By Mike Clemens
Fact-based movies often send powerful, broadly applicable messages if you’re paying attention to key phrases from screenwriters. The biographical movie “Temple Grandin” tells how a person with autism was raised and became an expert in her field. Growing up she was “different, not less,” a message her protective, homemaker-mother conveyed with emphasis more than once.
Being different isn’t much fun growing up. Many think that being different is being less. Some children and even some of legal age think that being different is somehow suspect and can make you pay for being different. The more I think about how often people are assessed by their appearances and other superficial factors, the more the phrase “different, not less” hits home. That concept applies to many other aspects of life. That broader message is sometimes echoed either in other words or scenes from other biographical movies that indirectly tell the same story.
Did you know that one of the world’s first heart surgeons began his medical career as a janitor?
While obviously giving away the key plot, the 2004 movie “Something the Lord Made” tells the fact-based story of Vivien Thomas, (1910-1985), a Black man who began life in the legally segregated segment of U.S. history. To emphasize a cinematic point, while walking to his life-changing job interview, Thomas had to move off the sidewalk when white folks headed toward him and his friend. Not once, but twice, Black men had to move over to let white folks use the sidewalk.
Only a few minutes later into this film, the actor playing Dr. Alfred Blalock (1899-1964) emphasized the equality-oriented nature of his relationship with Thomas. The doctor had just profanely chewed out Thomas for not doing something, but then realized that the mistake was his own. Blalock then pursued his newly hired assistant (who just quit) outside to that very same sidewalk, begged him to come back to work and then apologized for his outburst. The collegial but complicated nature of their long-term professional relationship is another unmistakable cinematic and societal message.
After they both moved to Baltimore and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Thomas wasn’t allowed to enter through the front door. Years passed. Things changed. Before he retired, Thomas received an honorary doctorate and more importantly had his own portrait hanging on the wall just inside the front door where he had once been denied admission. Now, beside all the white doctors who have their images hanging in honor of their medical contributions, his Black image is now honored, too, because of his ground-breaking surgical brilliance.
The 2017 popular movie, “Hidden Figures,” struck a responsive chord at a time when racial issues occupy center stage. The book’s author, Margot Lee Shetterly, had a movie deal even before she had finished her 2016 book, “Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race.” How such accomplishments could have been kept from broader public view baffles many. The author’s husband could not believe that he had not previously heard of the amazing women in his wife’s book. Stories of other worthwhile accomplishments have gone untold for far too long.
In the movie version of “Hidden Figures,” Katherine Goble’s role amid an all-male, white engineering group transitioned. At first, they wanted her to use her own “Colored” coffee pot. At the end of the movie, Katherine G. Johnson was brought a cup of coffee handed to her by the section supervisor. Cinematic contrasts communicate. Little things can carry big messages.
One assassinated civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), voiced a dream. In 1963 he hoped his children (and others) would be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin. Sometimes dreams do come true, one story at a time.
Even the best movies rarely tell the whole, unvarnished truth. Hollywood versions granted dramatic license differ from documentaries. Some DVDs include commentary that discusses such differences. Online resources and books allow research to follow-up nuances not covered and events made-up or synthesized for impact. Inspirational movies can become appetizers for viewers who want to know more of our complex, multi-cultural, U.S. history.
• Mike Clemens is a former statewide budget analyst. He resides in Juneau. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.
