Comme des gens normaux

My girlfriend and i watched this movie for the first time the other day and actually laughed at the acting in it. I have never seen such bad acting, i know this was never made to be a Hollywood blockbuster but "Waa-Jah" was just a joke. How did they ever get the budget to make this film? After getting over the initial laughter of the acting we realised that the way the actors were playing these characters was actually quite insulting. There is a very fine line when playing someone with any kind of disability, it is either very good i.e Sean Penn in "I am Sam", or what we have here in this movie which amounts to playing the character more like a playground taunt rather than with any thought or feeling.

Ok, I haven't watched the movie yet; however, I do know Roger and his wife Virginia. They are my neighbors and the nicest people! Roger stopped by my house yesterday to let me know he and Virginia were celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary!

I remember clearly seeing this film on Friday, April 13, 1979. I was trying to finish up the spring semester at college, and originally turned on the TV as background sound. But then it got and held my attention and really sucked me into the storyline and this young couple's fight to be "like normal people". This movie is apparently based on a true story of a mentally challenged couple that fought and won the right to marry. There was a movie with a similar story line that had aired just a few weeks before starring Richard Thomas and Julie Kavner.

The film shows the life of mentally challenged Roger Meyers (Shaun Cassidy) from his infancy up to the point that he marries Virginia (Linda Purl). It shows how the entire family is effected by Roger's handicap and the depression he is thrown into after being accused by a local cop for sending an obscenity-laced letter to a teenage girl, all because Roger sent her a valentine plus the fact that the mentally disabled were often considered sex fiends in those days. It turns out that a "normal" boy from school actually sent the letter.

Roger's mood improves when his parents decide to send him to an institution that believes in normalizing the mentally challenged, not warehousing them. In particular his mood improves because he meets Virginia. Their mutual crush is considered somewhat endearing until it turns to love and they talk of marriage.

What is the worst of the 70's I was talking about? Mainly it has to do with the attitude towards the mentally challenged and sex - that people believed that they are either asexual or over-sexed with no middle ground and that regardless of the cause of the retardation, they must not be allowed to reproduce. (Roger and Virginia did not have congenital retardation).

What was the best of the 70's that I saw here? That middle class people such as Roger's family could effectively deal with Roger and his needs without going broke, that the state actually offered some meaningful financial help to such families back then, and that in 1979 if Roger and Virginia had been of average IQ that they would have been able to marry and live modestly with modest jobs - not shackled with six figures of student debt and a mandatory college education in order to have that same modest lifestyle today.

I knew Roger and Virginia when I was a young girl. Roger volunteered at my school. Although a lot of kids made fun of him, I liked him very much. He was nice, and like another kid to me. My friend and I used to play at Roger and Virginia's house. He had a play room that was any kids dream and they always served Twinkies. I moved away later in life and I think about them every now and then and wonder what became of them. Especially when Lifetime or Oxygen plays the movie. I've told my daughter stories about them when it related to our conversations. She wondered what they looked like, so I told her how the real Roger and Virginia have a cameo in the film. I just did a search to find it for her and was saddened by the comments I just came across. I understand that it is a movie and therefore will receive criticism. But let's not forget that they are real people too. The comment regarding the actors performance was especially insulting towards the couple they portrayed. They actually did a pretty great job. That's how they talk. Virginia really calls him "WahJah". She has speech problems that cause her words to sound a little nasally. They walk funny and they talk funny and they are better people than most. I won't sit here all day and beat you guys over the head. I just wanted you to know that sometimes your comments may hurt people and that in the future if you're commenting on a true story that maybe you could just be more careful with the words you choose.

I enjoy high camp and this is the holy grail of T.V. camp. While this was made to be sensitive tale of two people in love in a time when love for them was not allowed, it is nothing more than a send up of people with disabilities. I laughed out loud when this thing first aired. In fact everyone I knew laughed out loud. The only film I can think of that has more unintentional funny dialog is the English dubbed version of Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster. The enjoyable aspect is you get to see some great location shots in Los Angeles. When was the last time you saw Love's Ribs on Pico? (BTW that was a real lazy location FOX! What was it... Two blocks from the front gate?) There is nothing kind or touching in this film. A contemporary viewer would would laugh non-stop until the bitter predictable preachy end. This is dark comedy at its finest. Come on Zalman King playing someone who cares? No way! It gets a ten in my book for being a constant source of jokes.