DVD Review: Temple Grandin

When HBO's Biopic of Temple Grandin overtook the Emmys I knew I wanted to look further into who this woman was. Temple, played by Claire Daines, was diagnosed as autistic when she was four years old, when she still had not begun to speak. Her mother, played by Julia Ormond, took her into the doctor, and was told Temple was autistic, at the time autism was also known as "infantile schizophrenia" and was believed to be caused by lack of bonding with the mother. Although autism still poses a lot of questions, maternal "coldness" thankfully has been ruled out.

It was Temple's mother that continued to push her out of her comfort zone, and Temple, in turn found ways to push herself. AS part of the extra features of the DVD it was mentioned that if this story was fiction no one would believe it. I watched the DVD twice, once with the real Temple Grandin's commentary in which she testified to the accuracy of the movie. Sometimes the order of events were changed -- for example Temple's blind college room mate was actually her room mate in graduate school, but moving that detail did not hurt the film. She also couldn't say enough about the quality of Claire Daines' performance. "She went way beyond learning lines, " Grandin said. "She became me during the sixties and seventies."

Also vital to Temple's success was her Aunt Ann, played by Catherine O'Hara. When Temple went to spend the summer with her aunt on her cattle ranch, she became enthralled with the behavior of the cattle and with increasing the efficiency of the ranch. Temple's autism allowed her to see things in ways non-autistic people couldn't. She was a very visual thinker and could make connections in her mind and apply them to her life, and sometimes to the lives of others. I really liked how the movie focused not only on the obstacles of autism, but the benefits as well. One of the benefits was Temple's obliviousness to subtle behavioral cues. Often being a woman trying to hang out on cattle ranches or around slaughterhouses posed a much bigger conflict than Temple's autism, but having that single-minded focus helped her continue to push through.

Temple made her notable "squeeze machine" while she was an undergraduate student. The machine was inspired by a contraption on her aunt's ranch that would hold the cattle still while they were being vaccinated. Temple noticed that the contraption actually calmed the cattle. Since she suffered from panic attacks herself, Temple reasoned that she might benefit from something similar. During one panic attack she tried the cattle's machine, and it helped so much that she made her own. A similar "hug" machine is used today to help autistic children.

In addition to all the inspirational strides Grandin made within the cattle industry and the understanding and treatment of autism, there were also several endearing moments. Wharn she asks her high school science teacher, Dr. Carlock, played by David Strathairn, if there were colleges with cows, he tells her it's called "Animal Husbandry," and we see a flash of Temple's mind going to a wedding with a cow. There are a few other incidents like that throughout the movie, that provide a nice comic relief to Temple's very driven life.

The movie itself was based on a compilation of two of Temple Grandin's books,Emergence and Thinking in Pictures both of which I would love to read one day. But in the meantime, I'm glad I saw this movie. Autistic or not it was a very inspirational story about moving past our personal obstacles, and finding strength in our differences.