HBO has a new movie for television debuting this weekend. It is a bio pic of sorts based on the life and memoirs of writer/biologist Temple Grandin.
If you’re not familiar with Grandin, she is an autistic woman who is considered to be one of the nation’s top animal biologists. She credits her exceptional facility for understanding animals’ fears and needs and actions to the perceptual lens her own autistic condition has—for better and for worse— uniquely provided.
Her 2004 book, Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior, was easily my favorite book I read that year.
Terry Gross has interviewed Grandin three different times on Fresh Air (once for the release of each one of Grandin’s books). This past Friday, Fresh Air played a compilation of the interviews to coincide with the launching of the HBO movie.
The movie, which would have been all to simple to wreck, is thankfully reported to be excellent. Mary McNamera at the LA Times said it was:
Utterly and gorgeously unsentimental, “Temple Grandin,” arriving Saturday, clomps across the screen with all the wild-eyed grace of its main character, chronicling the life of a woman who not only overcame a host of physical, mental and social obstacles but actually used her autism to create a career for herself in animal husbandry.
The film stars, of all people, Claire Danes, who in the clips that I have heard, is stunningly good.. The Huffington Post says of Danes:
Finally, she has a found a role where she is beyond great, she is stupendous. Claire Danes is revelatory as Temple Grandin animal behaviorist, best-selling author, autistic and expert in autism. This is a fascinating movie and I learned so much about this woman and about autism. Temple did not speak until she was four and if not for her mother would have probably ended up spending her life in an institution. What a loss that would have been.
I’ve got it TiVOed and plan to watch it tonight.. (It is playing off and on during much of the week.)
But, whether or not you watch the movie, at the very least, if you don’t know about Temple Grandin, do yourself a favor listen to the interview mash-up. Her unique and entirely unsentimental ability to feel into an animal’s perspective tells us a great deal about our fellow creatures and also, frankly, about ourselves.
UPDATE:
I saw the film late last night, and it’s so, so incredibly good. Claire Danes is spectacular. She utterly vanishes into being Grandin.
Please, just see it. You’ll thank me. If you don’t have HBO, wait until it’s on DVD and go for it then. But if you miss it, you’ll be missing out. So don’t.
Ditto for the Saints! I have an autistic cousin in Oklahoma. Chris is nearly 50 now living with my Uncle on the farm. I taped the Temple Grandin movie off HBO last night and will send it to my Uncle Carl. He’s recently widowed and has his hands full with Chris who’s unfortunately not made all the great progress Temple did. His birth and the huge job of raising him caused my Uncle Carl and Aunt Dorothy to move from their vineyard outside San Jose to a small farm 60 miles from OK City. As I said Temple displayed some highly tuned attributes and completely lacked others, but what really caught my attention was her affinity for animals, how she could empathize with what cattle might be experiencing as they were led to slaughter. My cousin shows the same ability to internalize and relate on a higher level with the critters on their farm. My Uncle says it’s a hoot to watch Chris follow him and the animals follow Chris, almost as if their drawn to a gentle spirit. there’s a school of thought within the New Age types that the autistic folks among us are actually a higher level of beings who’ve yet to have their potential realized. I scoffed at the notion when my Sister ran the theory by me, but now after seeing the Temple Grandin movie I’m going to study it a little further. Why not? Life is already too short and knowledge is infinite.
Really good story, and good thoughts, GJ.
I’ve been lucky enough to report on people who have various kinds of mental conditions and disabilities and they taught me that intelligence and talented is a great deal more complex than I’d ever imagined.
Intelligence and/or talent isn’t like a pool that is either shallow or deep. It’s more of a variegated affair with some areas shallow and some very deep indeed.
It’s what Oliver Sacks has expressed so well in his books.
She is indeed an amazing person, with savant talents with animals. Unfortunately, I don’t get HBO, or I would watch it
Johh, I’m sure it’ll eventually be out on DVD. See it then, It’s really worth it—and then some.