Temple Grandin

Melissa and I made the trip to Fort Worth this weekend to take part in the Newman / Yowell Easter Festivities. Her parents get HBO (unlike us) and at one point we came across the HBO original called “Temple Grandin.” I was especially excited to see this movie because I knew that my uncle, Phil Hardage, was an assistant director.


What’s the Deal?: The movie tells the true story of, you guessed it, Temple Grandin. Ms. Grandin is an autistic individual. The bio-pic chronicles her social struggles juxtaposed against her academic excellence. There are several interesting aspects of Ms. Grandin’s life, but the most prominent is her revolutionizing of the United States cattle industry. Her interest in the cattle industry began when, as a child, she visited her Uncle’s ranch and observed the cowboys’ handling of the cows. While studying at college, she wrote her dissertation about cattle movements, tendencies, and stress. She then published several related articles in various ranching magazines. She finally winds up designing revolutionary dip vats and other humane and efficient procedures.
Things I like:

1. Claire Danes’ performance. Look, I don’t understand “acting.” The only “performances” I really ever notice are truly bad ones. However, I do acknowledge that it must be tricky to play someone with a learning disability or something as unique and misunderstood as autism. So…it is clear that Claire Danes spent a lot of time studying autism generally, and Ms. Grandin specifically. Another note, you may think that Claire Danes is “overacting,” as her eyes are constantly open widely and her movements are often greatly exaggerated. However, I have discussed this with my mother, a teacher who has taught autistic students, and she has confirmed that autistic individuals often do keep their eyes wide open just like the actress in the movie. So that’s interesting.

2. The way the movie demonstrates how Ms. Grandin thinks. The script calls for Ms. Grandin to say several times that she “thinks in pictures.” These words themselves aren’t really that clear, but the film goes further by showing on screen several of the images that Ms. Grandin is “thinking in,” and it’s an interesting step towards understanding her unique mind.

3. The little accomplishments. This might sound odd. What I mean by this is that much of the movie shows us her hard childhood and her painfully awkward social interactions. So when her teachers compliment her or when she does figure out a complicated problem (building the diorama) and she smiles, it, oddly enough, really makes you feel good. In other words, because of all the bad in her life, when something does go her way, it is especially gratifying.

4. Its not preachy. Yes, the movie deals a lot with slaughterhouses and feed lots, but at no time does it make you feel guilty for enjoying steak. “Humane slaughter” might seem like an oxymoron, but the point of the movie is not “killing-animals-for-food-is-an-evil-thing-to-do,” it’s “look-at-the-amazing-accomplishments-of-this-remarkable-individual.”

Things I didn’t like:

1. Its a biopic. It’s hard to sum up someone’s life in 2 hours, so the moviemakers have to just kind of go from one big event to another. They did it well here, but that is still hard to ignore. Also, it’s “made for TV.” The quality is still very good, but you can tell it’s just not quite theater-ready.

2. Melissa now likes to pretend she is Temple Grandin, frequently saying “I only eat jello and yogurt,” and “a door opened and I walked through it!” It was charming at first…

Overall – highly recommend. Very interesting and entertaining.