I Am Sam

Love is all you need!

2 3

Plot Summary

•Sam Dawson has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. He works at a Starbucks and is obsessed with the Beatles.

•He has a daughter with a homeless woman; she abandons them as soon as they leave the hospital.

•He names his daughter Lucy Diamond (after the Beatles song), and raises her. But as she reaches age 7 herself, Sam's limitations start to become a problem at school; she's intentionally holding back to avoid looking smarter than him.

•The authorities take her away, and Sam shames high-priced lawyer Rita Harrison into taking his case pro-bono. In the process, he teaches her a great deal about love, and whether it's really all you need!

Trailer: Click Video and wait atleast five seconds for video to load

“Did you know that since 1980 the number of single dads in the US

has doubled to nearly 1.6 million? That's a lot of us. I'd bet the

census count missed a few too. Single dads are growing 6 percent a

yearyear-that's double the rate for single moms. That means almost 15

percent of us men are running a dad-only household (Batchelder).”

How does gender effect this movie?

How is culture respreseneted in this movie?

Sam, is a mentally challenged single father? Do you think there are a lot of people who are labeled as mentally

challenged raising children?

“Information in this area is scarce. Reasons for this include the fact that many parents who have mental retardation are either not receiving services that would identify them as having mental retardation or are not identified by the service system or program in which they participate. Also, different service agencies use varying definitions of mental retardation.

Deductions can be drawn from a study done by the Oregon Developmental Disabilities Council in 1989. The study identified 358 families in the state of Oregon with parents considered to have an intellectual impairment.* Based on a 1990 Oregon population of 2,853,733, the number of parents with mental retardation would equal .00013 percent of Oregon's general population. If these numbers reflect the general population of the United States, then .00013 percent of the U.S. population of 249,632,692 in 1990 would equal 32,452 parents with mental retardation in the U.S. This number, however, is probably a low estimate, given that many parents who have mental retardation are not identified by the service system. (Population statistics are from the 1990 U.S. census.)”

What sterotypes did you have before watching the movieabout a single father raising daughter? Have your

views changed since watching the movie?

What sterotype did you have about people who are Mentally challenged? Have your views changed since watching the

movie?

What role did music play in this movie?

Do you think the music in the movie effected how you viewed the movie and main characters?

Why do you think the director chose to use beatles songs for the soundtrack of the movie? Why do you think he used covers of the beatles songs and not the original beatles

songs?

Homework: Create a cd cover for the movie I am Sam. Illustrate the cover to represent main themes in the movie. Pretend we are creating an extended soundtrack to this movie. Pick atleast 3 songs that you think relate to this movie. On a seperate sheet of paper please list the songs you have chosen why you included them on your extended soundtrack.

CitationsCitations1.Batchelder, Patrick. "Single Dads: It's a Small Club, Right?." Fathers. National Center for Fatheing, Web. 15 Oct 2009. <http://www.fathers.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=220&Itemid=56>2. Parents Who Have Mental Retardation." Network of Care. Ed. The Arc. Butte County, 1990. Web. 16 Oct. 200