11/21/25 - Friday Video Share: My Left Foot (7/10) Movie CLIP - Platonic Love (1989) HD

My Left Foot (7/10) Movie CLIP - Platonic Love (1989) HD

Movieclips - September 30, 2011

Watching this me cringe now.

"My Left Foot" came out in 1989, the year I graduated from college. For a long time it was my favorite disability movie. Here is why, as best I can remember:

• The film directly addressed what I saw as a studiously ignored issue – what young disabled people like me at the time were supposed to do about love and sexuality.
• It centered on a disabled character who moved and talked weirdly, but was really intelligent and funny, and to at least some extent, was recognized for it.
• It accurately depicted how a disabled person can be praised both sincerely and condescendingly at the same time.
• It seemed like the movie might teach people important, empowering things about the nuanced realities of life with disabilities.

On the other hand, from my current, 2025 perspective ...

• This scene in particular reinforces at least as many ableist stereotypes as it shatters.
• The message in this clip may be grimly satisfying from a young disabled man's perspective. But, it's embarrassingly close to "Incel" territory when viewed today.
• Seeing Christy Brown manhandled this way is hard to watch. He kind of deserves it. But physically he's so clearly disadvantaged that he loses agency entirely, and only because of his disability.
• It's less like a fistfight between two men over a woman and more like a misbehaving toddler being sent to his room.
• And of course, there's the mortifying mimicry of a non-disabled actor playing Cerebral Palsy like it's an exotic personality disorder.

Because the film really did mean something to me once, I can't hate it, even now. But I don't love or admire it anymore. It's part of a very specific category of popular culture – truly positive and transformative depictions of disability that served a valuable purpose in the '80s or '90s, but now seem embarrassing or just plain bad.

What disability films and TV shows did you like once, but now find cringe, or worse? Email your comments to: apulrang@icloud.com.

Have a fantastic weekend!

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