Academic Film Review

Amanda Boyd

Rosa Thornely

ENGL 3630

8 March 2016

Film Review: Temple Grandin

On March 8, 2016 I watched the movie “Temple Grandin”. I was not sure what to expect to see in this movie, except that it had some kind of farming theme to it. As the movie began, it shows Temple in an optical illusion house introducing herself to the audience. I could tell right away that she was autistic. I thought that this was going to be just a movie on autism but it ended up being so much more. It shows a dedicated and bright woman who takes an interest in farm animals and wants to help them from being mistreated. The movie really captured some important takeaways that I have previously learned about farms. A few of the themes I picked up from the movie include how the experience of living on a farm can bring you a sense of self, as well as how good treatment towards livestock is important for us. These themes show how valuable an experience of living on a farm can be, in order to help one grow into a successful being.

When Temple first arrives at her aunt’s farm, she is not sure fully what to think. She takes in her surroundings with an observant eye. She immediately takes a liking to the cows; she even likes to lay down on the ground in their cage with them. She hears the cows getting distressed as one cow is poked and jabbed at by while being directed by the farmers to a curious machine. The cow keeps crying out in panic until it gets inside the machine. Once the bars are snuggly pressed around the cow’s sides, it becomes very calm and happy. This device is called a squeeze machine and Temple finds it quite fascinating. Later that night, Temple’s mother calls to warn the aunt that there will be a point where Temple will snap from getting too overwhelmed by something, so the aunt makes sure to assure that she will deal with Temple when that time comes. While Temple stays with her aunt, she notices what improvements she can make on the land to help make her aunts way of life much more easy. She helps create a gate for her aunt using the information she has observed through her daily findings on the farm. Gone are the days that Temple’s aunt has to get out of her car to open the front gate, and could then pull a rope that activates a mechanism to help move the gate so that there are forty-five seconds to get through in her truck.

As time predicted, one day Temple snaps. When she walks to her room, she notices that there are changes inside that she did not make and this causes her to get very overwhelmed. Her breathing and heart beat excelerate and her aunt notices that this is the moment she has prepared for. Temple cries loudly as she runs out of the house and darts to the squeeze machine that is used to help calm cows down. She orders her aunt to enclose her in it just like the cows. Her aunt is hesitant but does it. Temple is able to find relief with this machine, and because of this, she realizes that this is what she needs to use when she is distressed. If Temple had not gone to her aunt’s farm, she may have not found a way to control herself when she her anxiety gets worked up. 

The farm also offered Temple a place for her to think about her future. She found a love for cows which she would never have found if she hadn't stayed with her aunt. Her farm experience helped Temple to find that she was interested in cattle husbandry and that she should go to college even if it seemed scary to her. Another woman who found herself on a farm was Elinore Pruitt Stewart. Elinore was a Homesteader that went through many struggles on a farm. She lost her husband, had to run the farm on her own, and even had to face crop failures at times. Through this, Elinore still found that farm life was her calling. She says, “I have tried every kind of work this ranch affords, and I can do any of it. Of course I am extra strong, but those who try know that strength and knowledge come with doing. I just love to experiment, to work, and to prove out things, so that ranch life and ‘roughing it’ just suit me” (Farm, p. 133). This shows that if these woman had not gotten the chance to experience farm life, they may have not found their true calling. Temple would not have grown her passion for cows and their care if she had not spent her summers on a farm. Temple also would not have been able to create her squeeze machine which helps with her anxiety if it weren't for her observations of how it helps cows. The experience on a farm proved to be vital for Temple finding her true calling and becoming successful.

Temple’s love for cows grows as the movie progresses. Her high school science teacher sees her love for cows and insists that she go and get her degree in cattle husbandry. He sees her enormous potential to do something great, and because of his support, she decides she wants to go to college. Temple does not adjust to college well at first because school officials do not like that she brings in her squeeze machine to her dorm. She decides to conduct a study on how this machine can help her and others. Her superiors are impressed with her research and decide she can keep it. This bit of good news helps encourage Temple that she can do anything she sets her mind to and can open new doors. She is able to receive her doctorate and decides that she wants to work on a ranch. 

When she gets on the ranch, she is instantly targeted by the other men. They make sexist remarks to her as well as belittle her intelligence. In this time, men did not like women working on the farm and they tell her that even the wives of the workers are not allowed in. This shows how the history of farming never depicts a woman working hard and getting dirty outside, and that women mainly took care of the kids and house duties. This stereotype does not stop Temple from continuing her tour with the other ranchers. As she continues, she sees the terrible conditions of how cows are slaughtered. What sets her off the most is the cattle dip. Cattle dips are used to clean cows of any parasites and ticks that may be on them. Typically, cows are supposed to walk down a slippery incline and jump into a narrow, but deep passage of liquid. The problem is that when the cows jump, they can land wrong and flip over which leads them to drowning. When one drowns in front of Temple, it infuriates her. Seeing a cow drown makes her realize that there must be a better way for cows to enter a cattle dip. 

When she does succeed and creates a much better dip for cattle, the ranch men decide to not follow her instructions on purpose, and it causes three cows to die. This makes Temple livid. She confronts her old science teacher and claims about cattle how, “We raise them for us. That means we owe them some respect. Nature is cruel but we don’t have to be. We can easily do it a way where they don’t feel pain and they don’t get scared” (Grandin,1:30:43). She sheds light on the fact that livestock is important to our way of living, and because of that, we owe them much more than we could imagine. If these animals provide us with food, helped us to plow our crops, and many other resources, they deserve to be treated with the upmost care. Livestock plays an important role throughout history. They were there to help us in the days when we did not have machines to help us. In the book “Farm: A Multimodal Reader”, chapter three talks about how animals were valued greatly. It claims how pastoral and bucolic life show how romanticized rural life could be saying, “The scene is peaceful, serene, contemplative, rustic, simple, and idyllic because of how cowherd/shepherd has direct connection with the natural world that suggests a kind of purity” (Farm, p. 45). This shows how the treatment of cattle has been historically seen as important for keeping our natural world at peace. If it were not for cattle, we would not be able to access what our world has to offer. Temple realizes this and saw that change needed to happen. She was able to create a much more humane way to handle these cows, and saved companies time and money because of it. 

Temple Grandin shows how having the experience of living on a farm is important for helping one grow a sense of self and that the treatment of livestock is important for us to pay attention to. Getting a chance to live on a farm helped Temple to learn new things, think about what she wanted to do in life, and find a way to deal with her challenges of autism in a different way that works for her. Because of that experience, she went on to help improve the treatment of cattle to be much more humane. Farm life really does prove to be beneficial and helpful for those who have the privilege to experience it.

Work Cited:

• Kinkead, Funda, McNeill. “Sharecopper’s contract between Isham G Bailey, Cooper Hughes, and Charles Roberts”. Farm-A Multimodal Reader. Book.
• Temple Grandin. Dir. Mick Jackson. Perf. Claire Danes. Warner Bros., 2010. DVD.