Children of a Lesser God (1986)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Randa Haines

Writers:

Mark Medoff (play)
Mark Medoff (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 October 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Love has a language all of its own.

Plot:

James is a new speech teacher at a school for the deaf. He falls for Sarah, a pupil who decided to stay...

Plot Keywords:

School | Teacher | Deaf | School For The Deaf | Fall Into Water

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

William Hurt	...	James Leeds
Marlee Matlin	...	Sarah Norman
Piper Laurie	...	Mrs. Norman
Philip Bosco	...	Dr. Curtis Franklin
Allison Gompf	...	Lydia
John F. Cleary	...	Johnny
Philip Holmes	...	Glen
Georgia Ann Cline	...	Cheryl
William D. Byrd	...	Danny
Frank Carter Jr.	...	Tony
John Limnidis	...	William
Bob Hiltermann	...	Orin
E. Katherine Kerr	...	Mary Lee Ochs
John Basinger	...	Alan Jones
Barry Magnani	...	Tom Schuyler

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | American Sign Language

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Norway:12 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12 | Peru:14 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Beaver Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The sign language used by William Hurt and Marlee Matlin during their personal scenes does not mirror their dialogue - it has do with their relationship off-camera.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: The DVD back lists a main character as "John" Leeds, when the name should be "JAMES" Leeds.

Quotes:

James Leeds: Speak to me!
Sarah Norman: [screams] Here you go! Hear my words! Hear my voice! Ah, you want more than that? I'm gonna scream!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Simpsons: Children of a Lesser Clod (#12.20)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me

What Movies Were Meant To Be

This is one my favorite movies of all time. The quality of the acting leaves me breathless. The scene where Sarah is dancing slowly to a song by the Staples Singers says so much - the tempo is fast and most people were disco dancing or "stepping" to "I'll Take You There." Sarah feels the real underlying slow beat of the music and responds to that. It was a very moving scene.

Piper Laurie as her mother was phenomenol. Her expressions and body language said so much more than her words. You could tell she really loved Sarah and was frustrated that she didn't really understand her. She also had a little bit of the "bury your head in the sand" approach to Sarah's deafness.

Sarah was determined to have the world accept her on HER own terms and simply turned her back on it when it did not. Sarah was intelligent, beautiful and fun. She couldn't understand why people seemed to define and categorize her by her deafness. She was so much more than that and William Hurt's (I don't remember his name in the movie) character was sensitive enough to recognize that. His character was a little condescending and pushy, and I can see where he would get on any girl's nerves because he was not a good listener. He wanted Sarah to be the person he though she should be and justified it under his guise of "helping" her to cope in a hearing world. She was smart enough to figure him out and reject his attempt to mold her.

You could feel Sarah's loneliness in her silent world and you knew that she wanted love, friends and happiness just like the rest of us, but didn't know if she would ever get them.

I really loved the character and the whole movie. It gave us a brief glimpse into a deaf person's world through some extraordinary scenes: Sarah swimming and describing to William Hurt exactly how she imagined waves sounded, and getting it right; Marian Lesser communicating only in sign language at the party which gave William Hurt's character a chance to see things from another perspective. I think he learned that there is more than one standard way to live and enjoy life and being unable to hear isn't the worst thing that could happen to a person.