My Left Foot Analysis

Context
My Left Foot is a true story of Irish born Christy Brown (played by Daniel-Day Lewis) who was born with cerebral palsy but had full control of his left foot. Christy, as depicted in this still, is caught stealing coal for money for his family as they often had financial problems.
Technical detail
This is an over the shoulder, medium close up of Day-Lewis which is used so that the audience focuses on the detail of his face. This helps him as he relied on his facial expressions and body movement as he did not have the crutch of the script to express his feelings. The director, Jim Sheridan, has also used low angles to portray the condition of Brown. This scene, as well as numerous others, illustrates how low angles allude to the fact …show more content…
He also does this by exaggerating his facial expressions. The wide eyes and drooped mouth shows how he used his facial expressions to portray the feeling of disappointment. Day-Lewis also wasn’t concerned about how he looked and thus dove right into the character and gave it his all. This can be seen by the saliva hanging out of his mouth. The latter still of Day-Lewis playing the role of Cutting is also an example of his talent. The still shows the ruthlessness of the character as he is in the midst of a battle with blood on his face. This accurately represents Day-Lewis’s performance in this film as he changed drastically into this character that is cruel and heartless. Day-Lewis does this by his strong and confident body language and his sly facial expressions. These two stills contradict one another as Day-Lewis is seen to be harmless and disabled in the first still but strong and cold-blooded in the second. Thus, it shows how Day-Lewis is able to adapt and master one character to the extreme of