Sunrise at Campobello

Plot

The film begins at the Roosevelt family's summer home on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada (on the border with Maine), in the summer of 1921. Franklin D. Roosevelt is depicted in early scenes as vigorously athletic, enjoying games with his children and sailing his boat.

He is suddenly stricken with fever and then paralysis. Subsequent scenes focus on the ensuing conflict in the following weeks between the bedridden FDR, his wife Eleanor, his mother Sara, and his close political adviser Louis Howe over FDR's future. A later scene portrays FDR literally dragging himself up the stairs as, through grit and determination, he painfully strives to overcome his physical limitations and not remain an invalid. In the final triumphant scene, FDR is shown re-entering public life as he walks to the speaker's rostrum at a party convention, aided by heavy leg braces and crutches after his eldest son James pushed his father's wheelchair near to the podium.

Historical context

Sunrise at Campobello presents events that took place over four years, from August 1921 to July 1924, culminating in FDR's speech at the 1924 Democratic National Convention.

Before and during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, the extent of his disability was minimized. Sunrise at Campobello depicts the debilitating effects of FDR's paralytic illness to a greater extent than had been previously disclosed by the media.

FDR was diagnosed with polio in 1921, but his symptoms are more consistent with Guillain–Barré syndrome - an autoimmune neuropathy which his doctors failed to consider as a diagnostic possibility. In any case, the film is accurate in the sense that FDR and everyone around him believed that his symptoms were caused by polio.

Awards and honors

Greer Garson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama.

The film was also entered into the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival.

Academy Awards

Other honors

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: