Warm Springs (2005)

Interesting facts

Warm Springs is a 2005 made-for-television biography drama film directed by Joseph Sargent, written by Margaret Nagle, and starring Kenneth Branagh, Cynthia Nixon, Kathy Bates, Tim Blake Nelson, Jane Alexander and David Paymer. The screenplay concerns U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1921 illness, diagnosed at the time as polio, his struggle to overcome paralysis, his discovery of the Warm Springs resort, his work to turn it into a center for the rehabilitation of polio victims, and his resumption of his political career.

Production

The film was produced by HBO Films and directed by Joseph Sargent. The majority of the film was made at Warm Springs, Georgia and its surrounding locations. Other Georgia locations include Madison, Atlanta, Summerville, and Gainesville.

The producers strove to make sure that many of the physical details were as authentic as possible. For example, Kenneth Branagh, as Franklin D. Roosevelt, is seen driving the very same specially-equipped automobile that Roosevelt was taught to drive at Warm Springs. The cottage that Roosevelt stays in during the film is one of the cottages that the real Roosevelt stayed in.

Actress Jane Alexander, who plays Roosevelt's mother Sara Delano Roosevelt, also played Eleanor Roosevelt in the acclaimed 1976 telefilm Eleanor and Franklin and its 1977 sequel Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years. Many of the bit part actors in the film are actually physically disabled, though Branagh and several other of the principal actors are not. The withered appearance of Branagh's legs was achieved through the use of CGI.

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