My Left Foot (film)

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My Left Foot

original movie poster
Directed by Jim Sheridan
Produced by Noel Pearson
Written by Christy Brown (book)
Shane Connaughton
Jim Sheridan
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis
Ray McAnally
Brenda Fricker
Hugh O'Conor
Music by Elmer Bernstein
Distributed by Granada Films (UK) Miramax Films (U.S)
Release date(s) November 10, 1989 (U.S.)
Running time 103 min.
Language English
Budget £600,000 (unadjusted for inflation)[citation needed]
Gross revenue $14,743,391 (domestic) [1]

My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown is a 1989 drama film directed by Jim Sheridan and starring Daniel Day-Lewis. It tells the true story of Christy Brown, an Irishman born with cerebral palsy, who could control only his left foot. Christy Brown grew up in a poor, working class family, and became a writer and artist. The film also stars Ray McAnally, Brenda Fricker, Fiona Shaw, Julie Hale, Alison Whelan, Kirsten Sheridan, Declan Croghan, Eanna MacLiam, Marie Conmee and Cyril Cusack. It was adapted by Shane Connaughton and Jim Sheridan from the book of the same name by Christy Brown.[2]

It won the Academy Award for Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Brenda Fricker). It was also nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

It also won the NYFCC Best Picture Award for 1989.


Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] Awards and nominations

Awards that are in bold were won, while other awards listed are nominations only.

[edit] Cultural references

On the television sketch show In Living Color, Jim Carrey played a Kickboxing expert who could only move his left foot. The sketch was known as My Left Foot of Fury.

An episode of The Critic has Jay Sherman wearing a My Left Foot sock, a promotion item given to him when viewing the film. In another episode dealing with classic movies being updated with "happy endings", Jay states that he "doesnt want the guy from My Left Foot becoming a punter for The Bears".

In the animated T.V. series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, a movie poster promoting a film called "My Left Tentacle" in front of a theater, a reference to the film; is seen as Flap jack leads Captain K'nuckles around the docks during the episode "Lead em' and Weep"[3]

In the 1999 film Flawless Walter Koontz (Robert De Niro) suffers a stroke and is partially disabled. When a drag queen meets him for the first time, she remarks, "You've got a kind of My Left Foot thing going on, huh?" For the rest of the movie, she refers to him as 'Mr. My Left Foot.'

In an episode of Family Guy, there is a flashback joke of Stewie Griffin performing a song and dance routine from a staged musical production of "My Left Foot", wherein Stewie, while seated in a wheelchair, performs an elaborate tap dance with only his left foot.

In an episode of Gilmore Girls Lorelai tells Luke that she was just doing a rendition of Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in My Left Foot and how she did it with her right foot to give a very different effect.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=myleftfoot.htm
  2. ^ The Irish Filmography 1896-1996; Red Mountain Press; 1996. Page 43
  3. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Marvelous_Misadventures_of_Flapjack_episodes

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Jim Sheridan
1980s
My Left Foot (1989)
1990s
The Field (1990) · In the Name of the Father (1993) · The Boxer (1997)
2000s
In America (2002) · Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005) · Brothers (2009)
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