Temple Grandin

I'm a parent of a child with high-functioning autism, and while my child's condition isn't nearly as severe as Ms. Grandin's, I was touched and awed by the portrayal in the film on a deeply personal level and as a fan of film.

Not once during the entire film was I able to sit back and say, unequivocally, that's Claire Danes on the screen. Not once, because that was not Claire Danes - it was Temple Grandin, or at the very least what we saw on the screen was %99.999 the character brought to life with an unbelievably immersive portrayal of Ms. Grandin by Ms. Danes.

I've seen those looks, those pensive stares filled with wonder and awe and fear but on a level so completely foreign to those of us who do not have autism. There were moments in this film I was looking right into my child's eyes through that screen.

Ms. Danes is an extraordinary talent, and while I've watched many of her films with interest, I will make it a point to see those I have not yet seen, and will watch with renewed interest and intensity those I have already seen.

Wow...seriously, that's about all I can say about her performance - Wow.

This was a great biopic. The lovely and multi-talented Claire Danes did fantastic work playing an autistic person. I have not seen or met Dr. Temple Grandin in real life, though I have known autistic people in my life and there was never a moment in "Temple Grandin," that wasn't believable.

Addressing the whole "reinforcing the stereotype," situation that constantly come about after films like, "Rain Man," I do not believe the films reinforce stereotypes. It is the mistake of the viewer to make general assumptions based on a single incident.

Temple Grandin shows more about someone with a psychological condition than just having the ability to persistently have a big heart as in "Radio," or "I Am Sam," (important to say that those characters were not autistic)even though they served their own purposes.

Autism is a different way of experiencing the world, but the individuals who are autistic are individuals as any one else. It would be ignorant to say that they are all savants or have special abilities, but if they are immersed in an environment that suits an autistic person's needs and way of thinking, then they can grow, thrive or fail as any other individual in society. As far as the movie illustrates to us, in Temple Grandin's life, she needed to be taught self-reliance, self-awareness, and have her potential recognized and cultivated as well as patient, loving, and understanding emotional support.

Temple Grandin's story explains this all quite well I think. Of course there is an entire spectrum of intelligence levels among autistic people, as there is with people without predisposed psychological conditions, it would be ignorant and cynical to assume otherwise. Temple Grandin is a genius, who happens to be autistic. Fantastic movie.

On DVD, a Netflix rental.

The story jumps around a bit in time but it is never done arbitrarily, and is always easy to follow. It spans from the mid 1950s to the late 1970s.

Claire Danes is Temple Grandin, born with autism at a time when autism was not yet understood. An indication was telling the mother that the 4-year-old girl should be institutionalized, ostensibly for the rest of her life, because there was no "cure." This movie, and Temple Grandin's life, shows that there is no cure, but it also shows how that cannot hold back a person with the correct motivation.

I've always liked Claire Danes, as a pleasant actress in lightweight roles, but her performance here caught me completely off guard. The biggest compliment I can give is that very quickly I wasn't watching Danes portray Grandin, I was watching Grandin. I have seen many, many great performances in my 50+ years of enjoying movies and none were better than hers here.

Julia Ormond is her mother Eustacia and Catherine O'Hara is her Aunt Ann, where Temple first was exposed to life on a farm while visiting her for the summer before college.

Temple had difficulty but managed high school, and then also college. She was unusually bright, but not in the usual sense. She could not just listen to a subject, she had to visualize it, experience it, and when she did was able to master it like few could. In college her great motivator was David Strathairn as Dr. Carlock, a science teacher. Not only did he stand up for her when others wanted to dismiss her as too difficult, he taught her that when she sees a door (a barrier) she should look it as a door of opportunity. She kept that vision as she encountered barriers, and she encountered them often.

Temple Grandin was both practical and empathetic. One of her specialties became livestock, cattle. She knew they had a purpose, to be killed for our food, but she set out to improve the handling of cattle so as to keep them calm and minimize their suffering. It is estimated that 50% of the cattle handled in North America today are done so by techniques she pioneered and worked to have implemented. Today she is a professor.

A superb movie of a really inspiring woman.

March 2018 update: I watched it again now, it was just as absorbing as it was when I first watched it.

That this production is near onto perfect can readily be documented by the votes cast. That it touches intimately on subjects so personal and universal through a story documenting a case of autism can only be appreciated by viewing it. It is an amazing effort on the part of so many persons bringing this story forward so vividly. Maybe Temple was lucky that doors were not kept out of her reach at times of incredible change; maybe her gifts would not have been realized had she not been strong enough to open the doors herself or been strong enough allow others to help. But luck has nothing to do with the quality of this vision shared. This production is something to which all should aspire.

I saw a documentary on Temple Grandin that I found very inspirational. I had hoped that this film would bring about the same feelings and, thankfully, it did not disappoint. Claire Danes hit a home run with this one; I was really impressed with her portrayal. She went smoothly through the extremes of emotion that Temple felt: terror to delight, anger to pride. The sometimes halting, awkward way that Temple speaks combined with the often too-loud volume must have been difficult for her to mimic. But Danes managed to do it very convincingly. The director, Mick Jackson, should also be proud of what he's accomplished. The addition of the moving cattle diagrams and the distorted sounds really gave the viewer an idea of how Temple's mind works. This is my favorite HBO film since "Something the Lord Made" and I hope it gets the recognition it well deserves.