A Mile in His Shoes
| A Mile in His Shoes | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | William Dear |
| Produced by |
Tara Cowell-Plain Dureyshevar Jason Koornick Jack Nasser Joseph Nasser Dan Spilo Danny Webber |
| Screenplay by | Jason Koornick |
| Based on |
The Legend of Mickey Tussler by Frank Nappi |
| Starring |
Dean Cain Luke Schroder |
| Music by | Stu Goldberg |
| Cinematography | C. Kim Miles [1] |
Release date | 5 September 2011 |
Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
A Mile in His Shoes is a 2011 Canadian made-for-television sports drama film directed by William Dear and starring Luke Schroder, George Canyon and Dean Cain. It was based on the novel The Legend of Mickey Tussler by Frank Nappi. The setting was changed from Ohio in 1948 in the novel to Bargersville, Indiana in 2002 in the film.[2] The movie was filmed in Vancouver and is meant to bring awareness about the treatment of people with autism in earlier years. In the past, autism was not known or even diagnosed as autism and people who suffered from it were thought to be "retarded". This story is the story of one of the people who suffered from autism before autism was recognized.[3] The movie takes place in Ohio, but was filmed in areas surrounding Vancouver, British Columbia, including Langley, New Westminster and Queen's Park. The screenplay is written by Jason Koornick and the film is adopted from Frank Nappi's novel, "The Legend of Mickey Tussler".[4]
Plot
The film centers on Mickey Tussler (Luke Schroder), an 18-year-old from Indiana with Autism, who joins the semi-professional baseball team "the River Rats" after being discovered by Arthur Murphy (Dean Cain).[2] At 18 Mickey has very severe autism. His speaking abilities are limited and he usually refers to himself in the third person and recites poetry to himself when he becomes overwhelmed. Mickey's mother (a clarinetist and poet) is forced by her father to marry a man named Clarence who is illiterate and beats both Molly and Mickey.
The movie introduces Arthur Murphy ("Murph") who sees Mickey pitching apples to his pig and sees a boy with a lot of potential in a baseball career. He talks Molly, Mickey's mother into letting Mickey come with him to be a part of the team. He pairs him with a very nice teammate named Pee Wee who takes Mickey under his wing.
Even though Mickey is a good member of the team, he does not fit in and his team mates constantly make fun of him and haze him. Though the movie's focus is on Mickey's journey and his baseball career, the movie also focuses on the importance of raising awareness about Autism. The movie portrays the importance of giving people with autism a chance and treating them with respect. The original book gives each character the chance to show small amounts of their own history making the story very complex and compelling.[5]
Book
Nappi has produced a knowledgeable yet unsentimental book starring an autistic teenager with a fearsome fastball. Milwaukee Brewer's manager Arthur Murphy recruits 17-year-old farm boy Mickey Tussler as a pitcher for his team. And though Mickey's slowness enrages his impossibly cruel father (who abuses his wife and derides Mickey as a "retard"), the boy's dad is happy to collect his son's pro baseball salary. In short order, Mickey achieves local stardom despite his mental disability and his teammates' clubhouse pranks. Lefty Rogers, the Brewers' southpaw ace, resents Mickey's triumphs on the mound and plots to sabotage his rival's budding career. At the same time, Murphy romances Mickey's much-abused mother and leads his resurging team in a hot pennant race.[6] This novel set in 1949 Milwaukee continues the story of an autistic youth with phenomenal baseball skills. Mickey has come under the protection of his manager, Arthur Murphy, who has fallen in love with Mickey's mother. Arthur woos and marries her, and the newly formed family lives together in relative happiness, although Mickey's condition continues to draw the taunts of opposing players and fans. Murph's job security is also an issue due to the unexplained animosity of the team owner, the nefarious Warren Dennison. Further complications arise when, at Murph's insistence, the team signs a Negro League star, Lester Sledge. Opposition to Lester's presence culminates in an attempted lynching by the local branch of the KKK. Several of Lester's teammates arrive on the scene at the last minute to rescue him, even as another teammate is unmasked as one of the miscreants. The complicity of a corrupt sheriff is documented on a recording device he had been given as a present, but Murph agrees to a deal in which the sheriff will admit guilt and testify as to the involvement of an opposing manager-but only if Murph's team wins the championship game. If they lose, he will surrender the tape to the sheriff. (No, it makes no sense at all.) The outlandish and difficult-to-follow plot is at times rendered almost incomprehensible by tortured syntax and grandiloquent prose. It is difficult to imagine any reader getting past the first few pages of this earnest but regrettable effort.[7]
Cast
- Luke Schroder as Mickey Tussler
- Dean Cain as Arthur "Murph" Murphy
- George Canyon as Clarence
- Chilton Crane as Mrs. Tussler
- Jarod Joseph as Pee Wee
- Jesse Hutch as George "Lefty" Rogers
- Andrew Wheeler as Warren Dennison
- Jaren Brandt Bartlett as Raymond "Boxcar" Miller
- Anna Mae Wills as Laney
- Matthew Robert Kelly as Chip McNally
- Lee Tichon as Rocco Hightower
- Kenneth W. Yanko as Sheriff Billings
- Paul Jarrett as Pastor Bob