Temple Grandin movie- See It!

Since February I have been recording a LOT of series from Sky Atlantic. Trouble is, when I record things, I let them stack up, so the time between airing and viewing is quite a while. The upside: when there is nothing on, and I want a breather from The West Wing, there is this huge stack of shows waiting on the box to be viewed. Last night I responded to such a cry and watched a new HBO movie: Temple Grandin.

It was excellent! And inspiring! Until last night I didn't know who Temple Grandin was. Today, I want to know more. Claire Danes is amazing in the role of Temple, an autistic woman who through the love and determination of her mother and family went to school and college, getting her PhD in Animal Science (having already graduated in Psychology), before designing livestock handling facilities in the US, as well as Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. And to think she didn't speak one word until she was four. She saw the world visually, through pictures, and was taught by her mother that she was 'different but not less'. This was all during the 1960s and 1970s, where she also had to overcome the prejudice of being a woman in an industry run by men.

The film is both amazing and funny (like all good drama should be) and gets my 'don't miss it' seal of approval. The pace never lags, and it really will make you think, as it tries to show you how it feels to be in her shoes through  heightened sounds and presenting ideas of how she viewed the world through great editing and clever shots.

One of the things a science teacher told her was to think of things as an opening door, so whenever something new confronted her, this is what she would visualize and then go through it, however way she could, even if she was unsure and scared. It also reminds us that there are more than one way of viewing things, and one way of learning. She is a spokesperson for Autism and has written many books on the subject (for more info on Temple, check out her website). In 2010 she was in Time Magazine's top 100 list of influential people.

In the movie at her graduation, where she was the speaker, she ended her speech by singing a song from Carousel, showing that show tunes can also inspire, and it rolls on from my last post.