50 to 1

[easyazon_image add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”B00TRAO8VQ” cloaking=”default” height=”160″ localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oHmIgziBL._SL160_.jpg” tag=”disabilitymovies-20″ width=”118″]In the comedic, almost slapstick [easyazon_link asin=”B00TRAO8VQ” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”disabilitymovies-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]50 To 1[/easyazon_link], new horse trainer Chip Woolley is sent by his wealthier friend and employer to scope out a potential acquisition; young gelding Mine that Bird. At first, the horse seems like a bad bet; he’s “crooked footed” and walks funny. No matter, says the buyer, because he walked funny as a kid, and had to wear braces on his legs.

But Mine that Bird doesn’t live up to his potential right away, and financial problems plague Chip. To top it all off, Chip breaks his leg badly in a car accident and spends the rest of the movie on crutches. When Mine that Bird unexpectedly qualifies for the Kentucky Derby, the team looks ragtag indeed. Chip even finds himself excluded from the Derby Ball, and his employer openly takes someone else’s place setting and chair to set it up for him. All that prevents 50 to 1 from being one long disability movie trope, in which the presence of a disabled person on a team marks them as the underdog, is the fact that it actually happened that way.

Renoir

[easyazon_image add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”B00EV1YZKK” cloaking=”default” height=”160″ localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51O2uV1xBfL._SL160_.jpg” tag=”disabilitymovies-20″ width=”113″]A portrait of the artist as an old man, [easyazon_link asin=”B00EV1YZKK” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”disabilitymovies-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]Renoir[/easyazon_link] depicts the final years of the painter’s life, as he continues to paint sensual, cheerful scenes in the face of World War I and his worsening rheumatoid arthritis. Renoir has a small army of women–mostly former models–living with and taking care of him, and even carrying him into streams and setting up his easel.

Renoir has adapted to his disability by wrapping the paintbrush in his hand with bandages each day, yet his obnoxious doctor harbors the attitude that he must be ambulatory in order to continue working. To prove his point, he insists that Renoir stand up and walk for him, though it’s clearly excruciating. When the doctor asks what he’ll do once he can no longer use his hands, Renoir testily replies “Then I’ll paint with my dick.”

Renoir’s son Jean also had a physical disability as a result of a bullet to the leg he received during the war, and walked with a limp afterwards. During his recuperation, spent watching early movies with his leg elevated, Jean discovered a love of cinema and went on to become a successful director of silent films.