20 years I Am Sam

On December 3, 2001, the premiere of the film "I Am Sam" took place in Beverly Hills, California. The film is directed by Jessica (Jessie) Nelson.

First, a few words about the origin of the name of the picture. The title of the film is a slightly modified title of the extremely popular American children's book Sam-I-Am. This book is included in the collection of books for children from 3 to 9 years old "Green eggs and ham". The collection was written by a very popular children's writer and animator in the USA, Dr. Seuss (real name - Theodore Geisel). The peculiarity of this collection is that each book included in it uses a limited number of words. This number is focused on the set of words that is known to a child at 3, 4, 5 and so on, years old. The Sam-I-Am book uses only 50 words. By giving their film a title directly associated with the title of this book, Jessie Nelson and her co-screenwriter Kristine Johnson thereby initially indicated the level of intellectual development of the main character of the picture.

The image of the main character of the picture was born on the basis of a long and careful observation of Kristine Johnson and Jessie Nelson for members of the L.A. GOAL organization, located in the suburb of Los Angeles, the town of Culver City. L.A. GOAL positions itself as "a non-profit organization committed to creating opportunities and equity for adults with developmental disabilities so they can live more fulfilling lives. Our programs cultivate knowledge, skills, and confidence for our Members to engage in meaningful work, encourage creativity and self-expression, promote health and wellness, and inspire meaningful relationships."

Before the filming of the film, the lead actor Sean Penn also spent a lot of time among the members of the L.A. GOAL organization, which helped create an absolutely authentic image for him. But Roger Ebert did not like this role of Sean Penn at all. In his review of the film, in which he rated the film with only two stars out of 4 possible, Ebert wrote: "it is painful to see an actor of his fire and range locked into a narrow range of emotional and intellectual responses. "

In general, the low rating of the Jessie Nelson's film was very typical for most film critics. Another authoritative American film critic James Berardinelli also rated the film with only two stars out of four possible and in his review he wrote this about the film: "I Am Sam (inspired by a line from "Green Eggs and Ham"), despite boasting interesting character relationships, stumbles and falls because of a storyline that consistently overlooks real-life situations when it isn't pandering to the needs of those who want every screenplay to be constructed from cliches. Of course, there's also the problem of overt manipulation - subtlety is not one of this film's hallmarks - but that's to be expected from any motion picture that so obviously wants to be regarded as a tear-jerker."

The opinions of reputable film critics, in all likelihood, coincided with the assessment of the film by American film academics. The film received only one Oscar nomination - for Sean Penn. But the film did not achieve success in this nomination either. Preference was given to Denzel Washington for his role in the movie "Training Day".

In total, the film received 8 film awards and 12 nominations. But the most prestigious of them was the nomination of the Japanese Film Academy in the category of Best Foreign Film. Jessie Nelson's film did not win in this nomination, Japanese film academies preferred Marc Forster's "Monster's Ball". But this is probably the case when being in the glorious company of "relative losers" becomes no less honorable than winning. The company of the film "I am Sam" was made up of "Gangs of New York" by Martin Scorsese, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by Chris Columbus, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" by Peter Jackson.

Russian film critics rated Jesse Nelson's film "I am Sam" significantly higher than American ones. So, Denis Shlyantsev wrote in his review: ""I am Sam" is one of the rare touching films that not only makes the viewer empathize with the characters, experience catharsis in the finale and be cleansed by tears, but also feel better, rise above your own life and look at everything you have done with new eyes."

Another Russian film critic, hiding behind the nickname "petroo", so appreciated the film by Jessie Nelson: "Respectable, slightly ironic directing in the best traditions of "Forrest Gump". Decent camerawork. The most powerful acting data of the performers of the main roles. And even sometimes a painful understanding of how shamelessly the director Jessie Nelson manipulates the audience's sobs does not cancel the brightness and integral author's style of the picture. Secondary and purely American melodramaticism do not frighten. I want to watch "I am Sam" and worry."

Russian critics' assessments are closer to me. I have repeatedly admitted that I do not like melodramas. Especially tearjerkers. But this picture won me over. Two factors may have played a role. First of all, the main role was played by my favorite actor Sean Penn. And secondly, the film is imbued with love for my, and not only my, most beloved ensemble - The Beatles. In fact, the name of the daughter of the main character Lucy Diamond is taken from the song of the Liverpool quartet "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", the name of the main character Rita Harrison is taken from the song "Lovely Rita", and the last name is from George Harrison. Finally, there is a whole episode in the film, literally copied from the cover of the album "Abbey Road".

Sean Penn, a passionate fan of The Beatles, wanted the legendary quartet's original songs to be played in the film, but there were copyright issues. And then Sean Penn turned to his musician friends with a request to record covers of songs, which was done.

The following figures speak about the ratings of Jessie Nelson's film "I am Sam" by those for whom, in fact, movies are created, - by moviegoers. With a budget of $ 22 million, the film grossed almost $ 98 million at the box office, and more than half of this amount the film earned outside the United States. 65% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film scores from 8 to 10.

With that said, the rating of Jessie Nelson's film "I am Sam" according to FilmGourmand was 7,945, thanks to which it took 807th Rank in the Golden Thousand.