I think that by allowing the camera to be held by a friend -- which would have never seemed invasive to Ms. Fawcett -- and by recording nearly every doctor's appointment, every development, every new surgery and problem and triumph and disappointment, that she actually gave us a brutal window into what cancer is really like. The fight for each new day, and the joy when it arrives. The sometimes-hell of the treatments themselves. And the tangle that is the health-care system.
This was the vibrant pinup girl of the 70s and 80s, the owner of arguably the most famous head of hair in the world, allowing herself to be bald and sick and vulnerable for all the world to see. Whether you like her as an actor or not, this was a human portrait of a woman fighting a disease with all she's got. Her family and friends fight too, and her doctors are there for her at every turn. And the fact that the story has no ending yet makes us think: How would we be in the same circumstances?
In making herself vulnerable, I think Ms. Fawcett also made herself strong. And in so doing, also shed some light on anal cancer, which needs more research money and more awareness in its own right.
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I vote for brave.
I think that by allowing the camera to be held by a friend -- which would have never seemed invasive to Ms. Fawcett -- and by recording nearly every doctor's appointment, every development, every new surgery and problem and triumph and disappointment, that she actually gave us a brutal window into what cancer is really like. The fight for each new day, and the joy when it arrives. The sometimes-hell of the treatments themselves. And the tangle that is the health-care system.
This was the vibrant pinup girl of the 70s and 80s, the owner of arguably the most famous head of hair in the world, allowing herself to be bald and sick and vulnerable for all the world to see. Whether you like her as an actor or not, this was a human portrait of a woman fighting a disease with all she's got. Her family and friends fight too, and her doctors are there for her at every turn. And the fact that the story has no ending yet makes us think: How would we be in the same circumstances?
In making herself vulnerable, I think Ms. Fawcett also made herself strong. And in so doing, also shed some light on anal cancer, which needs more research money and more awareness in its own right.
May 25, 2009 - 8:00amThis Comment
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