Children of a Lesser God began life as a stage play based partially on the life of deaf actress Phyllis Frelich and her hearing husband Robert Steinberg. Playwright Mark Medoff wrote the play with Phyllis in mind for the leading role and it debuted on Broadway in 1980, garnering three Tony Awards including Best Play. The play was successful enough that Medoff teamed up with fellow writer Hester Anderson to pen a screenplay based on the original play. This script would differ in many ways from the stage play but kept the core story, the romance between the two leads, intact. The film version would go on to be nominated for five Academy Awards and lead actress Marlee Matlin, taking over the main role from Phyllis Frelich, would win the Oscar as well as a Golden Globe for her powerful performance as a deaf woman who is afraid to speak.
Marlee Matlin has a fascinating career that spans nearly four decades in front of the camera. She began acting as a child, playing the role of Dorothy in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz at the age of seven, a remarkable feat as she had been legally deaf by the time she was just eighteen months old. It takes a special kind of courage to stand up to a disability and put yourself out in front of people as a performer and she had that courage. She won prizes for her stage performances as she grew older which led to her being discovered by actor Henry Winkler which ultimately landed her the starring role in the theatrical version of Children of a Lesser God.
The film opens with James Leeds (William Hurt), a new teacher arriving at a school for the deaf and hard of hearing somewhere in New England. His classes focus on teaching his students how to speak, something many of them are reluctant to do because their disability causes them to struggle with pronunciation and vocal clarity. With that in mind he helps them gain confidence in themselves and not fear their own voices. James becomes fascinated with Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin), a young deaf woman working as the janitor at the school. She was a top student when she attended classes but has a reputation with the staff for being confrontational and hard to work with. She does, however, get along well with the deaf students. James tries to talk to her, making several attempts to get her to open up, before she finally agrees to go to dinner with him. Despite his best efforts she refuses to even try to speak, sticking strictly to sign language as well as refusing to read lips.
Throughout the course of their relationship he learns about her tumultuous relationship with her mother (Piper Laurie) as well as how she had gotten a reputation for sleeping around and may have been the victim of sexual abuse which has left her with a deep mistrust of men. He promises her he will not try to force her to speak but eventually he will break that promise, driving her away from him and the school. Upset, she returns to live with her mother whom she hasn’t visited in years and the two are finally able to mend their broken relationship.
It cannot be overstated just how difficult it is to convey things accurately without the benefit of speech. The silent film stars managed it through a form of pantomime that was often over-exaggerated to get the point across to multi-national audiences but, while that is an art form in and of itself, it is not an accurate representation of how people act and react in the real world. To accomplish realism without being able to speak is much much harder. Marlee never actually speaks during the entirety of the film but she uses American Sign Language to communicate. Very few audience members would be capable of understanding those gestures by themselves. Yet most of the time the meaning, if not the literal translation, is perfectly clear. And on top of that the emotion behind it comes through, too. William Hurt translates the gestures most of the time but it is often not even necessary. We get the point. Even he cannot interpret all of it word-for-word though as, when she gets upset, she signs so rapidly and emotionally that he cannot keep up with it.
There is a lot going on behind the scenes that we are not entirely privy to with Sarah. We do learn some of it when she tells James about her troubled years with her sister and the unnamed boys who took advantage of her. At some point in her life she decided to shut people out and refuse to learn their way of communicating because so many of them refuse to learn her way. There is a deep seated fear of getting close to anyone that causes her to be self-destructive when anyone gets near her, too. It becomes a sense of frustration between her and James that finally explodes into a heated argument where he finally angers her enough to scream out vocally. It’s the only time in the whole film where we hear her voice and its heart wrenching to see and hear it.
William Hurt also delivers an impressive performance here. He has to act opposite the fiery emotions coming at him from Matlin. While Marlee has to act primarily with her eyes and gestures, like the silent film stars did, he doesn’t have that restriction. But he does have to incorporate sign language into his acting in a way that is not only convincing but also augmenting what he is doing verbally as well as what she is signing to him. William Hurt is one of the best actors of his generation and he makes what he is doing here look easy, like anyone can do it. That is what makes it so great. There is a subtlety to it that belies just how technical and difficult what he is doing actually is. It’s made even more challenging by being paired up with someone as talented and emotional as Marlee.
Rounding out the cast is the always amazing Piper Laurie playing Sarah’s mother. There is a lot of pain between these two women, pain that has been allowed to simmer for years. Marlee has been living close by to her mother without ever reaching out to her. This is a level of emotional pain that is almost unbearable. At first it doesn’t appear obvious just how much there is there when James first pays her a visit. But later, when Sarah finally comes home we can see just how broken these two women really are. They need each other and have kept their distance for far too long. Piper has a mannerism to her character that is subtly different later in the film than at the beginning. You can tell by her countenance that she is happier once Sarah has come home. But there is also an underlying emotion that betrays that her daughter is still struggling with something that she will have to come to terms with if she is ever to find happiness.
The film ends with Sarah and James reconnecting at the school prom. Several of James’ students have opened up as a direct result of his classes, even having staged a song and dance number earlier in the year. Now they are laughing and enjoying themselves at the prom. Sarah and James hash things out and are able to be completely honest with each other about what they are feeling and their various insecurities. It’s a happy ending but it is a qualified one. There is still stuff they will have to get past but at this point in their relationship at least they are both ready to try.
Children of a Lesser God shows us that deaf people are no different than the rest of us. They have insecurities and frustrations and occasionally they argue with people. A handicap is not something that will necessarily hold someone back unless they let it. Both the character of Sarah and the actress who played her are a testament of that. Marlee has never let her being deaf define who she is, but she has also not hidden that aspect about herself, either. It defined her character without being the only thing that defined her. She is a tremendous performer who has managed to have a successful and long term career that is still going strong to this day. She is an inspiration, not just to the deaf community, but to everyone.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Burt Sugarman and Patrick J. Palmer
Best Actor: William Hurt
Best Actress: Marlee Matlin (won)
Best Supporting Actress: Piper Laurie
Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium: Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff
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Release Date: October 3, 1986
Running Time: 114 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: William Hurt, Marlee Matlin, Piper Laurie and Philip Bosco
Directed By: Randa Haines
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