The Best of Men

Writer: Lucy Gannon

Director: Tim Whitby

Starring: Eddie Marsan (Inspector Lestrade next to Robet Downey Jr's "Sherlock Holmes" and one of the group of five in "The World's End"

George MacKay (Curly in 2003's Peter Pan)

I pushed play expecting to see an opening of gruesome war scenes and a young man lying in a trench calling for help unable to move with explosions going off everywhere. Surprisingly it started with a young couple dancing to happy music in a field after a picnic. This movie revolves around Dr. Ludwig Guttmann (Eddie Marsan), a Jewish/German doctor who immigrates to England during WWII and is assigned to the spinal ward where he finds a group of young men who were left for dead because they were diagnosed to never walk again. They were given their own ward with minimal supplies, sedated, and accruing bed sores because they weren't being moved for so long. Most of them moaning, "Just let me die," "I'll never be worth anything," and "I can't do anything." Guttmann comes in and starts treating them like people, not invalids. "Sports pulled me out of the evil thoughts and made me realize that I'm awesome" (Authors choice of words). I've heard many wounded say a phrase like this, even today. Well, they can thank the men portrayed in this movie for the sports created and adapted for disabled. I didn't start crying (I'm a movie crier) until the ending credits, showing videos of the timeline of the Paralympics, from the first games up until the 2012 Paralympics. I hate using the word inspirational, so I'm not going to say it, but I will find another word to describe my feelings while watching this movie. These men had to push through even more boundaries then what they would have to today, so I will use the wonderful word-Courageous.