I haven't seen too much about the movie Blindness, but I thought I'd pass along a link to this statement from Justice For All blog:
Tens of Thousands of Blind Americans Object to the Movie ‘Blindness’
WASHINGTON,
Sept. 29, 2008 -- Residents of an unnamed city suddenly and
mysteriously go blind in the movie “Blindness,” scheduled for release
on Friday, Oct. 3. The dehumanizing, animalistic way that blind people
are portrayed in this movie has blind people across the United States
angry. Some are even organizing picket lines and waging protests at
theaters where the movie is being shown.
“The movie ‘Blindness’ is a demeaning depiction of people's
reactions to losing their eyesight," stated Mitch Pomerantz, president
of the American Council of the Blind. 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."
In the movie, fearing that the blindness is contagious, the
government quarantines the victims in an abandoned, dilapidated mental
asylum, with orders that anyone attempting to leave is to be killed
immediately. The prisoners are supposed to be given food and supplies,
but food deliveries are inadequate and increasingly become irregular.
The asylum becomes filthy because the blind inmates, as portrayed in
the movie, cannot find their way to the bathroom and simply relieve
themselves on the floor or in their own beds. Some of the inmates die
from infection, disease, or from gunshot wounds when they try to escape.
The blind are portrayed as being unable to do anything for
themselves. As food supplies diminish, one group of blind inmates,
whose leader has acquired a gun and proclaims himself "the king of Ward
Three," begins to terrorize the others. The armed clique in ward three
hordes all the food, extorting money and valuables from the other
inmates and eventually demanding sex with the women from other wards in
exchange for allowing the rest of the inmates to eat. One of the women
is beaten to death as she is raped.
One of the members of this clique, who was born blind and is not a
victim of the “white sickness,” knows how to read and write braille and
is given the task of taking inventory of the valuables stolen from the
other inmates. Rather than helping the other inmates adjust to their
blindness, he uses his knowledge of how to function as a blind person
to assist the criminal gang.
The rest of the inmates finally decide they have nothing to lose and
do battle with the gang in ward three. During the fight, someone sets
fire to a pile of bedding; the fire soon engulfs the entire asylum.
When the surviving inmates escape the burning asylum, they discover
that no soldiers are standing guard and they are free. Outside the
makeshift prison, everyone has gone blind and the city has descended
into total chaos; no government services or businesses are functioning,
and nomadic groups of mostly naked blind people wander through the
streets, squatting in abandoned houses and shops for shelter and taking
food where they can find it --including in rubbish heaps. There is no
electricity or running water, so the streets and buildings of the city
are as filthy as the asylum was. Gradually, people begin to regain
their sight just as suddenly and mysteriously as they went blind.
From this description, it is quite obvious why blind people would be
outraged over this movie. Blind people do not behave like uncivilized,
animalized creatures. Admittedly, blindness can be a frightening
experience to those who lose their eyesight. However, there is an
enormous amount of assistance that is available to newly blinded
people. There are support groups around the country, such as the more
than 70 affiliates and chapters of the American Council of the Blind.
There are also all kinds of assistive devices, equipment, and aids
specifically designed and produced to assist blind people with their
daily living such as computers that talk, braille and talking watches
and other time pieces, kitchen aids like the talking microwave, devices
that can detect and tell the blind user the color of his/her clothes,
and thousands of digitally recorded audio books, and much more.
Most blind people lead normal lives, just like everyone else. The
only difference is that they simply cannot see. But their other senses
work just fine, and they learn to replace the lack of eyesight with the
keen use of their other senses.
The American Council of the Blind is a national membership
organization. Its members are blind, visually impaired, and fully
sighted individuals who are concerned about the dignity and well-being
of blind people throughout the nation. Formed in 1961, ACB is one of
the largest organizations of blind people in the world, with more than
70 state and special-interest affiliates and a nationwide network of
chapters and members spanning the globe.
For more information about the American Council of the Blind,
contact Melanie Brunson, Executive Director, American Council of the
Blind, 1155 15th St. NW, Suite 1004, Washington, DC 20005; phone (202)
467-5081 or toll-free 1-800-424-8666; or visit the web site,
www.acb.org.
There is also a FAQ detailing how the movie portrays blindness and why the portrayal is problematic. Here's one question and answer (among many):
Q: What is wrong with the way blind people are portrayed in the film?
A:
Blindness falsely depicts blind people as incapable of almost
everything. Even accepting that most of the characters are newly blind
and thus have not learned certain skills needed to function effectively
as a blind person, their complete and utter incompetence is simply not
credible to anyone who has had even casual contact with actual blind
people. The blind people in the film are unable to dress or bathe
themselves; they usually go about naked or nearly naked and relieve
themselves on the floor or in their own beds. The doctor’s wife is
shown helping him dress by holding his pants so that he can step into
them, and he comments at one point that she even has to clean him after
he has defecated.
In reality, even newly blinded individuals do not experience this
level of incapacity; they do not forget how to dress, wash, or use the
toilet. The blind people in the movie are portrayed as perpetually
disoriented and having no sense of direction or ability to remember the
route from one place to another. However, blind people regularly travel
independently using white canes or guide dogs. The blind people who are
not completely helpless in the novel and movie are depraved monsters,
withholding food from the others in exchange for money, jewelry, and
sex. One of the worst of these criminals is a man who was born blind
and has adapted to his blindness, yet he sides with the criminal gang
of ward three, participating in brutal rapes and attempting to kill
inmates from the other wards. Thus, all of the blind people in the film
are portrayed either as helpless invalids or degenerate criminals. The
movie suggests that blindness completely alters the human personality,
resulting either in total incapacity or villainous evil.
The movie also makes it clear that blindness is cause for complete
and irreversible despair; one blind man comments, “I’d rather die than
stay like this.” Blind people, in fact, do live happy lives once they
have learned to accept their blindness and adjust to it. The movie also
suggests that the blind must always defer to the sighted; when the
doctor’s wife leaves him outside a supermarket so she can attempt to
find food, he says, “I know my place.” The dignity, worth, and
individuality of blind people is constantly denigrated in this way
throughout the movie.
The National Federation of the Blind objects to this portrayal of
the blind because it simply isn’t accurate. Blind people are a
cross-section of society who happen to share the physical
characteristic of being unable to see. The blind are employed in almost
every profession imaginable, have homes and families, raise children,
do volunteer work in their communities, and generally lead normal,
productive lives. To the extent this is not the case, the problem is
not blindness itself, but rather the misconceptions and stereotypes
that society holds about blindness and blind people. This film will
further those myths and misconceptions and deepen public prejudice
against the blind. Most members of the public do not know a blind
person and may therefore assume that this portrayal of blindness is
accurate and true. It is not, and the falsehoods in this film will
damage the prospects for equal opportunity, productivity, dignity, and
happiness for blind people throughout the world.
As a person of a writerly bent myself, I tend to think that people have the right to make any art they want and make any statements they want in it. But I also think that it's very important that when an artist does get reality wildly wrong (whether because she's ignorant herself or because she doesn't care because her story's better told if the world works differently), people know going in that what they're seeing is unrealistic.
Hearing about this movie, it does seem like it will be presented in a dreamlike/nightmarish way, but I don't know that that's enough. A lot of people who don't have disabilities -- or who have one disability but not another -- find themselves terrified of disability. This movie and book, in fact, seem like that's what they're about: how horrible it would be to go blind. But the makers of this piece either don't know or are conveniently ignoring that this isn't what would happen at all... and people who see this who don't know how capable blind and visually impaired people are (my boss is blind and a lawyer) are going to see this and think "No one can find a bathroom without the help of his retina." Really?
If it were blatantly obvious how unrealistic that is I'd be more comfortable. But, well, even people who know it's not quite realistic may have fears and prejudices that this plays to, and I don't like that.
But I don't feel as strongly as I did about Tropic Thunder about this. TT has implications: what's it OK to joke about? This is a horror movie, or a creepy drama at least, and that plays on fears. And sighted people do fear blindness, for a host of reasons some of which are all about prejudice and some of which are probably understandable anyway. I'm sure I'd be frightened if I awoke one morning and saw nothing. I use my eyes for a lot.
But how can we talk about that without carrying those messages: blindness means this, this is what blindness is like? I really am not sure.
