David Greenhalgh’s life changed with a limp in his mid-forties. After years of redundant therapy and misdiagnoses, a neurologist diagnosed him with Cervical Spondylosis. “I had an operation to stop things from getting worse. They cut away part of my spinal cord c4 to c7. When I came out of the hospital, I was trapped at home for months. After becoming disabled, my first idea was to compile a general database of disability resources but my hobbies were films and books. Eventually, I made the decision to compile a list of films that involved disabilities.
I put it on the web in 1994,” Greenhalgh said. “The Internet was such a free-spirited place, I felt I was giving something back. The website I created www.disabilityfilms.co.uk was and still is in its scope unique. There are hundreds of disability-related sites offering general information, but I think the more specialized ones are the most useful.”
If you haven’t visited www.disabilityfilms.co.uk, it’s overwhelming how much information Greenhalgh has discovered and remains willing to share. With more than 3,000 pages, he has built a website with an intent to educate. “There is a rash of films these days involving disabilities; some good, some bad. I did want to increase the scope of the site and add some extended essays on aspects of disability in films, but some of what I wanted to say is slightly controversial. Most people think disabled actors should play disabled characters. I believe being an actor is about acting. My roots are in repertory theatre where the same group of actors played all the roles; women as old and young, women as men, and vice versa. But obviously disabled actors should get equal chances. I shun politically correct terms like actors with disabilities,” Greenhalgh explained. “An actor with Down Syndrome or an actor using a wheelchair should not play just characters like themselves. In most drama an actor with a disability can play a father, a mother, a student who just happens to be disabled and this is not the focus of the plot.”
With his theatre background, Greenhalgh finds it unacceptable for actors not to study their part. “Clearly, Dustin Hoffman in ‘Rainman’ and Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘My Left Foot’ studied. Day-Lewis stayed in a wheelchair throughout the filming. Bad examples, and common, are like Rutger Hauer in ‘Blind Fury,’ who as a blinded veteran simply stares ahead. Oddly, Val Kilmer in ‘At First Sight’ is a very good example of a portrayal of a blind person, better, I think, than Al Pacino in ‘Scent of a Woman,'” Greenhalgh said.
Previously a teacher, Greenhalgh continues to educate far beyond the classroom. He advises those who become disabled to talk to other disabled people. “At a teacher training course, before being disabled, I spent hours in a wheelchair. This kind of simulation I think now fairly useless. The prime thing about disability is that it is permanent. Tomorrow you will not recover, there will not be a cure, you have to live with it and adapt. How you adapt is everything. Christopher Reeve was much criticized among the disabled community for always promulgating that there would be a cure around the corner. It was also obvious he was going to use his influence to get to the front of the queue. Then he did the Superbowl advert in which through CGI he was shown walking. For this, he was lambasted in some quarters. This doesn´t mean you condemn the chap. I think we could all have been there,” Greenhalgh said. “Faced with a slow realization that you can´t move your left arm or it´s gone despair is the motorway that is calling you to travel on. I see people who give way, collapse in on themselves, and become totally dependent on others. This may depend on what you were before. I must emphasize I am talking about people who acquire disabilities, not those who are born with them or acquire when very young; such people have very different mindsets and can struggle to find self-worth.”
Greenhalgh stresses that disabled people include a variety of personalities, just like the rest of the population. “They are not a separate entity when it comes to being kind, thoughtful, generous; being nasty, foul-mouthed and selfish. I don’t think becoming disabled makes you a better person per se. For that to be you have to work at it. And I think it has to come from within. But you can get hints by listening to other disabled people, watching discussion on TV or roles in films and engaging with what is said,” Greenhalgh added.
Despite being disabled, Greenhalgh has an incredible will and determination to travel and do the things he once enjoyed such as camping in France.
“I was a traveler, hitch-hiking around Europe from 19 till I got married at 27. Come Easter I am aching to get away so my urges overrule a bit of commonsense. A sensible person will assess their situation and plan accordingly. I was always impetuous. Last year, I went to Spain and Portugal which was a bit too much. My older son and I still go camping. Oddly camping has its advantages because everything is on the same level and what you need is close but some aspects are made much more difficult. I did try bed and breakfast but almost all have rooms upstairs. The U.S. would be ideal because of all the motels. I spent three months there in 1991 just before going into hospital. The U.S. would suit me because of all the open space for camping. Except for Scotland, the U.K. lacks wilderness areas; I live in the most beautiful and hilly part of England. When you are disabled you really have to plan ahead, even a simple thing like parking or knowing the location of the nearest toilet. But I get out and I do it,” Greenhalgh said. “I’m nostalgic about my mountain bike and I would dearly love to do another long distance walk. My ambition had been to do the Appalachian Trail in the Eastern U.S. At the moment I’m playing with the idea of canoeing but I really know it’s a dumb idea. I couldn’t get in and out of the canoe and probably couldn’t paddle for the same reason I cannot propel my wheelchair on my own. An odd reflection on this is that if you make an effort some people think you’re not really disabled.”
Greenhalgh notes that accessibility for those with disabilities in the United Kingdom varies hugely. “London is getting there, all the taxies are accessible, theatre and sports are, and the underground in some places is. Outside it’s a mixed bag. Things I am interested like castles and ancient building are mostly not accessible and could not be. One aristocratic home I went to with my daughter had just had a lift put in. Campsites are generally very good. The nearest bookshop to me has stairs to the sort of books I’m interested in but the second nearest, run by the same chain, has a lift,” Greenhalgh said.
“My disability leaves me in an in-between state. If you are quadriplegic there are a number of things you know you cannot do. I know I can’t run or cycle but if I make a great effort I can do other things like camping and climbing stairs in castles. I pay for it at the end of the day but it´s often worth it. And sometimes I get into trouble. About every three months my condition takes a turn for worse. This lasts for three weeks to a month during which pain is intense mainly while sitting down or in bed and movement from being still like driving or in bed is treacherous. Two years ago I set off for France when the change came over and so often when I got out of my car, despite trying to be very careful, I kept falling over.”
While Greenhalgh remains caught between active society and the limitations of a wheelchair, he simply stresses for able-bodied folk to give the disabled a chance. “Give them the same chance as anyone else. Don’t treat them as special but sometimes make an extra effort,” Greenhalgh encouraged. “When someone says ‘I know how you feel’ you know jolly well they don’t whether they´re disabled or not disabled. If someone says ‘be positive’ that doesn´t help. Watch a child learning to walk. The child falls and gets up again, over and over again. For the disabled, you need to find that sort of determination and, of course, you have to find a goal; walking is better than crawling. But in the case of disability, as every disabled person is different, each goal probably has to be different.”
For years, Greenhalgh has been teaching and writing. With many projects in the spin at the age of 66, he has accomplished far more than some of his able-bodied counterparts. Although unpublished, he has written a detective novel, a picaresque novel about a rabbit, a situation comedy, a radio play about madness and short pieces about disabilities. Top that off with his website focused on disability films and he continues to change the world.
To visit David Greenhalgh´s website link to www.disabilityfilms.co.uk.
By Pam Vetter (http://www.americanchronicle.com/)
December 24, 2007