Rising emotions
"I am Sam"

Sean Penn is one of the most talented actors of his generation. As if it was not enough, Penn is an active and prominent personality because of his political thoughts that defy established ideas, oposing him to many North American policies and attitudes and, he is also capable of using his own savings to finance movie projects that stand for his beliefs.

"I am Sam" is another moment in which we can see that Penn is coherent, because of his acting talent (he was nominated for the Academy Awards) as well as for his dedication to fair causes, with which he identifies himself.

If we remember the Classic Antiquity, particularly among Romans, it was usual to sacrifice deficient people, that presented phisical or mental illness. We can say, from this point of view, that our society evoluted, got better. If, by the other side, we can imagine that there are still many barriers that were not overcome, specially the ones that are related to the way people treat deficients. We understand that there are many changes to happen.

The character Sam (played with a lot of emotion by Sean Penn) lives under conditions that we can consider adequate to our context, at least on what regards to a deficient that is mentally equivalent to a 7 year old child. He has his own apartment, works at a snack bar as a waiter, hosts his friends to watch classical movies and takes care of his daughter…

This is the exact point in which authorities decide to interfere in his life. They say that Sam (Penn) would be uncapable to solve problems and adequately bring up a little girl, specially from the moment she gets to be with the same mental age of her father (and she was almost turning to be 7 years old). Then, social assistence decides to take the child from her father, depriving Sam from the right of exercising paternity because he is a mental deficient.

The movie puts us in a very singular situation, in which we are able to perceive clearly Sam's impossibilities and, at the same time, live through the images an unique experience of fatherhood, based on a relation sustained by presence and emotion, of participation and donation from father to daughter.

We can add to all of this the coldness and distance of the North American judiciary system, where justice despises details that can be decisive to the solution of a traumatic case of separation of father and daughter. Now we are capable of having a full vision of the story of this movie. Observe that, as an experience that walks in the opposite direction from Sam's relation with his daughter, there is the story of his lawyer, Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer), a pretty and well succeeded professional that hardly ever have time to listen to what her son has to tell her…

The Movie

Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) nervously organizes the sweeteners trying to put them in an orderly way. All of them have to be with its labels in the right direction, with the words in a position that allow people to read it. His disposition to organize everything is not enough to hide from spectators that Sam is a deficient. We can see it from his twitches, movements and annoyment.

In his working environment he was able to captivate his colleagues and, in his private life, he lives surrounded by friends that, just like him, also have difficulties that come from their mental limitations.

A very different happening, however, will change Sam's life forever. He gives shelter to a homeless woman and after some time she is pregnant. With the end of the pregnancy period, as the child was born, Sam leaves the hospital with the mother and the baby on his arms. The woman runs away and abandons Sam and the baby. This is the beginning of a totally original fatherhood experience.

Sam welcomes and takes care of the child with the help of a recluse neighbor (lived by the experient Dianne Wiest). Some years go by and little Lucy Diamond Dawson (Dakota Fanning) becomes a healthy and smart girl, close to her 7 years of age.

When social assistence finds out that Sam (mentally equivalent to a 7 year old child) is taking care of Lucy, begins a lawsuit for the rights of raising and educating the girl. Lucy is taken from Sam and is driven to a law institution. Sam has to prove with the help of her attorney Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer) that he is capable of raising and loving Lucy.

Prepare your emotions! And don't forget to leave a box of tissues close to your seat…

For teachers

1- Tease the sensibility of your students. Ask them how do they react when they get in touch with mental or phisical deficients. Stimulate them not to act moved by pity, but to think about this relationship as an opportunity to grow up, to help, to learn and to develop a true feeling of solidarity. Students must understand that they ought to assist deficient people to build a positive self-portrait and personal valuation and not commiseration or compassion.

2- There is a love lesson in the movie given by Sam to fathers and mothers that worry so much about the material sustenance of their children and leave aside affection, proximity and attention that kids ask for, practically demand and need everyday from their parents. We have given little attention to this, and future consequences of this action can be seen and understood on violence acts, use of drugs, difficulty of socialization, lack of interest for education and many other situation. It is preferable to work in a way we can avoid earlier this problems than later…

3- How would the brazilian laws deal with a situation like Sam's? The movie can be used as an stimulation to a field research, with interviews with judges, public prosecutors and attorneys or even consulting legal codes related to family issues. We can also question the way our catholic vallues and orientations would affect the way we think and act about the situation presented on the movie.

4- To draw a line between the characters of Sam (Sean Penn) and Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer) lead us to a reflection about the chaos that can be seen in our lifes because of the large number of commitments in which we are involved. We left aside our innocence and childhood and assumed responsabilities and, somewhere along this way, we lost our course and forget how to smile and laugh, how to love deeply and have fun,…

P.S. The soundtrack of the movie is filled with unforgettable hits by the Beatles, that inspired the life of Sam and stimulated him to name his daughter as Lucy Diamond (title of one of the most famous songs by the english group, "Lucy in the sky with diamonds").

João Luís Almeida Machado
Master Degree in Education, Arts and History of Culture (Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, em São Paulo); Professor at Faculdade Senac in Campos do Jordão; Middle and High School teacher; writes weekly columns for the website Planeta Educação

Send e-mails, comments, suggestions and critics for:
profjoaoluis@planetaeducacao.com.br

Technical Information

I am Sam

Country/Year of production:- USA, 2001
Lenght of time/Gender:- 133 min., Drama
Director: Jessie Nelson
Screenwriter: Jessie Nelson and Kristine Johnson
Cast:- Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianne Wiest,
Laura Dern, Dakota Fanning, Joseph Rosenberg, Brad Silverman.

Links

In portuguese:

- http://e-pipoca.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes_zoom.cfm?id=3793
- http://www.adorocinema.com/filmes/licao-de-amor/licao-de-amor.htm
- http://www.cineguia.com.br/index.shtml?cod_filme=CNA23979&rg=0

In english:

- http://www.newline.com/sites/iamsam/ (official site)