Warm Springs (film)

Warm Springs is a 2005 television film about American President Franklin D. Roosevelt's struggle with polio, his discovery of the Warm Springs, Georgia spa town resort and his work to turn it into a center for the aid of polio victims, and his resumption of his political career.
 * Directed by Joseph Sargent. Written by Margaret Nagle.

The greatest challenge FDR faced was the one we never saw. (taglines)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

 * [on his plans to run for office] When I can walk, I'll run.
 * [During a speech] Now, they say! The best way to get rid of a man! Is to have him run for vice president! Well, I say! Ask my cousin Teddy! That's how they got rid of him!
 * [first time standing in the pool] I can't even stand! I can't even stand...
 * [tearfully, standing in the pool] I'm standing. I'm standing.
 * [speaking at the schoolhouse graduation ceremony] Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Now, you know, at Groton where I graduated from high school, our beloved Headmaster encouraged his students to enter public life. I chose to attend Harvard for my undergraduate work and then Columbia for my law degree. Followed my Headmaster's advice and sought a career in public life, but circumstances beyond my control... [begins shaking] have made that very difficult. You know, I've given many speeches in my life. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time making this one.
 * Well, I want to say how proud I am to be a part of this community... community based not on birth rite or privilege, but on compassion and courage and -You know, I believe the true power of these waters is that they brought us all together. And our ability to help one another is what will make our victory over polio endure, because what... because what you have done, and what we will continue to do until this disease is defeated is to come together, like a family. Do what we do best. Lift each other up.

Helena Mahoney

 * Franklin, I can't help you out of a hole if I climb in with you.

Jake Perini

 * "There but for the grace of God," they say, as if our bodies were who we are. Well it's not: our souls are who we are, only they don't know it.

Dialogue



 * Louis McHenry Howe: I can't quite picture you in the back woods of Georgia.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Well, where do you picture me, Louis?
 * Louis McHenry Howe: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.


 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: [on first arriving at Warm Springs] I can't stay here. This place is a wreck.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: Franklin.
 * Tom Loyless: Look on the bright side, most of your time will be spent in the water. Look, we've fallen on some hard times...
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Hard times?! This place should be condemned!
 * Tom Loyless: [short pause] Yes, it's true, we've seen better days. But then, I imagine, so have you. [short pause] I'd be happy to drive you back to the train station right now if that's what you'd like?
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: My husband is concerned.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Fire. [short pause] I'm very frightened of fire. I can't get out if I'm upstairs I...
 * Tom Loyless: Oh, of course. We have other options.


 * Helena Mahoney: I feel like I've been brought here under false pretenses.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Join the club.


 * Louis McHenry Howe: Why are you a Democrat?
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: The Democratic Party is the party of the people, and I'm a man of the people.
 * Louis McHenry Howe: You're a Roosevelt. Since when does a Roosevelt know about people?


 * Eleanor Roosevelt: You want to stay?
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Yes.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: New York has the best doctors and hospitals in the country.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: I need something new.
 * [short pause]
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: This isn't about getting better, is it? You don't want to come home. You don't want to live with us.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: I refuse to be a burden to anyone--
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: You're not a burden, you're my husband.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: I want to offer you the freedom you once so generously offered me. Listen, all you've ever known is duty to me and to a political career and unless I can walk again, no longer exists. You've been...exemplary. Now I'm telling you...that your free to go.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: I don't want freedom. I want a marriage. I want a life with you.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Perhaps I can't imagine what you think that life is going to be.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: Oh, Franklin. It's not up to me to imagine. It's up to you.


 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Don't talk to me as if I were a child!
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: How am I supposed to talk to you?
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Like I was!
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: I don't know how to any more.


 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: I want no part of this. I come here for privacy.
 * Tom Loyless: This isn't your personal spa! I have a business to run!
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Exactly! You have a business to run not I!
 * Tom Loyless: No one's asking anything of you!
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Course they are!
 * Tom Loyless: Do you know what it took for most of them to get here?
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: It's not my concern! I want to be left alone!
 * Tom Loyless: My God... You're afraid of these people.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Afraid? What are you talking about?
 * Tom Loyless: You look at them with the same repulsion and pity as everyone else.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Don't be ridiculous! And I resent--
 * Tom Loyless: You don't want to be around them because then that would make you one of them. Wouldn't it?
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: God dammit! Get outta my way! Get out of my goddamn way!


 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: You never pitied me, Tom. Thank you for that.
 * Tom Loyless: On the contrary; I envy you.


 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Mahoney. I need to speak with you, please.
 * Helena Mahoney: Sure, doc. [walks over]
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Thank you.
 * Helena Mahoney: Good luck, Franklin.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: I'm throwing myself to the wolves.
 * Helena Mahoney: You've faced worse. If they bite, you can come back here.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: I'll always come back here. [laughs]


 * [FDR is about to make a speech.]
 * Louis McHenry Howe: What's the matter?
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: What if I fall?
 * Louis McHenry Howe: If you fall, you just get up again.
 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt: If I fall in front of thousands of people, I'll lose everything... except their pity. They'll never see past my legs.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: My darling, they'll never see past your legs... until you do.


 * [last lines]
 * Reporter: Mrs. Roosevelt, do you think that polio has affected your husband's mind?
 * Eleanor Roosevelt: [smiling] Yes, I do! I certainly do!


 * [last title cards]
 * Title Card: Four years later, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President of the United States. He was elected three more times - unprecedented in U.S. history.
 * Title Card: During his years as President, he saw the country through the Great Depression and a world war waged on six continents.
 * Title Card: On April 12, 1945, in the thirteenth year of his presidency, at the age of sixty-three, Franklin Roosevelt died in his cottage at Warm Springs.
 * Title Card: The beneficiary of his $562,000 life insurance policy was Warm Springs...which continues to flourish as a rehabilitation center to this day.

Taglines

 * The greatest challenge FDR faced was the one we never saw.
 * A new movie by HBO Films.
 * FDR brought us out of the Depression and through a world war. But the greatest challenge he faced was the one we never saw.
 * The story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt before he became President.

Cast

 * Kenneth Branagh - Franklin D. Roosevelt
 * Cynthia Nixon - Eleanor Roosevelt
 * Kathy Bates - Helena Mahoney
 * Tim Blake Nelson - Tom Loyless
 * Jane Alexander - Sara Delano Roosevelt
 * David Paymer - Louis McHenry Howe
 * Andrew Davoli - Jake Perini