2008 Woodie Awards
Homelessness film hits home
Jackie Starner
Issue date: 11/18/04 Section: Life!
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On a campus where homelessness is fairly removed from students' daily lives, it is helpful to sometimes have reminders of how this problem presents itself in our society. Muhlenberg Activities Council showed the Lifetime movie Homeless to Harvard this past Monday evening so that students could acquaint themselves with Liz Murray's story of homelessness before her visit to the campus on Tuesday.
At the beginning of the film, Murray, played by Thora Birch, speaks directly to the audience and begins to tell her story, beginning with a description of her mother. Murray's mother was not only a drug-addict but an alcoholic and schizophrenic as well.
In the first scene of the film, the dysfunction of Murray's family is apparent. Murray's mother begs her daughters to give her the money they are hiding from her so that she can buy drugs. As his wife screams and beats the girls, Murray's father remains blissfully unaware of the situation and continues to watch TV. Although Murray's mother would frequently squander the money the family needed for food and rent on drugs, Murray still loved her mother. She simply realized that her mother "just didn't have anymore to give."
Murray's parents were so wrapped up in their own problems that they did not fulfill Murray's basic needs. She ate out of dumpsters and was "always the smelly kid in school." The other kids at school made of fun of Murray because of her poor hygiene, so she stopped going, but continued to be promoted because she passed all of her tests at the end of the year. However, due to Murray's truancy, the authorities took Murray away from her family and put her in a group home.
After a few of Murray's frightening experiences in the group home are chronicled, the movie transitions to when she was fifteen and goes to live with her biological mother, sister, and grandfather. Although, this sounds like it could be an ideal arrangement, it is quite the opposite, as Murray's grandfather physically and sexually abused Murray's mother when she was younger. Murray runs away from her grandfather's house and becomes homeless for the first time after her grandfather hits her, sayiing, "Your piece of trash father walked out and stuck me with the lot of yous."
At the beginning of the film, Murray, played by Thora Birch, speaks directly to the audience and begins to tell her story, beginning with a description of her mother. Murray's mother was not only a drug-addict but an alcoholic and schizophrenic as well.
In the first scene of the film, the dysfunction of Murray's family is apparent. Murray's mother begs her daughters to give her the money they are hiding from her so that she can buy drugs. As his wife screams and beats the girls, Murray's father remains blissfully unaware of the situation and continues to watch TV. Although Murray's mother would frequently squander the money the family needed for food and rent on drugs, Murray still loved her mother. She simply realized that her mother "just didn't have anymore to give."
Murray's parents were so wrapped up in their own problems that they did not fulfill Murray's basic needs. She ate out of dumpsters and was "always the smelly kid in school." The other kids at school made of fun of Murray because of her poor hygiene, so she stopped going, but continued to be promoted because she passed all of her tests at the end of the year. However, due to Murray's truancy, the authorities took Murray away from her family and put her in a group home.
After a few of Murray's frightening experiences in the group home are chronicled, the movie transitions to when she was fifteen and goes to live with her biological mother, sister, and grandfather. Although, this sounds like it could be an ideal arrangement, it is quite the opposite, as Murray's grandfather physically and sexually abused Murray's mother when she was younger. Murray runs away from her grandfather's house and becomes homeless for the first time after her grandfather hits her, sayiing, "Your piece of trash father walked out and stuck me with the lot of yous."