Warm Springs (film)

Infobox Film
name = Warm Springs


caption =
director = Joseph Sargent
producer = Chrisann Verges
writer = Margaret Nagle
starring = Kenneth Branagh
Cynthia Nixon
Kathy Bates
Tim Blake Nelson
Jane Alexander
David Paymer
music = Bruce Broughton
cinematography = Robbie Greenberg
editing = Michael Brown
distributor = HBO
released = April 30, 2005
runtime = 121 min.
country =
awards =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:325768
imdb_id = 0423510

"Warm Springs" is a 2005 television movie about American President Franklin D. Roosevelt's struggle with polio, his discovery of the Warm Springs, Georgia spa resort and his work to turn it into a center for the aid of polio victims, and his resumption of his political career.

Cast

Actress Jane Alexander who plays Sara Delano Roosevelt, FDR's mother; also played Eleanor Roosevelt in the acclaimed 1976 telefilm "Eleanor and Franklin" and its 1977 sequel "". Many of the bit part actors in the film are actually disabled, though Branagh and several other of the principal actors are not. The withered look on Branagh's legs was achieved through the use of CGI.

Production

The film was produced by HBO Films and directed by Joseph Sargent. The majority of the film was made at Warm Springs, Georgia and its surrounding locations. The producers strove to make sure that many of the physical details were as authentic as possible. For example, Kenneth Branagh, as Roosevelt, is seen driving the very same specially-equipped automobile that FDR was taught to drive at Warm Springs. The cottage that Roosevelt stays in during the film is one of the cottages that the real FDR stayed in. And the swimming pool in which the patients swim in is the actual therapeutic swimming pool at Warm Springs, refurbished specifically for the film.

Reception

The film was nearly unanimously praised by the critics, and won five Emmy Awards out of an astounding sixteen nominations, including "Outstanding Made-for-Television Movie", "Best Supporting Actress in a Made-For-Television Movie" (Jane Alexander), and "Best Original Score" (Bruce Broughton). Joseph Sargent, who was also Emmy-nominated for his direction, did not win. He did, however, receive a Directors Guild of America award for "Warm Springs". Screenwriter Margaret Nagle won a Writers Guild of America Award for her script. The film was also nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, but did not receive any.

Historical basis

Interestingly, a peer-reviewed study in 2003 determined that Roosevelt's paralytic illness was more likely caused by Guillain-Barré syndrome, not polio. However, the film is accurate in that Roosevelt and everyone around him would have believed that his symptoms were caused by polio, which was epidemic in the U.S. at the time.

ee also

* Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation
* "Sunrise at Campobello"

External links

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