Top Ten Movies with a Blind Hero
Ranked #2,327 in Entertainment, #28,703 overall
A countdown of the best movies with blind heroes
I turned to my friend, DevoGirl, to help me develop this list. These movies were all recommended by her. I've watched many of them, but some I've never heard of. The previews all look great to me, and knowing her great taste, I'm looking forward to seeing them all.
Most of the descriptions and reviews here are hers.
Scroll down to vote on which one you think should be number one!
Most of the descriptions and reviews here are hers.
Scroll down to vote on which one you think should be number one!
Honorable Mentions
Movies that didn't quite make the cut. (Most because the blind characters are not central enough)
NUMBER TEN
Butterflies Are Free
In 1960s San Francisco, a young blind man desperate to be more independent moves into an apartment, his first time living on his own. The hippie chick next door (played by Goldie Hawn) teaches him to free his mind. Based on a Broadway play.This movie is very much of its time, not just with the groovy clothes and all the talk about hippies. The cinematography and acting style all seem very dated. It's basically the stage play in front of a camera--nearly all the action takes place in Don's apartment, and the delivery of the lines is very stage-y. The clever quips are charming but also are very typical of a Broadway play.
However, I still really enjoyed the movie. While it seemed stiff in many ways, the characters are amazingly complex. Don, the young blind man, doesn't just want to be independent of his mother, he wants to be treated like a regular person by everyone. Jill is a free spirit, but her flightiness is a mask for real emotional scars. And even Don's mother who comes off as a stereotype at first grows and changes over the course of the film.
[Review from DevoGirl]
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NUMBER NINE
The White Countess
Set in 1930s Shanghai, "The White Countess" is both Sofia, a fallen member of the Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat named Jackson, who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create. Sofia accepts to escape a life of prostitution, but Jackson's world proves both fragile and volatile--as does Shanghai itself, on the verge of an invasion from Japan.
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NUMBER EIGHT
At First Sight
Very loosely based on a story of one of Oliver Sach's patients, the main character goes through surgery to restore his sight and finds it very difficult to interpret what he sees. It's very fascinating to realize that if you have no framework to understand what seeing is, then being able to see doesn't help.The love story is moving and beautiful, and Val Kilmer is definitely one of my celebrity crushes.
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NUMBER SEVEN
Love and Honor
Japanese superstar Kimura Tatsuya plays a low-ranking samurai Shinnojo, employed as a food-taster for his feudal lord. One day, he suffers food poisoning from some bad shellfish, which leaves him blind. Fearing that Shinnojo will lose his salary, his wife Kayo agrees to a dubious offer from a higher ranking official. Is she being unfaithful or trying to help Shinnojo? How can Shinnojo defend her honor? Can he maintain his honor as a samurai, and fight a duel, even blind? Less action than the Zatoichi series, but a far more realistic portrayal of blindness.[Review from DevoGirl]
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NUMBER SIX
BlindSight
A documentary about blind mountain climbers in Tibet. In 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind person to summit Mt. Everest. Inspired by his climb, students at a school for the blind in Tibet ask him to visit them. In 2004, Erik decided not only to visit, but to take an expedition of six student on a hike to Lhakpa-Ri, near Everest. This film documents their climb, from Erik's first visit. Also joining them on the hike is the school's founder Sabriye Tenberken, who is blind herself. The film covers not only the physical demands of the climb, but attitudes in Tibet towards blind people, who are considered cursed. We also find out a lot about Erik, Sabriye, and each of the kids. As the hike becomes increasingly difficult, tempers flare in the group--are they doing this hike for the kids, or for themselves? It's very gripping and exciting, and a sensitive exploration of blindness, far more nuanced than in any fiction film.There was also a fiction film made in 2006 about Erik's climb up Everest, called Touch the Top of the World, with Peter Facinelli as Erik, but it's really cheezy, and not a good film. Facinelli is not convincing as a blind person.
[Review from DevoGirl]
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NUMBER FIVE
The Masseurs and a Woman + My Darling of the Mountains
A two for one here! The original, and a color remake...The Masseurs and a Woman: Japan, 1938, by Shimizu Hiroshi, one of Japan's top directors. Set in a hot spring resort in the mountains, among a group of blind masseurs. One of them, Toku, falls in love with a beautiful young woman from Tokyo who comes to visit the hot springs. But can she return his love? This is a beautiful, charming film, and the actor who plays Toku gives one of the best, and most convincing portrayals of blindness in film. And it's available on DVD with English subtitles.
My Darling of the Mountains: A 2008 remake of the Masseurs and a Woman. Shot for shot, it's almost identical to the original, except in color. Maybe not quite as outstanding as the original, but still a beautiful, touching film. It hasn't been released on DVD in the US, but it's worth searching out a subtitled copy.
[Review from DevoGirl]
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The original is in this box set
NUMBER FOUR
Blind Dating
This is a sweet and romantic movie without being as cheesy as I thought it would be from the title. Chris Pine is very cute, too! His character agrees to several dates to try to find a good girl. There are some crazy situations he ends up in as he attempts to assure his dates that it's not a big deal that he is blind. With one he even tries to pretend he's not so it won't get weird (but it still does!). Eventually he starts falling for an Indian girl at the doctor's office. That's not a simple romance, though, as her family expects her to date and marry an Indian man. The Preview
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NUMBER THREE
Daredevil
A superhero with a disability. I love it!Matt Murdock is far from realistic as a blind man, since in this world it gives him special abilities, but the movie does a nice job showing some of the adaptive techniques he has that are true to life.
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NUMBER TWO
Proof
An Australian film from 1991. Martin is an insecure blind man, who so distrusts the world around him that he takes photos of everything around him as proof. He enlists Andy, a young waiter, to describe the photos to him. But when Andy falls for Celia, Martin's housekeeper, he finds he can't always be truthful to Martin. And Celia seems bent on seducing Martin, in her own strange way. This is a dark, cynical movie, not really a romance, but still very intriguing.Starring very young Hugo Weaving and Russell Crowe!
[Review from DevoGirl]
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NUMBER ONE
Blind
Appropriate title for the number one spot!This is a beautiful, moving, haunting film, set around the turn of the century. Ruben, who is blind, lives alone with his mother on a huge, remote estate. He has regressed to a nearly feral state, and driven away all the servants. But Marie, who has been hired to read to him, refuses to put up with his bad behavior, because she wants to read the books in his library. As she reads to him from Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, they begin to fall in love. But Marie, who is an albino, and older than Ruben, and also has scars on her hands and face, believes she is ugly, and that he only loves her because he can't see her. With the possibility of surgery to restore his sight, will Ruben still love her?
This may seem like a cliched plot line--normally I dislike the "ugly girl/blind guy, will he still love her if he can see" kind of story because it seems so trite. But this film manages to transcend the old cliches, to tell a fairy-tale like story that is powerful and moving. Lines from The Snow Queen are quoted throughout the film, which makes it even more like a fairy tale. Without giving anything away, the film deals with the story in a very original and satisfying way.
[Review from DevoGirl]
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Which do YOU think should be number one?
Daredevil (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)
For Daredevil, justice is blind, and for the guilt more...1 point
At First Sight
Witness the extraordinary transformation of seeing more...1 point
Scent of a Woman
HOPING TO EARN EXTRA MONEY OVER THE THANKSGIVING W more...1 point
![Blind [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ipn3lG0nL._SL75_.jpg)
Blind [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]
Netherlands released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NO more...0 points
Love and Honor
An award winning masterpiece of sacrifice and devotion, more...0 points
Butterflies Are Free
A blind young man, Don Baker (Edward Albert) who is more...0 points
Other Lists
Here are the lists that I've developed so far for other disabilities.
What movies am I missing?
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Anonymous
Jan 3, 2012 @ 8:09 am | delete
- How could you not put Danny the dog! :(
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RuthMadison
Jan 4, 2012 @ 8:47 am | delete
- I don't know it... I'll look that up :)
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Moore
Nov 14, 2011 @ 8:07 pm | delete
- You should watch A moment to remember movie. Very nice and a very touching movie. Fit for your husband and for your dates. Patience and trust is the key!
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RuthMadison
Nov 16, 2011 @ 8:18 am | delete
- I will look that up. Thank you.
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Nanny76
Sep 16, 2011 @ 2:50 pm | delete
- 'Scent of a Woman' probably should be on here as well. The story around Charlie and his school problems is annoying, but Pacino's portrayal of blind ex Col Slade more than makes up for it
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by RuthMadison
There isn't enough fiction out there with characters who have disabilities. Ruth Madison aims to fix that.
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Elizabeth and her mother disagree about love and relationships. Will Elizabeth be able to stay true to herself?
