The Problem Body: Projecting Disability in Film

250 Pages·2010·12.376 MB·English

by  Sally Chivers and Nicole Markotić (eds.)

The Problem Body

The Problem Body
Projecting Disability on Film
- EdiTE d By -
Sally Chivers and
Nicole Markotic’
The OhiO STaTe UniverSiTy PreSS / COlUmbUS
Copyright © 2010 by The Ohio State University.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The problem body : projecting disability on film / edited by Sally Chivers and Nicole Markotic´.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8142-1124-3 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8142-9222-8 (cd-rom) 1. People with
disabilities in motion pictures. 2. Human body in motion pictures. 3. Sociology of disability. I.
Chivers, Sally, 1972– II. Markotic´, Nicole.
PN1995.9.H34P76 2010
791.43'6561—dc22
2009052781
This book is available in the following editions:
Cloth (ISBN 978-0-8142-1124-3)
CD-ROM (ISBN 978-0-8142-9222-8)
Cover art: Anna Stave and Steven C. Stewart in It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE!, a film written by
Steven C. Stewart and directed by Crispin Hellion Glover and David Brothers, Copyright Volcanic
Eruptions/CrispinGlover.com, 2007.
Photo by David Brothers.
An earlier version of Johnson Cheu’s essay, “Seeing Blindness On-Screen: The Blind, Female Gaze,”
was previously published as “Seeing Blindness on Screen” in The Journal of Popular Culture 42.3
(Wiley-Blackwell). Used by permission of the publisher.
Michael Davidson’s essay, “Phantom Limbs: Film Noir and the Disabled Body,” was previously
published under the same title in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Volume 9, no. 1/2,
pp. 57–77. Copyright, 2003, Duke University Press. All rights reserved. Used by permission of the
publisher.
Sharon L. Snyder and David T. Mitchell’s essay, “Body Genres: An Anatomy of Disability in Film,”
was previously published in their book Cultural Locations of Disability as chapter 5, “Body Genres
and Disability Sensations: The Challenge of the New Disability Documentary Cinema” (University
of Chicago Press). © 2006 by The University of Chicago. Used by permission of the publisher.
Cover design by Janna Thompson-Chordas
Text design by Jennifer Shoffey Forsythe
Type set in Adobe Palatino.
Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI
Z39.48–1992.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
We dedicate this book to Emma, the pre-eminent Vampire Slayer.
EmmA THE VAmPIRE SLAYER By RIVA LEHRER

l
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction
SALLy CHIVERS AND NICOLE MARkOTIć 1
“The Whole Art of a Wooden Leg”: King Vidor’s Picturization of
Laurence Stallings’s “Great Story”
TIMOTHy BARNARD 23
Phantom Limbs: Film Noir and the Disabled Body
MICHAEL DAVIDSON 43
Seeing Blindness On-Screen: The Blind, Female Gaze
JOHNSON CHEU 67
The Wild Child
DAWNE McCANCE 83
No Life Anyway: Pathologizing Disability on Film
PAUL DARkE 97
“And Death—capital D—shall be no more—semicolon!”:
Explicating the Terminally Ill Body in Margaret Edson’s W;t
HEATH DIEHL 109
viii | Contents
“A Man, with the Same Feelings”: Disability, Humanity, and Heterosexual
Apparatus in Breaking the Waves, Born on the Fourth of July, Breathing
Lessons, and Oasis
EUNJUNG kIM 131
Neoliberal Risks: Million Dollar Baby, Murderball, and Anti-National
Sexual Positions
ROBERT McRUER 159
Body Genres: An Anatomy of Disability in Film
SHARON L. SNyDER AND DAVID T. MITCHELL 179
Coda: “Blinded by the Light,” OR: Where’s the Rest of Me?
ANNE FINGER 207
Filmography 217
Notes on Contributors 221
Index 225
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illustrations
Chapter 1: James Apperson (John Gilbert), amputee veteran. The Big Parade.
Directed by king Vidor. MGM, 1925.
Chapter 2: Opening credits superimposed over the figure of a man with
crutches who moves menacingly toward the audience until his shadowy
form covers the entire screen. Double Indemnity. Directed by Billy Wilder.
Paramount Pictures, 1944.
Chapter 3: Susy (Audrey Hepburn) tries to put out the light. Wait Until Dark.
Directed by Terence young. Warner Bros., 1967.
Chapter 4: Le Dr Jean Itard (François Truffaut) tests the hearing of wild child
Victor (Jean-Pierre Cargol). L’enfant sauvage (The Wild Child). Directed by
François Truffaut. Les Films du Carrosse, 1969. United Artists, 1970.
Chapter 5: ken (Richard Dreyfuss) reacts uncontrollably to the hospital’s
medical treatment. Whose Life Is It Anyway? Directed by John Badham.
MGM Films, 1981.
Chapter 6: Text eclipses the ill body of Vivian Bearing (Emma Thompson).
Wit. By Margaret Edson. Adapted for film by Emma Thompson and Mike
Nichols. Directed by Mike Nichols. Home Box Office Network, 2001.
Chapter 7: Bess (Emily Watson) flees torment from local children. Breaking the
Waves. Directed by Lars von Trier. Zentropa Film Entertainment, 1996.
ix