Films involving Limb & Spinal Conditions

Limb & Spinal Conditions: Major Films no photo.

Title	First Steps (1985) (TV Film)
Alternative/Original Title
Disability	Limb wheelchair
Country	USA
Length	100
Genre	Drama
Rating	2
Director	Sheldon Larry
Cast	Judd Hirsch Amy Steel Kim Darby Frances Lee McCain John Pankow James B. Sikking
Notes	After a car accident a teenage girl is paralysed. A bioengineer seeks to help her walk again using electric stimulation. The film is basically painting by numbers, most of the right buttons are pressed, and there's the appearance of reality. But this is sanitised stuff. Though her spine is broken she is perfect is every other way. Her face immediately after the crash is unmarked even though we can infer it would be otherwise. The film has parallel stories, one of her struggles, the other of the scientist's work. The finale is of her walking, with electronic stimulation, to receive her high school diploma. What was wrong with her using her wheelchair, what's so great about standing up in the way it is represented here? Of course there is an important film to be made about this technique. British TV did a good programme on a woman learning to walk by this method. But what she achieved was limited to standing at the bar of a pub. It's a technique for the future in which paraplegics are the guinea pigs and which one day will be wonderful. But for now is the dedication of so much time by the disabled person to raise themselves from sitting to standing and then nothing further worth it? It also confines the person to being a patient and not developing their life.

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