Word: deafness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...politics and trip to Hanoi during the war, won the Best Actress award for her role in Coming Home, an antiwar film focused sympathetically on the suffering of wounded American veterans. (Fonda, who is relentless, gave half of her acceptance speech in sign language "because there are 14 million deaf people in this country." New York Daily News Critic Rex Reed wrote bitchily that it "looked like an audition for The Miracle Worker. ") Jon Voight, who played opposite Fonda as a paraplegic vet, won the Best Actor award...
John Herzfeld's screenplay concerns Drew Rothman (Michael Ontkean of Slap Shot), a Jewish delivery boy in Hoboken, N.J., and Rosemarie Lemon (Amy Irving of The Fury), a deaf teacher who wins the hero's heart. Drew wants to be a singer, Rosemarie wants to be a dancer, and they both want to be in love. There are obstacles along the path to a happy ending. Rosemarie's stern mom (Viveca Lindfors) feels that deaf people should stick to their own kind. Drew must act as keeper for both his gambling dad (Alex Rocco...
With Carrie and The Fury in her past, Irving needed to get out of the supernatural world. She took a crash course in dancing and another in deafness to get through this film, and the schooling shows. She doesn't turn her head at sounds, she doesn't look like she's cheating on her lip-reading, she uses sign language like it's her native tongue, she talks in the same eerie high-pitched grunt that deaf people use. In fact, Irving acts handicapped so well that she may have jumped from the super-natural...
...MANY DEAF PEOPLE were angered that the directors didn't choose a deaf actress for the part--some in California picketed the show's opening. But Irving plays the part the way it should be played. It's hard to imagine anyone doing a better job of making the audience realize that deaf people do everything, except hear, about as well as the rest of the race. "Handicapped people are usually depicted as virginal, innocent," Irving says. "We decided to make Rosemarie an aware woman, a sexual woman...
...movie also manages to show some interesting things about the world of the deaf. From the teletype phone ("I never knew there was such a thing--now I've got one so I can talk to my deaf friends," says Irving) to the ingenious doorbell that turns lights on and off, Voices is a lot like a National Geographic special on the world of the deaf. Find out how deaf people talk, what their schools are like, and most importantly, some of the frustrations that come from not being able to hear. Rosemarie tries out for a dance company...