Sightlines · reception

How My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown was received

1989 · Jim Sheridan · My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown on Sightlines

The arc

A small Irish film that stunned the 1990 Oscars — Daniel Day-Lewis beat Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman for Best Actor, and Brenda Fricker won too. Now it's less 'awards drama' than origin myth: the film where the Day-Lewis method legend officially begins.

What’s debated

It's ground zero for the 'able-bodied actor plays disabled, wins Oscar' debate — is this the greatest transformation ever put on film, or the template for every Oscar-bait disability performance since?

Its footprint

The behind-the-scenes lore is more quoted than the film itself: Day-Lewis staying in the wheelchair between takes, being spoon-fed by crew, lifted over camera cables — the stories that made 'Daniel Day-Lewis prepares for a role' a genre of its own.

Where it stands

A canon fixture people file under 'the performance' rather than 'the film' — the first checkbox on any Day-Lewis completist run, and the film that launched Jim Sheridan.

Did you know? Day-Lewis refused to break character as Christy Brown for the entire shoot — he stayed in his wheelchair between takes, so crew members had to lift him over equipment and feed him.

A Deleuzian reading of My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown →