Two films that have a certain moral edge on what we value in people.
Charly (1968, Cinerama Releasing, dir. Ralph Nelson, written by Daniel Keyes, adapted from his novella “Flowers for Algernon”, PG, about 100 min) is a well-known and well-liked film that depicts a mentally retarded man Charly Gordon (Cliff Robertson) who gets the chance to become smart through surgery, finds out that intelligence is a double-edged sword, but then has to deal with losing it. The story has very clear beats or turning points and rooting interest. I remember seeing this film in 1968 just after a harrowing time in Army Basic Training! (By the way, the last film that I saw, in downtown Richmond, the night before my journey to Basic Training was Valley of the Dolls!) It has been shown in special education classes in school systems. But yet, in a modern perspective, the story seems manipulative and designed to exploit, with sentimentality and platitudes, what is an enormous social issue now. For some reason, I did not see this film come up on Netflix as available on DVD yet. (There are several other unrelated films with this name or with the name “Charley” on imdb.com.)
Forrest Gump (1994, Paramount, dir. Robert Zemeckis) presents a much subtler and funnier treatment or fable of the differently abled (than “Charly”). It won Best Picture in 1994, and is pretty much accepted as a classic. Tom Hanks plays Forrest, to whom “Life is a box of chocolates,” for whom running is relief and energy release, and who finds it funny to get shot in the but-tocks once in Nam. He saves someone, who will come back as a maimed veteran (Gary Sinese) to start a fishing business. Maybe the funniest scenes are the meetings with Presidents Johnson and Kennedy (when he says, “I gotta pee,” in black-and-white, and Kennedy echos him like a Unix script). You really can root for this character without feeling patronizing, and the screenplay walks you through it.