Staying inside, drinking hot tea and watching movies is one of my favorite ways to spend a dreary afternoon. One of the cable channels today is doing a Johnny Depp Spotlight, showing his movies back to back. While I like a lot of his movies Benny & Joon is one of my favorites. It’s getting rather old now, filmed in 1993. If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s about a brother and sister who live together. Benny is perhaps in his early thirties and Joon is easily 10-15 yrs younger. Her brother has been taking care of Joon since both their parents died in a car accident. In the film, Joon has a mental illness. Throughout the movie, Joon’s doctor and a couple of his friends try to convince Benny to let June live in a group home. The doctor points out that a move would allow Joon to live among her peers. The friends point out that with Joon living on her own Benny can have a life for himself. In response Benny simply states “she already has a home”.
In a rather odd poker game, Benny and Joon “win” a young man named Sam. Sam is near Joon’s age and comes to live with Benny and Joon. Seeing as Joon has ran off the last housekeeper, Benny is happy to have someone who can stay with Joon while he’s at work. Probably not Benny’s best idea as we watch a romance blossom right under his nose. Joon and Sam fall in love. As you would expect, Benny is rather upset about this outcome until something bad happens and Benny and Sam have to work together for the best interest of the girl they both love. It’s actually a cute movie on many levels. I kind of like how disability and family issues are portrayed. I’m not sure the portrayal of mental illness is totally accurate as it seems she takes her medicine on an as needed basis and that stress alone brings about her episodes of hearing voices and acting out. I have to say, however, the the family issues and the independent living issue is laid out nicely. Joon struggles with being able to assert herself appropriately and struggles with finding ways to express herself and her independence. Benny struggles with finding a way to protect his sister, care for her and her disability all while allowing her to grow into a woman. You can tell he wants wants what’s best for her but he doesn’t like the idea of her living outside of his home, even when it means him making personal sacrifices.
"I kind of like how disability and family issues are portrayed"
The Joon and Sam storyline shows how an individual with a disability, who also has an over protective brother, can have difficulties dating. It does a great job of pointing out that disability or not, people want the same things: a bit of independence, someone to love them and a sense of belonging. Sam offers Joon these things but does not totally understand her disability. This directly impacts the something bad that happens later. At the end Benny and Sam have to work together to make sure that Joon gets the things out of life that she wants. Finally asking Joon what she wants, Benny and Joon’s doctor discover that Joon would prefer her own apartment instead of a group home or Benny’s house. With help from her brother, Sam and a local friend the end implies that Joon was able to accomplish independent living. In rehabilitation we would say she was able to take advantage of “natural supports” to reach her goals. In this case, she was able to live in a least restrictive environment taking advantage of the support that would happen naturally instead of having her life in a group home.
I hope my explanation doesn’t ruin the movie for you and that you find it and watch it for yourself. Hollywood has an interesting take on disabilities in movies so it’s well worth watching a good movie on the topic. Some other movies make disability seem like the great motivator to people without disabilities. The person is portrayed as some sort of hero for supposedly overcoming a disability and going on to do great things. Other movies portray disability as some awful thing that only death can aid them in overcoming. I’m not sure which of these is worse. The one where you use a person’s disability to point out how others should be grateful that they don’t have a disability or the ones where the person with a disability is aided in an untimely death because Hollywood producers can’t image how a person with a disability could possibly live a productive life. Okay, death probably trumps everything but I don’t like either portrayal. Neither shows a person just trying to live their life, or falling in love, or coming of age, or doing great things just because.
Another way Hollywood portrays disability is by making the person with the disability be the villain or just generally a nasty person. From the banker in It’s a Wonderful Life to the cheerleader with Down Syndrome on Glee who carries out Sue’s dirty work. There was even a sitcom that didn’t last very long with a school age kid in wheelchair who picked on everyone during recess. He was essentially the school bully. While people with disabilities can be mean and nasty as well as anyone else it bothers me when that’s the image we see the most implying they are ALWAYS mean and nasty. I think it bothers me because other characters get to be multidimensional or well rounded while people with disabilities are unidimensional, only being mean and nasty. I’m most happy when the person has many different dimensions, such as a sister, an employee, a girlfriend, perhaps a villain but a villain with a full back story at least. What examples of disability have you seen in movies and television shows? How do you think the image of disability in the media affects how people with disabilities are treated in real life?