{"id":23349,"date":"2016-11-20T21:17:40","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T02:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=23349"},"modified":"2016-11-20T21:30:33","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T02:30:33","slug":"gleason-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/20\/gleason-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Gleason (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Gleason-2016.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-23353\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Gleason-2016.jpg\" alt=\"gleason-2016\" width=\"490\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Gleason-2016.jpg 490w, https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Gleason-2016-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Gleason-2016-1x1.jpg 1w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px\" \/><\/a>Steve Gleason was a New Orleans Saints linebacker whose career hit a peak in September 2006 at the Superdome, when he blocked an Atlanta Falcons punt that was picked up by teammate Curtis Deloatch for a touchdown, the first score for the Saints on their home turf since Hurricane Katrina. Gleason retired from football in 2008, and three years later his life took a double twist: he was diagnosed with ALS (more commonly known as Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease) shortly before his wife Michel learned that they were expecting their first child.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Clay Tweel\u2019s film offers a video diary of the efforts by the couple to deal with these parallel considerations. Some of the footage is harsh \u2013 especially when Michel angrily objects to his father\u2019s decision to bring the physically failing Gleason to a dubious faith healer \u2013 and the speed in which Gleason\u2019s vitality evaporates is harrowing.<\/p>\n<p>But the film has some curious gaps: the viewer has no idea how Gleason made a living after leaving football, nor is there any certainty who is paying for his medical treatment, which ultimately include a motorized wheelchair and sight-recognition computer software when he is no longer capable of speech. The film also fails to acknowledge that the discovery of the so-called bounty scandal involving efforts by Saints players to deliberately injure opponents arose as a result of an audio recording made during this production.<\/p>\n<p>Despite its flaws, the film is a moving portrait to a brave family, and it offers a raw first-hand look at the devastation created by ALS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steve Gleason was a New Orleans Saints linebacker whose career hit a peak in September 2006 at the Superdome, when he blocked an Atlanta Falcons punt that was picked up by teammate Curtis Deloatch for a touchdown, the first score for the Saints on their home turf since Hurricane Katrina. Gleason retired from football in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[1481,292,1482,1480,1479],"class_list":["post-23349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-indie","category-movie-reviews","tag-als","tag-documentary","tag-lou-gehrigs-disease","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-steve-gleason"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23349"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23354,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23349\/revisions\/23354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}