Warm Springs (film)
| Warm Springs | |
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| Distributed by | HBO |
| Directed by | Joseph Sargent |
| Produced by | Chrisann Verges |
| Written by | Margaret Nagle |
| Starring | Kenneth Branagh Cynthia Nixon Kathy Bates Tim Blake Nelson Jane Alexander David Paymer |
| Music by | Bruce Broughton |
| Cinematography | Robbie Greenberg |
| Editing by | Michael Brown |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Release date | April 30, 2005 |
| Running time | 121 minutes |
Warm Springs is a 2005 television film about American President Franklin D. Roosevelt's struggle with polio, his discovery of the Warm Springs, Georgia spa resort and his work to turn it into a center for the aid of polio victims, and his resumption of his political career. Roosevelt's emotional growth as he interacts with other disabled people at Warm Springs prepares him for the challenges he will face as president during the Great Depression.
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[edit] Cast
Actress Jane Alexander who plays Sara Delano Roosevelt, FDR's mother; also played Eleanor Roosevelt in the acclaimed 1976 telefilm Eleanor and Franklin and its 1977 sequel Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years. Many of the bit part actors in the film are actually physically challenged, though Branagh and several other of the principal actors are not. The withered look on Branagh's legs was achieved through the use of CGI.
[edit] Production
The film was produced by HBO Films and directed by Joseph Sargent. The majority of the film was made at Warm Springs, Georgia and its surrounding locations. The producers strove to make sure that many of the physical details were as authentic as possible. For example, Kenneth Branagh, as Roosevelt, is seen driving the very same specially-equipped automobile that FDR was taught to drive at Warm Springs. The cottage that Roosevelt stays in during the film is one of the cottages that the real FDR stayed in. And the swimming pool in which the patients swim in is the actual therapeutic swimming pool at Warm Springs, refurbished specifically for the film.
[edit] Reception
The film was nearly unanimously praised by the critics, and won five Emmy Awards out of an astounding sixteen nominations, including Outstanding Made-for-Television Movie, Best Supporting Actress in a Made-For-Television Movie (Jane Alexander), and Best Original Score (Bruce Broughton). Joseph Sargent, who was also Emmy-nominated for his direction, did not win. He did, however, receive a Directors Guild of America award for Warm Springs. Screenwriter Margaret Nagle won a Writers Guild of America Award for her script. The film was also nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, but did not receive any.
[edit] Historical basis
A peer-reviewed study in 2003 determined it was more likely Roosevelt's paralytic illness was actually caused by Guillain-Barré syndrome, not polio.[1] Many people, however, still hold to the idea that it was polio. In either case, the film is accurate in that Roosevelt and everyone around him believed that his symptoms were caused by polio, which was endemic in the U.S. at the time.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Goldman AS, Schmalstieg EJ, Freeman DH, Goldman DA, Schmalstieg FC (2003). "What was the cause of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's paralytic illness?" (PDF). Journal of medical biography 11 (4): 232–40. PMID 14562158. http://www.rsmpress.co.uk/jmb_2003_v11_p232-240.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
[edit] External links
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- English-language films
- 2005 television films
- 2000s drama films
- American television films
- HBO original films
- Emmy Award winning programs
- Poliomyelitis
- Films set in Georgia (U.S. state)
- Films directed by Joseph Sargent
- Films about Presidents of the United States
- Biographical films
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Films about infectious diseases
