Mobility & Manhood at the Movies
Although Marlon Brando’s 1951 role as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire thrust him into stardom, his first staring role as Ken, a paraplegic World War II veteran , in The Men came a year earlier, and won him considerable critical acclaim. Although this was not the first film made about returning World War II vets with disabilities, it was a powerful one. In spite of a faithful and devoted fiancé, Brando portrays Bud Wilozek as a bitter and withdrawn person who struggles to accept his disability and questions whether he is still a “man.” Jack Webb plays Norm, the cynic, who speaks aloud what the others are to afraid to say. The the film was woven together from actual experiences of paraplegic veterans, shot mostly in the Birmingham Veteran’s Administration Hospital in California, and used 45 disabled vets as actors. Brando lived in the hospital to prepare for the role.
“Normal is normal and cripple is cripple and never the twain shall meet.” Norm, A disabled veteran, in The Men
The return of veterans from Viet Nam brought a new generation of portrayals of disabled vets. Born on the Fourth of July was one of the best, with Tom Cruise playing Ron Kovic who wrote the original book. Although it differed from The Men in many ways, including its openly anti-war perspective and its determination to show other aspects of Kovic and not solely focus on his paralysis, there were some remarkable similarities. One striking similarity is that both Brando’s and Cruise’s are taunted and eventually strike out with a devastating punch from their wheelchairs. The critical principle here seems to be that as long as you can punch people, you are still a real man. This may say a lot more about gender than disability, but it suggests that upon the realization that they are paralyzed and will require a wheelchair for the rest of their lives, most men will put figuring out how they can still punch someone somewhere near the top of the list of matters to be resolved.
Unlike the two previous films, The Waterdance is not about veterans, but it is about men adjusting to spinal cord injury. In my opinion, it is also the best of the three films, and that is saying a lot because the other two are also excellent. The Waterdance is also the most explicit in addressing violence as a prerequisite of manhood. When Raymond and Bloss, two men recently paralyzed from the waist down, are discussing whether to commit suicide, Raymond suggests that it isn’t necessary, “If I was one of those total quads, then.... Man, they can’t even raise their hand. You know, they can’t even slug a man. Even a quad needs to slug a man, sometimes.”
These films tell us something about a powerful and sometimes frightening relationship between gender identity and disability. They tell us something about how many people think. Of course, thinking this way isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Dick Sobsey
Also released under the title Battlestripe
Writer: Carl Foreman
Director: Fred Zinneman
Cast Includes: Marlon Brando, Jack Webb, Everett Sloan, Teresa Wright (Look for Star Trek’s DeForrest Kelly in an uncredited role)
Writer: Ron Kovic
Screenplay: Oliver Stone
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast Includes: Tom Cruise
(Look for Stephen and Daniel Baldwin as well as Oliver Stone in supporting roles)
Writer: Neal Jimenez
Directors: Neal Jimenez & Michael Steinberg
Cast Includes: Eric Stolz, Helen Hunt, William Forsythe, and Wesley Snipes
There may be a special symbolism to the need for “manly violence” in Born on the Fourth of July. As the title implies there are important parallels between Kovic and the good old US of A. Both were born on the Fourth of July, both were badly injured by their experience in Viet Nam, and both had some serious need for post-war readjustment. But was the movie somewhere behind its anti-war sentiment also telling Americans that they needed to reassert their manly identity by demonstrating that the country could still deliver a few good punches.
“You know, they can’t even slug a man. Even a quad needs to slug a man sometimes.” Raymond in The Waterdance
Men in chairs
