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​The Elephant Man (1980)

PG | Biography, Drama, Medical | The biopic of Joseph Carey Merrick (August 5, 1862–April 11, 1890), a man with severe deformities who lived in London, England in the late 19th century. At the age of twenty-one, he was exhibited at a circus freak show under the stage name "The Elephant Man" and then lived in London Hospital after meeting Dr. Frederick Treves.

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Trailers and Reviews:

• Rotten Tomatoes

• IMDb

Facts: 

• Joseph Merrick biography - Wikipedia, biography.com, 

• 'Elephant Man’s’ Grave Discovered in Same Cemetery as Jack the Ripper's Victims article by Becky Little on history.com

• The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences by Frederick Treves - full text free on gutenberg.org. Quote from Chapter 1: "​I supposed that Merrick was imbecile and had been imbecile from birth. The fact that his face was incapable of expression, that his speech was a mere spluttering and his attitude that of one whose mind was void of all emotions and concerns gave grounds for this belief. The conviction was no doubt encouraged by the hope that his intellect was the blank I imagined it to be. That he could appreciate his position was unthinkable. Here was a man in the heyday of youth who was so vilely deformed that everyone he met confronted him with a look of horror and disgust. He was taken about the country to be exhibited as a monstrosity and an object of loathing. He was shunned like a leper, housed like a wild beast, and got his only view of the world from a peephole in a showman’s cart. He was, moreover, lame, had but one available arm, and could hardly make his utterances understood. It was not until I came to know that Merrick was highly intelligent, that he possessed an acute sensibility and—worse than all—a romantic imagination that I realized the overwhelming tragedy of his life."​

• What Is Proteus Syndrome? article on WebMD. Excerpts:

  • "Proteus syndrome is one of the rarest genetic conditions in the world. The syndrome causes abnormal overgrowth in certain parts of the body. It is commonly called the Elephant Man disease."

  • On Joseph Merrick: "For some time, doctors thought he had neurofibromatosis, a disease that causes fibrous growths all over the body. In 1986, however, researchers determined that he most likely had Proteus syndrome."

My Left Foot (1989)

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R | Biography, Disability, Drama | Christy Brown is a boy born with cerebral palsy in a working-class Irish family, where everyone has low expectations for him, but at age five, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor, and he grows up to become a painter, poet, and author.

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Trailers and Reviews:

• Rotten Tomatoes

• IMDb

Facts:

• My Left Foot autobiography by Christy Brown on Amazon

• My Left Foot autobiography by Christy Brown - free eBook in full text with a free account on Internet Archive

• Christy Brown biography on biography.com

• On This Day: Christy Brown of "My Left Foot" died article by Trevor White on Irish Central containing biographical information, including facts the film omitted

• Brief Interview from 1962 video with biographical facts about Christy Brown's condition and painting, followed by the interview on YouTube