Dear eSight member,
The other night I saw "Blindness," the film by
director Fernando Meirelles.
Based on the 1995 novel by Nobel Prize winner Jose
Saramago, "Blindness" imagines a mysterious epidemic
that causes people to see nothing but fuzzy white
light resulting in a collapse of the social order in
an unnamed city.
Julianne Moore stars as the wife of an eye doctor
(Mark Ruffalo) who loses his sight; she feigns
blindness to stay with her husband and eventually
leads a revolt of the quarantined patients.
The book was praised for its use of blindness as a
metaphor for the lack of clear communication and
respect for human dignity in modern society.
But, the movie reinforces inaccurate stereotypes,
including that the blind cannot care for themselves
and are perpetually disoriented, according to the
National Federation of the (NFB) and the American
Council of the Blind (ACB).
Dr. Marc Maurer, NFB President, said:
"Blind people in this film are portrayed as
incompetent, filthy, vicious, and depraved. They are
unable to do even the simplest things like dressing,
bathing, and finding the bathroom.
"The truth is that blind people regularly do all of
the same things that sighted people do. Blind people
are a cross-section of society, and, as such, we
represent the broad range of human capacities and
characteristics. We are not helpless children or
immoral, degenerate monsters; we are teachers,
lawyers, mechanics, plumbers, computer programmers,
and social workers. We go to church, volunteer our
time for worthy causes, raise children, operate
businesses, and engage in recreational activities,
just like everyone else.
"Portraying the blind on movie screens across
America as little better than animals will reinforce
the unfounded fears, misconceptions, and stereotypes
in the general public about blindness. It will
exacerbate the unemployment rate among the blind,
which is already higher than 70 percent because of
public misconceptions about the capabilities of
blind people.
"It will reinforce false public notions that blind
children (can't be educated), that blind adults are
unemployable, and that all blind people are socially
undesirable."
ACB has similar concerns.
"The movie 'Blindness' is a demeaning depiction of
people's reactions to losing their eyesight," stated
Mitch Pomerantz, ACB president.
Dr. Ronald E. Milliman, a blind university professor
and also a member of the ACB, says, "In a very
mythical sense, something like what is being shown
in the movie might have happened hundreds or
thousands of years ago, but certainly not in any
civilized society such as what we have in the United
States today. The movie is at best totally
misleading and, at worst, serves to frighten deeply
those who see it."
Here is eSight member Albert J. Rizzi's reaction:
"It is difficult enough walking into a room or a
public forum and know that others perceive you as
different and that you scare the hell out of them.
But to understand that this film could further that
fear and give others the impression that blindness
could lead to an utter breakdown in our social
system is disturbing to say the least.
"It only makes me angry about how much harder it
will be for me to prove myself as I try to get my
life back to as normal a life as I had before going
blind.
"We can begin together to redefine deeply imbedded
beliefs that have been nurtured and passed on
generation after generation about people with
challenges."
The New York Times says:
"When they stumble into the quarantine ward, these
characters introduce themselves by number, according
to order of arrival, and by profession, evidence
that they have been stripped of their humanity not
by sickness or the state, but rather by Mr. Saramago
and by Don McKellar, the screenwriter...
"...(This film) does not, in the end, give you much
to think about. But there is, nonetheless, a lot
here to see."
My own take on this film is that there not much to see
but a lot to think about. The film doesn't work well
overall because it tries to turn an obscure fable into
a concrete narrative -- a narrative which reinforces
commonly held misconceptions of blindness because the
fable comes alive in our minds through flesh-and-blood
characters on the screen. We identify with those
characters, even if they don't have a name.
The film uses this convenient but unfortunate allegory
to address author's perception of how humans react
when there's a breakdown in the social order. My
impression is that the screen writer, in transferring
the book to film, understands blindness only as a
human condition to fear. That fear serves his purpose,
for, by using fear, he perhaps taps into an emotional
truth about the human condition. But it's at the
expense of realistic details. The details he includes
in the film lack possibility and logic.
The notion that blindness can be contagious is just
one example of the lapses in logic which occur when
Saramago's fable is transferred to the screen.
As a result, this film too easily leads to two
conclusions: that a blind person is less than human
and that a blind person cannot lead or function as a
human being.
The dialogue (and the whole setting) reaffirms what
some people already believe. Here are two examples.
"We need a leader with vision," a nameless, blind
individual says after breaking out of the quarantine.
He's reaffirming the dominance of the sighted Julianne
Moore as she leads a group of his fellow victims, hand
by hand and helplessly, through the streets of the
abandoned city.
"I'm not a man," an again nameless man with an eye
patch suddenly inserts at the end of the film. He's
played by Danny Glover.
This could have been an art house film, if it were
better produced. Instead, it's strangely
sensationalized to appeal to a mass audience and comes
across as low-brow fiction.
As a result, it's likely to quickly be forgotten in
midst of our election and financial crisis because it
hits too close to the vulnerability we all feel right
now. It's a statement of how government reacts to a
crisis, and we again see how government can fail.
Remember the Japanese interment camps during in WWII
or when kids sick with measles were taken away and
separated from their families or what happened to the
residents of New Orleans during Katrina?
Film-goers with visual impairments may not miss
much visually by going to this movie. I found the
cinematography nothing exceptional, lacking color with
stretches of white and black or darkened screen,
leaving much to the imagination like old-time radio.
Perhaps that was the intent, trying to simulate the
common misconceptions of visual impairment.
Glover's character, by the way, occasionally narrates
the film, which makes it accessible.
Whether you choose to go see the movie or not, I
encourage you to use your insight to help turn the
film into a "teachable moment." I believe we can use
the film's current high profile to raise awareness
about visual impairments, especially among employers.
For background, read the eSight article for employers,
"Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Blind
Employees But Were Reluctant to Ask" at
http://www.esight.org/view.cfm?x=565
Raising awareness will benefit not only hiring
managers but also individuals who have had a visual
impairment all their lives as well as the baby boomers
who are currently employed but will perhaps deal with
a visual impairment during the years ahead.
You can make your voice heard right now by replying to
this question on the eSight Networking Forum:
What do you want employers to learn about visual
impairments while the film, "Blindness," is in the
public spotlight?
Submit your "raising awareness" suggestions
at http://www.esight.org/link.cfm?n=1472
See all the "raising awareness" submissions
at http://www.esight.org/link.cfm?n=1471
Invite your friends and acquaintances to submit their
"raising awareness" suggestions in response to the
move, "Blindness," at
http://www.esight.org/link.cfm?n=1473
Jim Hasse
Senior Content Developer
eSight Careers Network
PS: Scott Treeman, a legally blind jazz
pianist/composer/producer, has launched a new web
site where you can listen to his music. Visit it at
http://www.scotttreeman.com
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