Warm Springs

One of the first questions I asked about Warm Springs, HBO's biopic of Franklin D. Roosevelt was how did Kenneth Branagh get his legs to look like a polio victim? If it's makeup it's amazing, and if it's digital photography it's even more amazing. But kudos should also be given to the wonderful Branagh, who as a Brit., transforms himself into the ill-stricken president with consummate ease.

Rather than focus on Roosevelt's political life, Warm Springs chooses instead to deal with his valiant fight to overcome the effects of polio, dealing with his life from 1920 to 1928. It's a valiant and stirring production with an insightful teleplay, a stellar cast, and a superb director that coalesces it all to bring forth a rich and inspirational film.

The year is 1921 and Roosevelt then thirty-nine, attends a summer camp for boy scouts. He washes his face with some contaminated water, contracting polio, a disease that rarely struck adults. It left him with paralyzed legs and little hope for the future. With a small glimmer of hope, he traveled to a rundown resort in rural Georgia for a possible cure from exercise in a pool filled by the warm mineral waters.

There, among the rural poor and other people with crippling disabilities, in what must have seemed like a completely different universe, FDR discovers his own humanity. It is this humanity and his innate sympathy for the common man that helps shape his democratic leanings.

Although the power of the warm springs never rehabilitated Roosevelt, or gave him the "miracle" cure, the positive energy that emanated from the other polio survivors gave the man a new lease on life. He ended up being instrumental in the conversion of Warm Springs from a backwater hellhole to a streamlined, ultra-efficiently managed polio-treatment center, a mecca for hundreds of thousands of others who had been crippled by the debilitating illness.

Kenneth Branagh gives a towering performance as Roosevelt, showing him as a fighter, who hides, dreams and, with the help of a few others, regains the will to be a political leader. More than that, he is convincing as, bit by bit, the inexperienced, self absorbed and somewhat philandering patrician gives way to a man of uncommon passion and heightened sensitivity.

Cynthia Nixon is also good as Eleanor Roosevelt, who broadens her own horizons and conquers her own fears. She proves herself to be a loyal and faithful wife, even when Franklin asks her whether she can really have a happy life with him being so crippled.

The supporting players are also strong with Jane Alexander playing as his over-protective and snobbish mother Sara; David Paymer as his crusty chief aide Louis Howe; Kathy Bates as his no-nonsense physical therapist Helena Mahoney; and Tim Blake Nelson as Tom Loyless, the man in charge of Warm Springs.

Warm Springs embraces the complexity of the situation by simultaneously approaching the story from personal, social, medical, and even political perspectives. And the film cleverly avoids the saccharine and overly sentimental. The intelligent and carefully scripted dialogue is both revealing and thought provoking. The set design is remarkably faithful to the period, and the costumes are beautifully recreated.

Perhaps Warm Springs is most significant for showing us how Roosevelt removed the stigma of polio from the public consciousness, forever abolishing the misguided notions that the disease adversely affected the brain, that it could be spread merely by physical contact, or that it represented some kind of moral punishment for the "sins" of the victim. But this fine film is also significant for showing how one man could beat all the odds and go on to become one of the United States of America's greatest presidents. Mike Leonard September 05.

Sometimes refered to as that charming cripple in the White House, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was many things to many people. He was a strong leader as evidenced by winning the presidency four times, a friendly voice as evidenced by countless radio broadcasts called "fireside chats" but first and foremost, he was a man of great determination as evidenced by the splendid HBO Production, "Warm Springs." Other reviews on this thread credit the wonderful cast and crew of "Warm Springs" so rather then repeat much that's already been said, let me say thanks to HBO for having the courage to produce such a moving and inspirational chapter of our history. F.D.R. was called many things during his life, a socialist, a political opportunist, even a traitor to his class for the federal programs he initiated such as rural electrification, a government insured banking system and social security. Viewing the HBO production "Warm Springs," will help you understand why F.D.R. was also known as a humanist.

WARM SPRINGS is one of the finest films ever produced by HBO and clearly belongs on the theatrical screens. But until that happens the news of the release of the DVD should allow those who missed this phenomenal film to feel greeted with well-earned joy.

Writer Margaret Nagle and Director Joseph Sargent have created an isolated time in the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the inception of his polio at age 39 and the treatment of his impairment at Warm Springs, Georgia, and use this potential tragedy to demonstrate how a man of means and high political aspirations was humbled by a debilitating disease only to find healing and consolation at the hands of 'the common people', a change in his priorities that marked his popular success as a President who inherited the leadership of a country devastated by depression and war.

Kenneth Branagh is superlative as FDR, finding just the right amount of bravado and churlishness and womanizing while continuing to be the man of great potential and a loving husband to Eleanor (a surprisingly terrific Cynthia Nixon). His overbearing mother Sara Delano Roosevelt (Jane Alexander who is still remembered as a perfect 'Eleanor' in the older 'Franklin and Eleanor') tries her best to belittle Eleanor, only to enhance Eleanor's blossoming into the world respected, humanistic First Lady she became.

But much of the action is aptly placed at the healing resort of Warm Springs, a run down hot springs operated by Tom Loyless (Tim Blake Nelson) and the place where Helena Mahoney (Kathy Bates) nursed FDR back to health. The importance of this spot grows through the film and through FDR's life and in the end it is the beneficiary of his estate.

Watching Branagh tumble from political barnstormer to reluctant patient to humanized President is a heartwarming venture. His supporting cast is excellent - Bates, Nixon, Alexander, Nelson as well as David Paymer, Deborah Calloway Duke, Danny Connell, and many others. The direction by Joseph Sargent is one of simplicity, purity of purpose, and highly respectful of his story and his view of history. This is an important film. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, June 05

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