Movies are sometimes shown to clients and to students to assist them in understanding
of a particular issue and for other educational purposes. If you would like to add to this list,
please email Charlie Dixon at charlie*recreationtherapy.com
(replace * with @ before emailing me)
Film Title |
Description |
| About a Boy (2002) |
Overcoming Challenges |
| Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert Boogie Nights (1997) |
Homosexuality |
| Agnes of God (1985) |
mental illness |
| A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) |
Overcoming Challenges |
| And the Band Played On (1993) |
discovery of AIDS |
| Angie (stars Geena Davis) |
It's about a woman becoming a single mother. |
| Amadeus |
Good scenes of mental hospitals in Mozart's time. |
| Andromeda Strain (1971) |
one character has seizure disorder |
| Antwone Fisher (2002) |
A young sailor, Antwone Fisher (Derek Luke), is ordered to see a Navy
psychiatrist (Denzel Washington) who helps him get a handle on debilitating
anger that causes many shipboard scraps |
| A Patch of Blue (1965) |
blindness/racial issues |
| As Good As It Gets |
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder |
| The Aviator (2004) |
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder |
| Awakenings |
use of L-Dopa to treat catatonia |
| Baby Girl Scott (1987) |
TV premature birth/ethical issues |
| Backstreet Dreams (1990) |
Autism |
| Bad Ronald |
Mentally ill teen lives in hiding under stairs after mother dies and
house is sold. |
| Bastard out of Carolina |
Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, directed by Angelica Huston - about child
abuse (sexual, physical, emotional). It's pretty heavy but well acted. Child abuse issues. Rated
R. |
| Beaches |
death of best friend |
| A Beautiful Mind (2001) |
John Forbes Nash Jr. (Russell Crowe) was a brilliant economist -- when
his mind was clear. But life changed forever with the revelation that he
was a schizophrenic. Nash's brilliance persisted amidst the anguish his
mental illness caused for him and his wife (Jennifer Connolly), and 40
years after his diagnosis, he won the Nobel Prize for economics. |
| Being There |
mental retardation/assumptions |
| Bend It Like Beckham (2003) |
Overcoming Challenges |
| Benny & Joon (1993) |
mental illness |
| Best Boy (1979 documentary) |
Philly, who at the age of 52, prepares for life away from his parents. |
| Best Little Girl in the World |
Child abuse issues; eating disorder |
| Bill (w/ Mickey Rooney) |
true story--deinstitutionalization |
| Billy Elliot(2000) |
Self-Esteem |
| Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) |
life in prison |
| "Birdy" |
staring Matt Modine |
| Blossoms in the Dust (1941) |
story of Edna Gladney/orphanages |
| Boone |
Two men, drug addict and her brother kidnap girl in France. |
| Boogie Nights (1997) |
Homosexuality |
| Born On the Fourth of July (1989) |
Vietnam Vet w/ paraplegia |
| Boxing Helena (1993) |
Drama. Julian Sands, Sherilyn Fenn. Surgeon operates on object of his
obsession. |
| The Boy Who Could Fly |
Autism |
| The Boys In The Band (1970) |
Homosexuality |
| This Boy’s Life |
Conduct Disorders |
| Boys On the Side |
AIDS |
| The Breakfast Club |
Peer Relationships |
| Brian's Song (1971) |
TV cancer death of football player; Loss and Grief issues |
| Bridge to Silence (1989) |
deafness |
| Brief History of Time, A (1992-docu) |
Life of Stephen Hawking-ALS |
| Brokeback Mountain (2005) |
Homosexuality |
| Brother Sun, Sister Moon |
The story of St. Francis of Assissi and PTSD |
| Butterflies Are Free |
blindness |
| Charles Bukowski Tapes (1987-docu) |
Celebrated underground writer captured in semi-alcoholic stupor |
| Charly (1968) |
mental retardation |
| Child of Rage (1992) |
child sexual abuse/adoption |
| Children of a Lesser God (1986) |
deafness; Self-Esteem |
| Children Of Loneliness |
Homosexuality |
| City of Angels |
Loss and Grief issues |
| City of Joy (1992) |
people w/disabilities in Calcutta |
| Clean and Sober |
substance abuse |
| Coach Carter (2005) |
Samuel L. Jackson plays the titular, controversial coach, a hardliner
who firmly believes that scholarship and a sense of ethics go hand in hand
with excellence on the basketball court. |
| Cocoon, I & II |
aging |
| Color Purple |
Abandonment issues |
| Coming Home (1978) |
Vietnam Vet/paraplegia/sexuality |
| Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt: (1990 docu) |
In this movie AIDS becomes a shared ground for survivors of loved ones.
This stirring documentary is not only a tribute to the dead and dying, it
is a study of how parents, lovers, and friends of victims have learned to
deal constructively with loss. |
| Corrina, Corrina |
Loss and Grief issues |
| Dad |
bereavement/prostate cancer |
| Dangerous Minds |
at-risk youth |
| Days of Wine and Roses |
alcoholism |
| Do You Remember Love? |
Alzheimer's Disease |
| Dead Poets Society (1989) |
John Keating (Robin Williams) is an unconventional English teacher who
lives by a simple motto: Seize the day!; Self-Esteem issues |
| Dolores Claiborne |
child abuse issues |
| Die Laughing |
paranoia |
| Dodes 'Kaden (1970-foreign) |
Akira Kurosawa's first color film, chronocaling the lives of Tokyo's
slum dwellers. Includes children, alcoholics, and the disabled. Illusion
and imagination are their weapons as they fight for survival. |
| Dominick & Eugene (1988) |
acquired brain injury |
| The Dream Team |
psychiatric patients out on the town... Comedy |
| Driving Miss Daisy (1990) |
aging/racial issues/CVA (stroke) |
| Drug Store Cowboy |
|
| Dying Young (1991) |
cancer |
| Educating Rita |
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder |
| Edward Scissorhands (1990) |
allegory about disability |
| Ever After |
bully issues |
| Eye On the Sparrow |
blind couple want to adopt |
| The Fisher King |
|
| Folks (spoof) |
Alzheimer's Disease |
| Forest Gump |
mental retardation/AIDS?/amputation/self-estem |
| Four Weddings and A Funeral (1994) |
one character is deaf |
| Frances |
actress Frances Farmer is lobotomized |
| Fried Green Tomatoes (1992) |
long-term care/amputation/death |
| Gallipoli |
Loss and Grief issues |
| Genie (PBS-TV) |
abused child without language |
| Gaby--A True Story (1987) |
author Gabriela Brimmer has CP |
| Genie |
The wildchild who was strapped to a potty chair for the majority of her
first 10 years of life |
| Girl, Interrupted |
mental illness, borderline personality disorder
|
| The Glass Menagerie |
|
| Grand Canyon (1990) |
character has deaf daughter |
| The Great Santini |
|
| Grey Gardens (1976-docu) |
Portrait of two eccentric recluses. |
| Harold and Maude |
|
| Harvey |
mental illness/hallucinations |
| Heidi (various versions) |
recovery from hysterical paralysis |
| Harold & Maude |
suicide |
| Holes (2003) |
Nerdy teenager Stanley Yelnats (Shia La Beouf) is sent to a Texas detention
camp for stealing a pair of sneakers. |
| Hoop Dreams |
Peer Relationships |
| HOPE FLOATS |
Covers shame, divorce, death, abandonment (emotional), recovery, healing
relationships |
| Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte: 1964 |
Horror, Bette Davis, OIivia de Havilland. Half-mad Charlotte lives in
mansion with cousin and doctor. |
| I Am Sam |
mental retardation |
| I Never Promised You a Rose Garden |
schizophrenia |
| Ice Castles (1979) |
skater overcomes visual impairment |
| I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can |
prescription drug addiction (?) |
| In the Mouth of Madness (1995) |
Horror, Sam Neill, Julie Carmen. Horror novel drives insurance investigator
insane. |
| Iris (2001) |
Alzheimer's Disease |
| It's A Wonderful Life |
Adjustment Disorder - With Depressed Mood |
| Jane Eyre (1983) |
child abuse issues |
| Joni |
quadriplegia |
| King of Hearts, The (1966-foreign) |
City taken over by inmates of an insane asylum after the town's residents
have deserted it. |
| Last Wish |
assisted suicide of Betty Rollin's mother |
| Leaving Las Vegas |
graphic: alcoholism |
| Let There Be Light: (1944-docu) |
Documentary commissioned by the U.S. gov't, filmed by John huston, about
shell-shocked soldiers, was suppressed because it would discourage enlistment |
| The Light that Failed: 1939 |
Drama, Ronald Coleman, Walter Huston. |
| Kipling's Dick Heldar |
going blind, tries to finish painting |
| La Cage Aux Folles / The Birdcage |
Homosexuality |
| Like Normal People (1979) |
TV couple with MR prepare to marry |
| Little Man Tate (1991) |
child prodigy |
| Litte Miss Sunshine (2006) |
family dysfunction |
| Longtime Companion (1990) |
AIDS |
| Lorenzo's Oil (1992) |
ALD (adrenoleukodystrophy) |
| Lost In Yonkers (1993) |
mental retardation ? |
| The Lost Weekend: 1945 |
Drama. Ray Milland, Jane Wyman. Boozing writer lands in Bellvue with
DTs. |
| Love Letters: 1945 |
Drama, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton. British officer meets buddy's amnesiac
widow. |
| Love Story (1970) |
terminal illness/death of spouse |
| Mask (starring Cher) (1985) |
neurofibromatosis/death/drug abuse |
| Mean Creek (2004) |
Peer Relationships |
| Midnight Cowboy (1969) |
Homosexuality |
| The Miracle Worker (1992) |
story of how Helen Keller was taught how to communicate |
| Mommy Dearest |
child abuse issues |
| Mona Lisa Smile (2003) |
At Wellesley College in 1953, the all-female student population may constitute
the smartest and the best, but they're still measured by how well they
marry. |
| Moonstruck (Cher again) |
one character has prosthetic hand |
| Mr. Jones |
bipolar disease |
| Mr. Holland's Opus |
Deaf child |
| Murderball (2005) |
Quadriplegics, who play full-contact rugby in wheelchairs, overcome unimaginable obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. |
| Murder or Mercy? (TV) |
elderly man shoots wife with dementia |
| Music Within (2007) |
Based on the life of Richard Pimentel (Ron Livingston), a brilliant public speaker with a troubled past, who returns from Vietnam severely hearing -impaired and finds a new purpose in his landmark efforts on the behalf of Americans with disabilities. One of the people he befriends is Art Honeyman (Michael Sheen) who has cerebral palsy. This movie can help educate people on these disabilities and what has been done in the past to make sure people with disabilities have access to places and jobs. |
| My Bodyguard |
bully issues |
| My Girl |
Alzheimer's Disease |
| My Left Foot (1989) |
author Christy Brown: cerebral palsy |
| My Life (1994) |
terminal cancer |
| My Name is Bill W. (1989) |
TV program. Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous |
| My Secret garden: 1994 |
Drama. English orphan helps disabled cousin in Uncle's magic garden. |
| Nashville |
one character is deaf, Lily Tomlin signs |
| Nell |
with Jody Foster and Liam Neeson, isolation/aphasic speech |
| Never to Love: 1940 |
Drama, Maureen O'Hara, Adolphe Menjou. Escaped mental patient visits
wife, daughter. |
| Night of the Following Day, The: 1969 |
Suspense, Marlon Brando, Richard |
| Night Mother |
suicide |
| No Other Love (1979) |
TV program. Mental retardation |
| Not My Kid |
child abuse issues |
| The Notebook (2004) |
Alzheimer's Disease |
| Nuts (1988) |
psychiatry, competency hearing |
| Of Mice and Men (1992) |
mental retardation |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) |
psychiatric hospital |
| One True Thing (1998) |
deals with family dynamics as a grown woman gains a more complete picture of her parents. It also addresses issues related to caring for a dying parent. |
| Ordinary People (1980) |
bereavement/suicide |
| On Golden Pond |
Alzheimer's Disease |
| Outbreak! |
Ebola virus |
| Out Of Darkness (1994) |
paranoid schizophrenia - covers relationships with a parent, siblings, new relationships, and children. It also covers many of the reintergration barriers people with mental health issues must overcome. |
| Passion Fish(1993) |
paraplegia/substance recovery |
| Patch of Blue, A: 1965 |
Drama, Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters. Man loves blind white teen sheltered
by mother. |
| Pennies from Heaven: 1981 |
Musical Romance. Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters. Sheet music salesman
escapes Depression through songs. |
| Philadelphia: 1993 |
Drama. Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington. Fired by his firm, lawyer with AIDS
fights back. AIDS/protection under law |
| Places In the Heart |
one character is blind |
| Postcards From the Edge (1990) |
substance abuse |
| Radio (2003) |
A small-town high school football coach (Ed Harris) befriends an illiterate,
developmentally disabled man (Cuba Gooding Jr.) nicknamed "Radio," who
has always been the target of jokes and teasing. |
| Rain Man |
Dustin Hoffman. Idiot savant; autism |
| Regarding Henry |
|
| Remember the Titans (2000) |
It looks like fourth down and long yardage when Denzel Washington replaces
a well-respected -- and white -- football coach (Will Patton) in a Virginia
high school rampant with prejudice, circa 1970. |
| A River Runs Through It |
Loss and Grief issues |
| Road to Wellville, The: 1994 |
Comedy. Anthony Hopkins, Bridget Fonda. Story set in a wellness resort. |
| Ryan White Story |
child abuse issues |
| Silence Like Glass |
deals with a young woman discovering she has cancer |
| Silent Fall: 1994 |
Mystery. Richard Dreyfuss, Linda Hamilton. Psychiatrist works with autistic
murder witness. |
| Silverlake Life: (1993-docu) |
Two companions face life, and death of AIDS. |
| Shadowlands |
Loss and Grief issues |
| Steel Magnolias |
diabetes |
| Stranger in the Family: 1991 |
Docudrama. Teri Garr, Neil Patrick Harris. Mother pushes her amnesiac
teen son to remember. |
| The Sweet Hereafter |
Loss and Grief issues |
| Sybil |
child abuse issues |
| Taxi Driver |
Schizotypal Personality |
| The Three Faces of Eve: 1957 |
Drama. Joanne Woodward, Lee J. Cobb. Psychiatrist treats housewife with
three personalites. |
| Truly, Madly, Deeply |
Loss and Grief issues |
| 12 Monkies |
Brad Pitt plays a mentally ill person |
| Unfinished Life (2005) |
When her husband dies, Jean Gilkyson (Jennifer Lopez) moves herself and
her daughter, Griff (Becca Gardner), into the Wyoming home of her estranged
father-in-law |
| Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh. (1987-docu) |
|
| What Dreams May Come |
Loss and Grief issues |
| What's Eating Gilbert Grape |
Dysfunctional family and mental retardation; eating disorder |
| When a Man Loves a Woman: 1994 |
Drama. Andy Garcia, Meg Ryan. San Francisco couple face alcoholism and
recovery. |
| Who Are The Debolts and Where Did They Get 19 kids: (1978-docu) |
Family made up of adopted muliply disabled children. |
| Feeling Good Feeling Proud - 27 min |
Developmental Disabilities (mental retardation primarily). Discusses
"Theater Unlimited" - a popular program in San Fran.,California in which
the actors are people w/ disabilities acting out perceptions, issues, etc.
that pertain to their lives. |
| Out of the Shadow |
Various disabilities. Demonstrates how recreational therapy can manifest
via many mediums (i.e., grocery store, music, drama, arts & crafts, H2O,
restaurants); the potential skills attained are discussed for each as well
(socialization, ROM, gait efficiency, etc.) |
| National Sports Center: For the Disabled at Winter Park |
Various Disabilities (visually impaired, cancer, down syndrome etc.)
Discusses what activities such as skiing, rock climbing, rafting, etc may
provide for clients that utilize them. |
| Day in the Life of Bonnie Consolo |
17 minutes. A woman without arms - congenital. An inspirational movie
that shows this woman functioning in her society with the "I Can" philosophy. |
| Get it Together |
20 minutes. Parapalegia. Individual involved in accident demonstrates
adaptation techniques (i.e., tennis, driving, softball, etc). |
| Handicaps & Technology |
9 minutes. Various disabilities. Brad Parks (tennis) is in a segment
of the film. Technologies such as nerve innervention for walking and fine
motor skills are demonstrated. Intrinsic barriers and environmental barriers
are discussed in relation to why people w/ disabilities refrain from social
events (i.e., sporting events, movies) |
| Shady Acres |
Cerebral palsy. Camp development and importance stressed |
| Mountain Tops |
Paraplegia. Demonstrates capabilities typically unobserved by people
using wheelchairs (i.e., rock climbing, 3-wheeling, horse ridding, mountain
climbing, hopping around on the grass for extended periods of time with arms,
etc. |
| Nobody's Burning Wheelchairs |
18 minutes ADA legislation Discusses importance of attitude adjustments
in relation to legislation. Legislation is only "a" tool - not "the" tool. |
| Life Climb |
Geriatric - Discusses how individual with 3 previous myocardio infarctions,
fused vertebraes, and cancer abusing substances (i.e., amphetamines, alcohol,
tranquilizers, etc) turned to cognitive therapy via climbing mountains (all
over the world). |
| Learning to Play, Playing to Learn: Recreation as a Related Service |
20 minutes. Information about the role recreation plays in promoting
the education of students with disabilities plus recreation as a related
service from PL 94-142 to IDEA. |
| National Parks System: Planning for the Disabled Systematic Approach
to Access Planning |
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