FILMS… Children of a Lesser God (1986)

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See me, feel me, touch me, heal me…

 

The new hearing speech teacher at a kid’s school for the deaf falls in love with a deaf fellow employee, who chooses only to sign and never to talk.

 

Children of a Lesser God (1986) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers, Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers

 

The screenplay for Children of a Lesser God (1986) shares an unwritten theme with Milos Forman’s Oscar winning movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). Both screenplays indicate that deafness in the former, and mental health in the latter are hidden conditions, in that is they are not outwardly visible to others.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed in a real functioning mental health hospital. At this hospital doctor’s insistence the film “inpatient” cast included a number of the hospital’s current mental health inpatients. The fact that mental health is a hidden condition, is also implied in this movie as on a first watch and if you do not know the cast, as you can’t tell who is who as you meet the inpatients and the “normal” acting cast.

You may ponder perhaps this is the reason that so many  – now well known –  acting faces such as Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd – are seen in their debut film roles. Perhaps these casting choices were done deliberately to highlight that anyone can have a mental health problem.

The film, Children of a Lesser God (1986), was made 10 years later. It was set in a school for the hearing impaired. The storyline, was apparently partly based on a real life marriage, between a deaf actress, Phyllis Frelich and her hearing husband, Robert Steinberg. In the bigger sense it’s an examination on how we as individuals can live with each other, no matter what our differences are be they big or small.

The play illustrates this theme with the film plot telling about a bourgeoning romantic relationship between a hearing and non-hearing and speaking employee at a school for the deaf. The Washington Times article HERE tells that the film’s casting agent cast many young deaf acting talents as the teenage children (pupils) in this movie.

The leading lady playing Sarah in this film, Marlee Maltin is also deaf in real life. This casting preference was at the insistence of Mark Medoff, the co-writer of this movie’s screenplay, and the sole writer of the original Broadway play. Marlee has since praised him by signing HERE in the Las Cruces Sun News,

“He paved the way for thousands of deaf actors in this industry, not just myself,” she signed. “I can tell you if it were not for Mark Medoff, most of us would not be here doing what we love to do.”

It was also recommended that a strong hearing actor play her hearing love interest, James Leeds. In the film, the multi Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role nominated William Hurt took on this role winning a further similar nomination for this movie. In an interview with Allison Gompf, a deaf actress who played one of the pupils at the school, she praised William Hurt – in the same Washington Times article – signing through an interpreter,

“I love Bill Hurt — what a sense of humor. He’s affectionate. He’s very easy to work with. I learned from him about being humble.”

Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff’s film screenplay found its origins as the latter’s play was first shown in Los Angeles in 1979. After moving to Broadway in 1980, it won a Tony Award for Best Play. It was later recast and returned to Broadway five years ago. Marlee Maltin, in her debut role won a Best Actress in a Leading Role Academy Award for her performance in the movie.

All the Broadway play cast leading actresses are also hearing impaired, and this fact gives an instant authenticity, empathy and credibility to their acting performances. The first of these actresses to play this role, was Phyllis Frelich who had originally inspired Medoff to write this play. He wrote this play after seeing her perform and then promised to write a play for her. The film also was nominated for three further Academy Award Nominations for Best Writing, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Piper Laurie who played Sarah’s mother.

The film starts with a scene of a young woman, Sarah Norman (Marlee Maltin) sleeping soundly through a heavy storm which batters down outside her open window. This indirectly appears to indicate that deafness is a hidden condition. Without knowing the plot, on first appearances this theme is reflected on as you might just think of her as a deep sleeper, as she sleeps on throughout the storm at it’s noisiest which overrides the romantic musical soundtrack.

However, after seeing the next scenes, there is a marked contrast in the reactions to the audible soundtrack. A man, James Leeds (William Hurt) is then travelling to his first day at work by ferry. If you are a hearing person you can identify immediately that he is a hearing person. Within the soundtrack, you hear and see him enjoy the then more dominant noises of the crashing of waves, and the squawking of seagulls. Later you see him listening – and interacting with – to classical music.

We discover he is James Leeds, the new speech teacher at a Kittridge Island school. In his meeting with the school head, Dr Curtis Franklin (Philip Bosco) we learn that James is a bit of a maverick teacher and has work experience as a DJ where he used American sign language. He has also worked at many of the best schools for the deaf.

James then meets his small 11th grade class, and we see him as unconventional, as almost immediately he falls of his chair to get their attention. Then after finding out who can lipread by telling them they can leave the class and two get up to leave, he engages them all. Two of the kids choose not to talk with him, despite his gentle encouragement.

He asks his class about why they want to talk, with one of the boys saying to chat up girls. James sets up a role play between two girls and two boys. Shortly after this task, he does a handstand. This handstand he stresses is to reinforce the importance of speech if your hands are busy and can’t use (American) sign language (ASL). He’s immediately a hit with the kids, and his unconventional teaching skills get the attention of his colleagues.

Within his class there are pupils with a wide range of speaking skills, and he responds to their abilities individually. He assists a young girl, Lydia (Allison Gompf) in a 1-1 lesson to speak phonetically by getting her to sing a word, Boomerang. This word repeats within the song of the same name and they dance along to it with him leading her. She responds positively to this lesson, despite the later opposition from the Doctor.

At lunchtime, James sees a woman (Sarah) passionately fighting with the cook using ASL and he is fascinated by her. His class are keen to sit with him for lunch, but then he’s prompted to join the staff rather than the kids. He learns that Sarah is not highly thought of by the staff and she’s the school cleaner. Franklin tells her she used to be a pupil at the school, since the age of 5. He learns that she chooses to only use sign language not speech.

After James organises a meeting with her alone, she’s defensive and feisty and he repeats her words before answering verbally, while signing his reply. He invites her to dinner, and she accepts. During dinner he asks about her, and is accepting and interested in her silent world. He asks how she dances as some music is played. As she demonstrates how she dances to those “vibrations” through using her nose, he watches her. Then he asks her to dance, and they slow dance together, signing as they talk while they dance. He offers to help her talk, and she refuses this and gets him to promise he will never force her to do this.

He takes her home and discovers that she lives alone, apparently estranged from her hearing mother (Piper Laurie). One night after school, he finds her swimming nude in the school swimming pool. He tells her his romantic thoughts about her. Then he adds that he is falling… and seeing her visible pain in her face, he tells her he’s falling in the pool.

They then kiss passionately and make love… as he finds out the truth of her fears of being intimate from her mother (Piper Laurie). She tells James that she was abused by some hearing teens as a young woman. Franklin tells James is told to finish his relationship with Sarah. James tells him, that he loves Sarah. He then adds impulsively that two employees dating shouldn’t be a problem, as Sarah is moving in with him. Then James tells Sarah she’s moving in with him, and has no longer got a job…

This film has a storyline that will tug your emotions. There are heart warming scenes such as one where you see his many of his 11th graders in a song and dance routine, seen at a school concert with James gently encouraging his class. However this routine, harms his relationship with Sarah, who feels he hates her for not talking to him. This is despite the fact these kids are the only the ones who chose to talk within his class. There is also a ongoing storyline with one kid choosing only to learn expletives which he uses with James, and these are therefore said to him in more endearing and light hearted banter and shows their rapport.

After taking Sarah to a poker night at Franklins, his friends make derogatory comments about how as a deaf person who signs she may cheat by using “secret signs” between them. They also congratulate him on her winning skills in this game. Although these comments are not picked up on by James in the script, this is a scene that many individuals with impairments or disabilities may identify with.

It is implied that James uses music as a way to relax and he claims he stopped this after dating her. However in the film, this is resolved, as Sarah then asks him how this music makes him feel as he did once with her. He uses non verbal gestures and this scene showing their strengths as a couple and rapport. This is in a meaningful way that they both can appreciate and identify with. He then listens to music, and she smokes both showing their own ways of being them.

It’s been argued that only actors and actresses with a specific diagnosis or sensory related condition should play deaf roles because of their personal insights and understanding of this condition. It’s like saying that only 5ft Glaswegian actresses who have lived in Finland should only play me in my biopic. But acting is putting yourself into another person’s shoes, through an empathetic performance and illuminated by an understanding of that person. I do feel strongly there is definitely a need for doctors, health care workers and clients with a diagnosis – hidden or visible – should observe and guide acting cast members and to read screenplays pertaining to their diagnosis.

Children of a Lesser God is argued to be told predominately from a hearing perceptive. This at it’s most telling as with William Hurt, as the leading and hearing man, often repeating what is signed. Using both these communication methods in this film has been criticised, but I feel that this is more for the benefit of the film audience and possibly, the way he works as a speech teacher for the Deaf by reinforcing sounds and phonetics.

In a scene where it seems that James appears to bully Sarah to talk, look at it this way. The scene is from his and a hearing person’s perceptive. James gets frustrated that she won’t talk to him just in the same way your partner / friend won’t accept you do x, y or z. It’s just made more obvious with the hearing and no hearing differences in this screenplay.

This in that yes, he should accept her as she is and her choices, and yes, she may not want to change. And yes, he should love her for who she is… but if he can help her through something that is painful for her, he should help her heal. As it is the when she does talk one line to him, that he feels her pain at the strongest, and he learns her reason for not talking.

Medoff’s play and screenplay advocates for those who are deaf, by seeing things from the hearing view. In that, these scenes we can fully appreciate the positive and negative experiences for this leading female character more fully. In positive scenes, James answers a phone call for Sarah, and they sign together before he responds. In the negative ones, it means we can learn what helps those with non-hearing conditions and what does not, as the screenplay states,

“where we can meet… not in silence… and not in sound”

This underlying message echoes throughout the movie screenplay, can easily be shared with other unseen and seen conditions be they physical, sensory or mental health. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest gives a similar message. In this film, it’s noted that Jack Nicholson’s character is a criminal who chose to reside in a mental health hospital rather than prison and has no clear mental health problem.

As Randall P McMurphy, he takes a group of patients from a mental health hospital out for a fishing trip on a fishing boat. He encourages them to break free from their diagnosis and think of themselves as “fishermen” rather than as a psychotic or neurotic condition. He even introduces the “patients” as doctors to the men they meet at the pier. Immediately any stigma is prevented and they are accepted as “normal” individuals.

Just by recognising James’ and the faults seen in those hearing characters in Children of a Lesser God shows that we are understanding, we are empathising and we are learning from this perceptive towards an individual with a difference.

If this film is from a hearing point of view, there is nothing wrong with that. Perhaps somewhere in this film’s plot, there’s another one to be told and telling Sarah’s story, from how she sees these events. As this pair look to find a mutual place they can both be themselves, in a way that you don’t have to just be totally verbal in, and also where you can be non-verbal too. Be with a look, a touch or returning a sloppy big kiss. It’s called love…

 

Weeper Rating: 😦 😦  😦  😦  😦 😦  😦 /10

Handsqueeze Rating:  🙂  🙂   🙂 🙂  🙂 🙂  /10

Hulk Rating: ‎   0 ‎/10

 

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The Sixth Broadway Blogathon, 2023, No 13

This film was added to Taking Up Room’s The Sixth Broadway Blogathon. Other reviews with this cast include William Hurt in The Big Chill, Captain America: Civil War, The Accidental Tourist, AI : Artificial Intelligence and Broadcast News. Philip Bosco in My Best Friends Wedding. Marlee Maltin in Family Guy. Piper Laurie stars in Hotel, Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Carrie and Appointment with Death.

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