Did anyone else catch this on HBO? I thought it was well acted and written, and i really enjoyed it. It is about an autistic woman and her work for the ethical treatment of livestock and helping people understand autism. Staring Claire Danes. The movie makes an attempt to show how an autistic mind works, and it was a very interesting watch imo.
HBO Site:
http://www.hbo.com/movies?cmpid=s6#/movies/temple-grandin/index.html
I saw it and thoroughly enjoyed it. When I was growing up on the farm, and moving cows around quite a bit, we heard about the new style in cattle management, with the curved and narrowing walkways. We couldn’t afford to build such a thing, but we did do some experimenting with setting up temporary panels more narrowly, and so forth. I had also heard something of her personal “cattle press” from my wife, a special ed teacher. It was kind of fun seeing the history behind these concepts.
Clair Danes did a great job as the title character, and the supporting cast was excellent - particularly her high-school math teacher.
The math teacher was played by David Strathairn, a man whom, if I ruled Hollywood, would be in every single movie made.
I’ve only seen the first hour of the movie, so I cannot comment until I see the rest.
It was OK. Not as good as the hype said it would be. I thought they did an excellent job of making the viewer get at least somewhat of a feel of what it must be like to be autistic.
Yet another movie that should have been allowed a chance to have a theatrical run.
My hope is that digital film projection will eventually allow smaller films like this to have theatrical runs by cutting the costs of prints and shipping. I know I could get HBO, but the cable and satellite companies will not let you cherry-pick HBO or Showtime - you have to get all the “tiers” in between.
Now I have to wait for this to come out on DVD.
I did read a fascinating autobiography by Temple Gradin many years back.
Eh, I suspect the way of the future is that far fewer films will bother with theatrical runs, with most people preferring the convenience of just streaming them to home theaters, except where there’s really something beneficial about the big-screen and fancy soundsystem public theatre experience for a particular film.
I really liked the movie, not only the subject of an autistic individual becoming so successful, but also from a livestock handling perspective. I train sheepdogs, used to trial cow dogs- and I thought the welfare issue was handled very well, sensitively but with a common sense (duh…we do eat cows 
) approach. I was a little worried it would be a little weighed over to the PETA type side of things, but it made it’s very good point without descending into an animal rights sermon.
Claire Danes was amazing, I thought she did a great job. I cried when they screwed up her system with sheet metal and pipe corrals.
NPR’s Talk of the Nation had an interview with Dr. Grandin last week or the week prior. She expressed her approval of the film and Danes’ portrayal, IIRC.
I’ve heard Temple Grandin interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR and thought Claire Danes did a fantastic job! Really enjoyed this film because I’ve really enjoyed learning about the real Temple Grandin.
This film was outstanding and Claire Danes should win an Emmy for her portrayal. It was not just a biography, but a tribute to personal determination, not just of Ms. Grandin, but of her mother and those who saw something other than someone who was different.
My sister’s oldest daughter is mentally handicapped. My sister was told that because of the severity, her daughter would need to be institutionalized for much of her life. To cut to the chase, the girl is now in her late 40s, owns and drives a car, lives independently, and will retire from the federal government, where she has been working for at least 25 years now. She still has panic attacks at time, and can be a handful, but to a casual observer she appears to merely be not too bright and a bit childlike. This public face came at a tremendous emotional and physical cost to my sister and the rest of her family, and continues to require continuous maintenance.
The movie about Temple Grandin gives some hope to all parents of disabled and challenged children. I thought it was amazing and urge you to watch it before it goes off the air.
Don’t worry, it’s HBO. It’s never going off the air.
What Chefguy said. I would have been SO tempted to let Temple stay on her aunt’s ranch and not push/encourage her to go to college. It would have been easier for everyone to let her find her comfort zone and stay there. Would that all parents had that strength. And kids too.
This’d be a great film to show in schools. Temple did her own thing, maybe not by choice but because it was all she knew to do, but she’s a fantastic example of someone who’s different and who persevered. The movie did that without being preachy, without making villains out of people who just didn’t understand, and without talking down to anyone.
Was autism really known at one time as “infantile schizophrenia”? How scary.
I’ve heard her a few times on NPR too, and it was neat to see more of her life. And on a totally shallow note, I love her hair.
I just watched this last night, and I thought it was pretty good. In between sex documentaries and crazy soap operas (I also watching the ending of Big Love last night) HBO slips in some really classy programming.
I love Catherine O’Hara, and Julia Ormond was great as Grandin’s mother.
I need to go look up some of those interviews with Grandin. I remember seeing her on HBO when this movie first came out, but I wasn’t paying attention to it. Can a person really live on yogurt, pudding and jello?
One question about the movie. At one point, she was hired to build a new cattle dip. So she built this thing with curved paths and a gentle slope or steps down which the cattle could walk into the solution. This was demonstrated successfully to a journalist and I think the owner of the cattleyard. But then the next day, someone else who thought little of her ideas disassembled the whole thing and killed multiple animals using a traditional dip. That didn’t make any sense. If the owner saw the improved design working, why did they modify it? Or was this just supposed to be dramatic license?
You’re ignoring the social implications of her work - the human ones.
Cattle industry was and still is dominated by men, some of which have very stubborn and fixed notions about things. Some outside weirdo coming in to change their operations - nuh-uh, not gonna happen on THEIR watch! And if that weirdo is a woman?!? Some of those guys would rather castrate themselves with a rusty spoon than admit any woman is at least as competent as them, much less having a better idea about something.
I’ve seen her mention in several places her difficulty with entrenched attitudes and having to deal with the people side of things. A normal woman would have difficulty finding acceptance in some of these places, much less an autistic one.
I’d have to watch that part again, but I thought it was the manager/top hand who changed the new apparatus, not the owner.
My impression was that the owner, or the person who hired her, wasn’t present the next morning when the hired help showed up to start work. Maybe they started earlier than expected? The owner had asked Temple to come in her best clothes, leading you to think that there was going to be some publicity on that first day.
I saw the trailers and promised myself I’d avoid it. Then I watched it. Then I watched it again. And again. It’s turned into one of those - it’s on I’m watching it whether I want to or not - things. Like Legally Blonde. Don’t ask.
I liked it a lot, actually. However, there were some serious moments of bad-movie-itis in it. I admit that I teared up at times, especially at the end, but there were just enough *Tropic Thunder *moments to make me roll my eyes too.
Next time it’s on … I’m gonna watch it again.
I’m curious. Why?
I’ve heard Temple speak on animal welfare topics at animal welfare meetings. She’s a thorough speaker, someone who gives her information straight up. I keep wondering if she’ll do anything that would separate herself from all the other speakers, but when she’s working there’s really no way to tell that she’s different from anyone else.
I actually appreciate that she doesn’t shoe horn in Far Side cartoons and other stuff speakers do to lighten their talks at these sorts of meetings.