My Left Foot (1989)
"My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown" (original title)

The story of Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy. He learned to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.

Director:

Jim Sheridan

Writers:

Shane Connaughton (screenplay), Jim Sheridan (screenplay),

Stars:

Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Alison Whelan

Won 2 Oscars. Another 23 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Day-Lewis	...	Christy Brown
Brenda Fricker	...	Mrs. Brown
Alison Whelan	...	Sheila
Kirsten Sheridan	...	Sharon
Declan Croghan	...	Tom
Eanna MacLiam	...	Benny
Marie Conmee	...	Sadie
Cyril Cusack	...	Lord Castlewelland
Phelim Drew	...	Brian
Ruth McCabe	...	Mary
Fiona Shaw	...	Dr. Eileen Cole
Ray McAnally	...	Mr. Brown
Pat Laffan	...	Barman (as Patrick Laffan)
Derry Power	...	Customer in Bar
Hugh O'Conor	...	Young Christy Brown

Storyline

Christy Brown is a spastic quadriplegic born to a large, poor Irish family. His mother, Mrs Brown, recognizes the intelligence and humanity in the lad everyone else regards as a vegetable. Eventually, Christy matures into a cantankerous writer who uses his only functional limb, his left foot, to write with.

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Plot Keywords:

foot | christy brown | cerebral palsy | irish | courage | 

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Taglines:

A film about life, laughter, and the occasional miracle.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Ireland UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 November 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

My Left Foot

Filming Locations:

Ardmore Studios, Herbert Road, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

Box Office

Budget:

£600,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$14,743,391 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ferndale Films, Granada Television, Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Miramax spent over 3 times the film production budget on its publicity campaign to get the film noticed for Oscar consideration.

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Goofs

Above his dad's head just after Christy writes "mother", and his dad is saying ,"Jesus."

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Quotes

[writing a suicide note]
Christy Brown: All is nothing, therefore nothing must end.

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Connections

Referenced in NCIS: My Other Left Foot (2004)

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Soundtracks

"Foggy Dew"
(uncredited)
Traditional
Performed by Daniel Day-Lewis

User Reviews

One of the greatest screen performances:

Daniel Day Lewis is one of the best actors of our time and one of my favorites. It is amazing how much he throws himself in each of the characters he plays making them real.

I remember, many years ago, we had a party in our house - the friends came over, we were sitting around the table, eating, drinking the wine, talking, laughing - having a good time. The TV was on - there was a movie which we did not pay much attention to. Then, suddenly, all of us stopped talking and laughing. The glasses did not clink, the forks did not move, the food was getting cold on the plates. We could not take our eyes off the screen where the young crippled man whose entire body was against him and who only had a control over his left foot, picked up a piece of chalk with his foot and for what seemed the eternity tried to write just one word on the floor. When he finished writing that one word, we all knew that we had witnessed not one but three triumphs - the triumph of a human will and spirit, the triumph of the cinema which was able to capture the moment like this on the film, and the triumph of an actor who did not act but who became his character.

Jim Sheridan's "My Left Foot" is an riveting, unsentimental bio-drama about Christy Brown, the man who was born with cerebral palsy in a Dublin slum; who became an artist and a writer and who found a love of his life.

I like every one of Day Lewis's performances (I have mixed feelings about his performance in GONY) but I believe that his greatest role was Christy Brown in "My Left Foot"