Review of Film "Gifted Hand".

An analysis of film

“Gifted Hand”

1. Setting

Setting of Place                     : John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

                                                  Ulm West Germany

Setting of Time                      : 1987, back to 1961-1987

A Socio-cultural Setting       : A modern life in metropolitan city. Educated. Many people have modern jobs such as teacher, lecture, doctor, nurse, etc.

2. Character and Characterization

Main Character                     :

Dr. Benjamin Carson: He is a neurosurgeon of John Hopkins Hospital.

Supporting Character          : 

Sonya Carson:  Ben’s mother.

Cathy: Ben’s schoolmates

Mark: Ben’s schoolmates

Prof. Burket: Mrs. Carson’s employer.

Curtis. Ben’s older brother,

Candy Carson: She is Bennie’s girlfriend/Ben’s wife.

Peter and Augusta Rausch. A couple from German whose baby is twin (Yohan and Stefan) need treatment from neurosurgeon.

3. Plot

Exposition      : This story begins with a boy, he is unknown and unpopular in his school. He grows up with his brother and mother. His Mother taught them to lead a good Christian, to be polite and educated them. Inspiring by Clerkgyman/Bishop. One day Bennie tells his mother that he want to be a Doctor. And his mother always told him that he can do the same as others but should do better than them.

Complication   : Ben’s mother became sad, maybe because she was afraid about their future, she event cannot read, a single mother”. But her encouragement was more than what was needed. She learned to read, and she was always very proud of her sons

Falling Action  : Hopeless condition,  

Resolution      : Bennie had been working hard to pursue his dream (becoming a Doctor). And he was. He was the best student, he was an example of patience, He did overcome his fears. When he got to work in a hospital, he found many problems, maybe impossible to resolve for even his partners.

4. Point of View: First-Person Point of  View (Limited Omniscient)

  The narrator/story teller is the doer of the story.

5.      Symbol           : Gifted Hand symbolized the struggling of life to reach the obsession to become doctor. Young Ben Carson didn't have much of a chance. Growing up in a broken home amongst poverty and prejudice, racialism. his grades suffered and his temper flared. And yet, his mother never lost her faith in him. Insisting he follow the opportunities she never had, she helped to grow his imagination, intelligence and, most importantly, his belief in himself. That faith would be his gift, the thing that would drive him to follow his dream of becoming one of the world's leading neurosurgeons.

6. Tone               : Touching and deep compassion

7.      Theme                        : Family Life

8.      Message          : Life is a struggle, life is never flat, life is hard.

  Happiness should be achieved seriously.

  Believe yourself and be optimist.

  Responsibility is everything for a family.

9. Comment       : This story is written based on the true experience.

It is very important for everyone to achieve their success by hard-working   and it is also valuable for everyone building their good

  personality and character. We have to be able to learn to be

  responsible person and well-trusted.

10. Moral value:

1.      Be optimistic. Whatever, whenever.

2.      Nothing is impossible, even in most difficult one, such as neurosurgeon.

3.      Hold the religion values well.

11. Summary

This  a movie is based on the life story of a neurosurgeon called Ben Carson. This story starts with a boy, unknown and unpopular in his school. He grows up with his brother and mother. His Mother taught them to lead a good Christian, to be polite and educated them. One day Bennie tells  his mother that he wants to be a Doctor someday. And she always told him that he can do the same as others but should do better than them.

 Mrs. Carson became sad, maybe because she was afraid about their future, she was uneducated, a single mother. But her encouragement was more than what was needed. She learned to read, and she was always very proud of her sons. Bennie had been working hard to pursue his dream (becoming a Doctor). Ben was the best student, he was an example of patience, He did overcome his fears. When he got to work in a hospital, he found many problems, maybe impossible to resolve for even his partners.

Ben is a religious man. for God nothing is impossible. So he was keeping on operating many people successfully, although in between he lost his own babies. He keeps in focus, praying every day. When he meets the Siamese babies, he decides to operate them, and he started to find the right solution for them and praying hard for them.

12. Synopsis

The movie begins in present day 1987, where Dr. Ben Carson (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) goes to Germany to visit a couple named Peter and Augusta Rausch, who have twins conjoined at the head. Ben knows that chances of saving them both will be at risk, because one baby always dies in situations like that. Ben agrees to do the operation, but he will wait four months so he can come up with a plan to save them both. While looking into some of his books, the movie flashes back to the year 1961, where 11 year old Ben Carson (Jaishon Fisher) starts out life as an Black American child from a one-parent home with failing grades at school. Ben has an older brother named Curtis. His mother, who dropped out in the third grade, starts making decisions for him. When her boys need to learn multiplication tables, she has them swear to learn them while she is gone to check herself into a mental institution. When she sees her two sons' success hindered by TV, she schedules timings to watch tv, boys show great interest in watching only a quiz show later on and commands them to read two books per week from the library and give her a book report, she also moves them to better schools.

Meanwhile as time passes, Ben learns how to multiply and to spell. He starts to explore the world of books, and he grows in it. He begins to show a temper; Ben almost hits his mom with a hammer while arguing with her about what pants he should wear for school and almost kills his best friend as a teenager. His friend was saved as the knife that he used to stab him broke when it hit the buckle of his belt.

Having almost killed someone because of his temper, he realizes that he can't do anything about it. He runs to his room and cries out to God, praying that He delivers him from his temper.

He becomes the top student in his eighth grade class, third in his high school class and with hard work and strong determination, he got a scholarship to college, passed the MCAT and went on medical College. He meets his girlfriend Candy, whom he falls in love with. One day, when he struggles with a test study, she helps him out and Ben eventually passes and gets an A.

In the year 1976, Carson faced adversity from fellow doctors and students while working at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. It is here where he performed an operation as a resident without supervision, risking his medical career to save a man's life. Then in the year of 1985, he saves the life of a girl who has seizures 100 times a day, by removing only half of her brain that was responsible for seizures, procedure called 'hemispherectomy". Candy later becomes pregnant with twins, but loses the babies from a bloody miscarriage. Ben's mother later moves in with the family.

Then the movie goes back to where it began: the year of 1987. Ben is eventually convinced to operate on the two twins, and he manages to make the operation successful, and both twins are saved.