a topic about movies that feature spinal cord injury. I just came across one that I had never heard of before, call "My Own Love Song", starring Renee Zellweger. Made in 2010, it is a sensitively and beautifully shot movie (available in HD from Netflix) but not highly rated (three stars) by viewers. Zellweger does a good job, in my opinion.
http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70134418&trkid=805148
Bonnette
12-05-2010, 12:30 PM
The Sea Inside with Javier Bardem is my favorite, from 2004. It is the biography of Ramon Sampedro, a quad who fought for the right to die with dignity 30 years after his diving accident. You can read more here (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369702/).
0xSquidy
12-05-2010, 01:22 PM
The Sea Inside with Javier Bardem is my favorite, from 2004. It is the biography of Ramon Sampedro, a quad who fought for the right to die with dignity 30 years after his diving accident. You can read more here (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369702/).
I remember when i went to see this movie for the first time, it was before my injury of course. I recall walking out the theatre thinking man, SCI has to be fucking bad...
While not spinal cord inury, per se, the film does a good job of depicting severe paralysis.
From Wikipedia
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a translation of the French memoir by journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby. It describes what his life is like after suffering a massive stroke that left him with a condition called locked-in syndrome (completely paralyzed, can't talk, just move his eyes to communicate). It also details what his life was like before the stroke.
On December 8, 1995, Bauby, the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, suffered a stroke and lapsed into a coma. He awoke 20 days later, mentally aware of his surroundings but physically paralyzed with the exception of some movement in his head and eyes (one of which had to be sewn up due to an irrigation problem). The entire book was written by Bauby blinking his left eyelid, which took ten months (four hours a day). Using partner assisted scanning, a transcriber repeatedly recited a French language frequency-ordered alphabet (E, S, A, R, I, N, T, U, L, etc.), until Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. The book took about 200,000 blinks to write and an average word took approximately two minutes. The book also chronicles everyday events for a person with locked-in syndrome. These events include playing at the beach with his family, getting a bath, and meeting visitors.
The French edition of the book was published on March 6, 1997. It received excellent reviews, sold the first 25,000 copies on the day of publication, reaching 150,000 in a week. It went on to become a number one bestseller across Europe. Its total sales are now in the millions. Bauby died two days after the book was published, on March 9, 1997, of pneumonia."
Bonnette
12-05-2010, 07:15 PM
I remember when i went to see this movie for the first time, it was before my injury of course. I recall walking out the theatre thinking man, SCI has to be fucking bad...
Right, it doesn't sugar-coat anything. At the same time, it shows the love all around him and how he had to weigh and prioritize the different realities of his life. It doesn't get any easier to watch, but every time it's on cable, I'm there.
Here is a list of movies and books about spinal cord injury that was compiled by the Christopher Reeve Foundation:
www.christopherreeve.org/atf/cf/.../SCI%20Videos%207-08.PDF
I was quite surprised to see how many there are.
All the best,
GJ
leschinsky
12-05-2010, 07:43 PM
Coming Home (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077362/) inroduced me to SCI. It made an impression on me, it stayed with me for awhile. Soonafter came my own SCI.
ChesBay
12-05-2010, 10:39 PM
"Coming Home inroduced me to SCI. It made an impression on me, it stayed with me for awhile. Soonafter came my own SCI.
"Coming Home", was out the summer I got injured and I went to see it the first weekend home from Rehab. As you say Lesch it stayed with me and was a good starter for SCI life in terms of movies. John Voight and Jane Fonda seemed to be handling the "SCI thing" OK.
BRASWELLF5
12-05-2010, 10:51 PM
Coming Home (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077362/) inroduced me to SCI. It made an impression on me, it stayed with me for awhile. Soonafter came my own SCI.
Not from a movie, but my first intro to SCI was Christopher R. doing an interview while he was in a halo. This was before my accident and I was at the gym at the time. I remember putting my hand in front of my face and making a fist several times all while thinking how can anything ever stop me from doing this. I am ashamed to say that I never thought about SCI again until 2 years later when I was hurt.
0xSquidy
12-05-2010, 10:51 PM
Right, it doesn't sugar-coat anything. At the same time, it shows the love all around him and how he had to weigh and prioritize the different realities of his life. It doesn't get any easier to watch, but every time it's on cable, I'm there.
But don't punish yourself...
Bonnette
12-05-2010, 11:35 PM
But don't punish yourself...
Good point! :)
I've only seen two. the one with the lady skiing off the mountain in the late 70's and the one with John Ritter. It was filmed on a farm I worked at once. saw them before sci.
My395
12-06-2010, 12:35 AM
I've only seen two. the one with the lady skiing off the mountain in the late 70's and the one with John Ritter. It was filmed on a farm I worked at once. saw them before sci.
The movie with the skiing injury is "The Other Side of the Mountain". It was about Jill Kinmont, who still lives in the same small town. Which happens to be the same small town that I now live in. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073496/.
Coming Home is one of my favorite movies of all time.
the one with John ritter, He was a Harness racer, and raced pacers.
crazy, I just found this by accident.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9QiS6nw1DM
SCI-Nurse
12-06-2010, 02:05 AM
We have had several previous threads like this...
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?t=125359
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?t=124721
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?t=97680
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?t=40096
Just a few to mention:
The Men
The Other Side of the Mountain (Parts 1 and 2)
Coming Home
Whose Life is it Anyway?
The Waterdance
Passion Fish
Born on the 4th of July
Good Luck
The Sea Inside
Rory O'Shea Was Here
The Switch
Avatar
Documentaries
Murderball
Outside
Survivors
Films about SCI that I hate:
Breaking Waves
Million Dollar Baby
The Bone Collector
Also, you can find quite a list here: www.disabilityfilms.co.uk
While The Diving Bell & the Butterfly was about severe disability, it was NOT about SCI. The man in this story had a pontine stroke (locked-in syndrome).
(KLD)
semajh7
12-06-2010, 03:46 AM
Dr. Young, I am so glad you started this thread. My ultimate goal as a filmmaker is to direct a movie that shows the masses the plight of people dealing with spinal cord injuries. If I am able to gain traction with my current project, my next project will highlight our travails(pain, agony, depression, lost love, pressure sores, uti's, BMs, etc...) I do believe the big man upstairs will afford me the opportunity to do so, and who knows...maybe it will increase awareness of SCi's that will cause people to be more willing to donate to help find a cure.
While The Diving Bell & the Butterfly was about severe disability, it was NOT about SCI. The man in this story had a pontine stroke (locked-in syndrome).(KLD)
I believe I stated that clearly in the first sentence of my post.
Locked-in syndrome is characterized by complete paralysis of voluntary muscles in all parts of the body except for those that control eye movement. The physical impact on the body is that of severe paralysis and thus there are many parallels with challenges that are faced by people with extreme upper level spinal cord lesions.
All the best,
GJ
titanium4motion
12-06-2010, 03:24 PM
Title: Harm's way [videorecording] / American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons ; [produced by] ACCESS, Inc. ; producer, director, screenwriter, Barry Corbet.
Abstract: Interviews young persons whose lives have been irrevocably changed by head or spinal cord injuries as they talk about the circumstances of their injuries and current life experiences. Designed to increase young adult awareness of personal vulnerability to injury or accident.
Length: 18 minutes
http://search.library.utoronto.ca/UTL/index?N=0&Nr=p_catalog_code:6105904&showDetail=first (http://search1.library.utoronto.ca/UTL/index?N=0&Nr=p_catalog_code:6105904&showDetail=first)
I still have a VHS copy of this video that a group of nurses, therapists and I used when we went to schools about spinal cord injuries for ThinkFirst program.
Ti
credit: University of Toronto Libraries
I realize that many people here may not have an interest in watching movies about somebody with spinal cord injury, in the same way a doctor may not have interest in watching doctor movies. However, movies represent the lives of people with spinal cord injury to the general public and so I try to watch them when I find them. So, I thought that I would start a topic about movies that feature spinal cord injury. I just came across one that I had never heard of before, call "My Own Love Song", starring Renee Zellweger. Made in 2010, it is a sensitively and beautifully shot movie (available in HD from Netflix) but not highly rated (three stars) by viewers. Zellweger does a good job, in my opinion.
http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70134418&trkid=805148
just watched this via netflix streaming. thx wise :) prob not highly rated by viewers cause obly 1 thing blew up ;) i liked it, enjoyed the music and didn't know renee could sing.
Soliloquy
12-11-2010, 04:39 PM
I just watched My Own Love Song via Netflix and was appalled to discover there were no subtitles or captions on the disk. I have (fortunately mild) hearing problems and was barely able to follow the movie.
It seems the studios are removing all special features (http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2010/12/studios-crippling-netflix-rental-discs-to-encourage-dvd-sales.html)--including captions--from the disks they send Netflix, in hopes of forcing more DVD sales. Special features I can do without, but removing captions? That should be illegal. The studio shouldn't be doing that, and Netflix shouldn't be giving tacit approval by buying and distributing those disks. I'm breaking out the pitchforks and torches; who's with me?
they really didn't address sci. didn't show how she got on bus, bathroom issues...things like that. i mean, i couldn't just take off on a bus like that. but...still liked the movie. there's a name for this genre...but, course i forget it, nouveau vague or something like that.
soli, you couldn't get subtitles?? on a disc? i watched it streaming. all my netflix discs have had subtitle options.
Soliloquy
12-12-2010, 01:51 AM
soli, you couldn't get subtitles?? on a disc? i watched it streaming. all my netflix discs have had subtitle options.
Yep, on a disk! Netflix has been telling the hearing impaired to get their movies on disk to avoid the lack of captions or subtitles on their instant downloads, now this. I was upset enough to call customer service and complain, and the representative told me that nearly 45 percent of their complaints are about lack of captioning.
I had to laugh at the one brief shot of the little wooden ramp at one of the motels they stayed at; I drove all around Cooperstown looking for an accessible motel two years ago (after the place I had made reservations turned out to have stairs after all). Finally their Chamber of Commerce told me one motel would put out a portable ramp for me. It was really two planks and a couple of bricks, leading to a room two stairs and a big three-inch bump above the sidewalk... with a wheelchair symbol on the door. :banghead:
SCI-Nurse
12-17-2010, 06:58 PM
I just ran across this documentary, which you can view on-line (requires Quicktime):
Not Just Walking (http://www.escip.org/escip.org/Projects.html)
I am trying to get it on DVD for my unit.
(KLD)
Murderball
I know it is old but to me it is inspiring
Being I love athletic stuff this movie is one of my favs
NW-Will
01-07-2011, 05:44 AM
The Crocodiles
I just ran into this on public tv, it was awesome.
The kid in the wheel chair was great, and was portrayed in an excellent light.
If you have a youngster in a chair this will be fun for them to watch.
He builds rocket boosters into his chair to give him that extra boost.
His friends help him pee.
He negotiates some stairs with a handrail.
He gets thrown out of his chair and he has to get back in unassisted.
Plenty of wheeling and dealing with awkward terrain.
They tell you he's a T11.
Oh it's shot in Germany and the version I just watched was with sub-titles.
The award-winning German dramatic comedy The Crocodiles sets a fast-paced, rough-and-tumble tone from its opening moments.
A boy named Kai, a newcomer to town who uses a wheelchair, wants to join the cool kids, who call themselves the Crocodiles. The Crocodiles aren’t sure if Kai will fit into their life of adventure, but before long he’s able to help them in their crime-busting and in learning about life and friendship. In German with English subtitles. (98 mins., 35mm)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0803100/
Hi Jody I remember that movie with John Ritter but I forgot the Name
Originally Posted by jody http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?p=1292213#post1292213)
I've only seen two. the one with the lady skiing off the mountain in the late 70's and the one with John Ritter. It was filmed on a farm I worked at once. saw them before sci.
wow I never knew you used to work there
Amazing
you rock
Curt Leatherbee
01-11-2011, 12:54 AM
[QUOTE=GL;1306043]Hi Jody I remember that movie with John Ritter but I forgot the Name
Originally Posted by jody http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?p=1292213#post1292213)
I've only seen two. the one with the lady skiing off the mountain in the late 70's and the one with John Ritter. It was filmed on a farm I worked at once. saw them before sci.
wow I never knew you used to work there
Amazing
you rock[/QUOTE
The name of that movie is "Leave yesterday behind"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077841/
Scott C4/5
09-29-2011, 09:29 PM
My favorite is The Waterdance. I saw it on HBO in 1993 but you cannot find it anywhere online unless you shell out major major bucks. Fortunately, I taped it on VHS way back when and my dad used his dvd/dvr to put it on a dvd. The picture quality isn't real good due to being VHS and then converted, but if you are interested, I might could make copies. Email me or PM me anytime.
stephen212
09-29-2011, 09:43 PM
My favorite is The Waterdance. I saw it on HBO in 1993 but you cannot find it anywhere online unless you shell out major major bucks. Fortunately, I taped it on VHS way back when and my dad used his dvd/dvr to put it on a dvd. The picture quality isn't real good due to being VHS and then converted, but if you are interested, I might could make copies. Email me or PM me anytime.
Fuck, I saw this one in the theater back in '92 and was already into my 10th year. I remember feeling that it captured my reality at the time very convincingly.
rory oshea was here, (inside im dancing)
great movie.
leschinsky
09-30-2011, 10:50 PM
Fuck, I saw this one in the theater back in '92 and was already into my 10th year. I remember feeling that it captured my reality at the time very convincingly.
I remember not wanting to see it then, but I still have yet to see it.
LizZenU
10-01-2011, 12:25 AM
FIXED trailer, a documentary that opens up the topic of human augmentation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARfi7w9_KQE
soon to be released...I appreciate your diverse comments.
wtf recommended passion fish?? HAD TO BE AB. i am so pissed at the bs in this move: great helper, take things away for your good, bf comes along....blaH BLAH. when somebody works in my house, NOT their job to judge me or refuse to give me things. BULLSHIT.
i'd never recommend this to sci. only to ab's who want to think this is how we live. WHAT BULLSHIT. i recant. i wouldn't recommend this to anybody, esp AB's who think they know better. this movie really PISSES ME OFF.
geez, 30 min left. don't think i can stomach it.
bubbagump
10-03-2011, 04:33 AM
My favorite movie about SCI is an inspirational movie called "Goal". Its about a man, who's from a devoted Christian family, who is in an accident and has an SCI. After getting irritated abotu being in a wheelchair, he looks into a sport, and discoveres how much he likes Quad Rugby.
Its a very good movie. I bought it on Amazon.com 3 years ago.
Another movie I like based on SCI is Murderball with Mark Zupan. Makes me wish I was a quad, so I could play that cool sport.:cooldude:
Uncle Peter
10-03-2011, 11:58 AM
A friend of mine saw "Coming Home" in 1978, then crashed his motorcycle and suffered a T-4 SCI a day or two later.
I believe Malcolm McDowell ("Clockwork Orange") was a paraplegic in a British film called "Long Ago Tomorrow."
Wills77
11-05-2011, 10:05 AM
theres a newer comedy move called "the ex"
jason bateman plays a paraplegic... very funny
Craig80
11-05-2011, 12:25 PM
An old school movie from 1950 "The Men", and more recently "The Fall."
mcwhlman
12-03-2011, 08:17 PM
I like silver bulletalso another movie is extreme measures.
Finbar
01-12-2012, 08:34 PM
Hello,
I.m new to this forum business and apparently misplaced my post on the one SCI movie every CC member should see and discuss- Christopher Reeves version of Hitchcocks Rear Window 1998. I put it in as Rear Window-a message from CR. Perhaps everyone is familiar with it but I,ve been following Care Cure for 10 years and can't recall a single reference to it -but maybe that's because I,m a neo-luddite just getting used to cyberspace. I would appreciate someone, perhaps a moderator, checking it out and letting me know what I did wrong.
Scott C4/5
01-12-2012, 11:38 PM
Here is your post about Rear Window
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?t=175498
I was going to comment on it but its been a long time since I've seen it. If I get a chance to watch it again, I'll try and remember to comment on it.
My favorite SCI related movie is The Water Dance.
I hate watching people who can't ride a horse play roles that require riding a horse. Couldn't they budget in 2-3 $50.00 riding lessons?
I saw a film recently were a person with a hurt leg was using the crutch on the wrong side. looked very foolish.
I imagine it is just plain silly when a real Dr see's the pretend ones make stupid mistakes.
ancientgimp
01-17-2012, 08:55 AM
I hate watching people who can't ride a horse play roles that require riding a horse. Couldn't they budget in 2-3 $50.00 riding lessons?
I saw a film recently were a person with a hurt leg was using the crutch on the wrong side. looked very foolish.
I imagine it is just plain silly when a real Dr see's the pretend ones make stupid mistakes.
I personally hate it when they show someone fishing and they are holding the reel upside down or hauling in an obviously dead fish.