Customer Reviews

So Much So Fast

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Very good resource for those wanting to learn more about ALS and it's affects on patients and families as a whole. Great Hospice tool.

Well put-together and though-provoking. Every scene confronts the family with decisions that challenge their perspective--as well as the viewer's--about what comes first in life. Even the seemingly mundane daily tasks resonates with significance when it may be one of the last time you get to share that experience with the afflicted family member. How many of us could be jolted from the incessant "work-only" mentality that this society place on us to lift our hands off the keyboard and spend a quiet afternoon with someone--even if they were not in imminent danger of a life-terminating disease--just because it is the more important thing to do? This is a heart-warming movie that the audience--whether they have any member of their family with a life-threatening affliction or not--will gain a lot of perspective.

Very well made, touching, involving documentary about a man dying of
ALS.

It's inspiring and profoundly moving to watch him keep his sense of
humor and humanity throughout, and watch his brother, who became
obsessed with saving him, finding a way to start a whole foundation in
a renegade way.

It deserves kudos for the unusually honest and heartfelt way it explores the
stresses the whole experience puts on the family, along with the deep
sense of connection it brings them.

Lou Gehrig died in 1942. So little change, so much misery. This film puts the problem in focus yet how valuable human life can be, even with such a horrible, debilatating disease can be. I hope it helps to shame drug companies to finally mobilize on this disease and for the public to demand it. Obviously, the public opening their wallets will help too.

Living in Queens, NY, my parents and I have subscribed to the excellent NEW YORK NEWSDAY,for may years. It is from a feature in Newsday that I first learnt of the Heywood Brothers, their struggles, triumphs, and tragedies.

I haven't bought this DVD -- yet. When I do, (which is right after I write this), I will update this review. However, there is ONE THING EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT A.L.S., which is SO important, I feel I must write it NOW, before I write a formal review, and even before I buy the item.

And that imoportant bit of information, (which you may or may not know),
is this:

MANY (PERHAPS NOT ALL, BUT STILL, MANY), PEOPLE WHO GET A.L.S. HAVE OVER-EXERTED AND OVER-EXCERCISED THEMSELVES. (LOU GEHRIG, WHO DEVOTED HIMSELF TO HIS SPORT MUCH AS WOULD ANY ANCIENT GREEK ATHLETE, WAS, IN RETROSPECT, PERHAPS A BIT T_O_O DEVOTED TO IT, SIGH!) SO -- EVEN IN OUR HURRY-UP, EXCERCISE-TO-LOSE-WEIGHT WORLD -- IT BEHOOVES THOSE WHO WOULD TRY TO AVOID A.L.S. TO N_O_T OVER-EXCERT THEMSELVES.

A DOCTOR I KNEW SAID THAT EXCERCISE IS THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR BODY. THIS IS TRUE -- BUT ANYTHING, ANYTHNG AT ALL, TAKEN TO EXCESS, CAN BE DANGEROUS!

((((( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( (((

UPDATE: 28TH MAY 2011:

I received my copy of this DVD in good order. I "prepared myself", and watched the DVD.....

There is SO much in this story that I can't' comment on all of it. My main impression is, that I wss surprised by how much of this story is UPBEAT and HOPEFUL. A.L.S. is rarely an upbeat topic -- and the undercurrent of possible tragedy is always there....but never of a totally, undeniable, unyielding tragedy. If ever a movie personified the expression, "While There's Life, There's Hope", it is this movie.

We see Stephen Hayward before his illness, and then, gradually through the stages of it. Watching him, one learns of the type of person he was. throughout his life.
And one finds oneself wishing that this cruel disease had instead found itself, (if, that is, it had to come to any person at all), with a stalker, a child molester, or a mass-murderer. Because Stephen Heywood was not only handome and
storng...he was a genuinely nice guy.

Sol too, are his two brothers, Jamie and Ben. Jamie's obcession with finding a cure makes him at times "butt heads" with the medical establishment, and I did sort of feel sorry for those lab mice, which were infected with ALS, so that a cure could be found for Stephen, and all other human A.L.S. victims. The lives of all sentient beings on Earth are important. But -- another story comes to my mind, as well... About two years ago, a man in NYC found a large rat in his house, and killed it. Animal rights advocates were outraged, and the case was brought to court. The judge laughed the case out of his court-room, because the idea of a rat -- whose bite could cause plague and other terrible diseases -- not being killed because of animal rights, seemed to to this judge totally absurd. True, lab rats are NOT of the huge, dangerous variety. But when it comes to which is more important, lab-rat lives, or human lives, it is obviously the human lives which must be considered first!

Stephen and one of his brothers marry, and each fathers a child. We see the children grow up, as Stephen's condition goes down, from bad to worse.

But neither Stephen, nor his wife, nor his brothers, ever really give up hope. At least, not for very long. True to my suspicions, it is said early on that "Stephen loved speed", (see "WARNING", above). Yet the foundation started to help Stephen Heywood went on to attracct other patients, and many scientists. It lives on today.

And who knows, it might, (speedily!), help to find a cure for this disease. I mean, we've found cures for the Plague, Syphillis, Pellagra, Polio,.....even Leprosy! Who knows what the future may bring, if we devote enough time, talent, and money to it

Watchng this video makes you proud to be huamn. And to realize that ANY dream you may have....from curing A.L.S. to time-machines, to bringing back lost loved ones....can, perhaps, be possible. At least, these thing should never be written off as impossible.

No dream ever should. Dreaming, daring.....and DOING. THAT is what this riveting and unforgettable documentary is all about!