Sayra A.

Torres

Jacqueline Sgobba

Intro to Special Education

2 February 2020

I Am Sam
 I’m Sam is a movie about a man with disabilities that becomes a father by accident. The

mom abandons him and their daughter, Lucy, just after Lucy’s birth. Sam has to raise her with

the support of his neighbor and a close group of friends who also have disabilities. He can

handle being Lucy’s father at first when she starts interacting with her peers at school she

becomes aware of many things and Lucy’s intelligence surpasses Sam’s. Then when Sam tries

to make a surprise birthday party for his daughter, it backfires and Lucy’s friends start bullying

her. Society turns their eyes to Sam’s ability as a father, and law battle starts for Sam to keep

his daughter with him. His consistency and determination lead him to convince a well name

lawyer to take his case. Their court case involves a couple of foster parents that think they can

be loving parents for Lucy and help her to have a better life. But they soon realize that she can’t

have a happy life living separated from her dad and that the bond that they have is strong and

they as foster parents cannot replace that. So instead, they decide to just be part of Lucy’s life

supporting Sams parenting. They make it so that Lucy can return home and then all work

together to support Sam in his parenting as a disabled single dad.

Sam is a person with autism and intellectual disability who has the intellectual coefficient

of a seven year old child. Sam is at a disadvantage when his daughter’s ability to learn goes

farther than his own and this leads to frustration. When Lucy’s world is opening through

interacting with others at school and she starts to ask her father for things such as visiting that

new restaurant it exposes both of them to a stressful situation. This appeared to bind Lucy to

her father’s limitations. When her Lucy’s teacher points it out to Sam he realizes the fear of his

daughter being smarter than him.

In this film Sam is a person with high values like honesty, compassion, kindness,

bravery, perseverance, patience and a well structured life even though he struggles with his

inability to keep focus and anxiety when he is overwhelmed. He also seems more capable of

information. In fact as he works on it he shows that he is better than people without disabilities

at retaining information and his memorization capacity.

 Recognizing that all of us as individuals have to struggle with some kind of weakness

and being part of a demanding society that is ever changing could help us find the kindness to

try to help make others’ lives easier. Especially when there are people trying to get used to

arduous routines and an unforgiving society. Some Seem to have lost the ability to feel

compassion and empathy.

Sam is the most frustrated in this situation being a person who has to prove that he

deserves to be Lucy’s father and despite his disabilities he feels the obligation to show that he

can be just as worthy as anyone else wanting to take Lucy from him can. He needs to show that

he is able to raise a healthy child, but he is more scared than normal people because he knows

he has disabilities and recognizes his disadvantage. He has to coexist with a world that is

almost completely against him. He has to go against the expectations of society’s typical

parenting criteria.

In my opinion, this is a movie that clearly shows the fear of people that have to face an

abnormal situation. We reject things that are out of the ordinary. It shows how easy it is to take

flight rather than stay and fight. In this movie we can see how people fill their life with money

and accordance with social standards. We have to be kind and empathetic to all people, not just

those with special needs and seeing how someone with disabilities is able to to this despite all

his limitations, it shows how those of us without any sort of mental disability may be the ones

who struggle the most.

I Am Sam. Dir. Jessie Nelson Perf. Sean Penn, Dakota Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer. 28 Dec.

2001. The Bedford Falls Company. New Line Cinema.