God punishing with 'retarded' children?!

That wasn't a cruel remark, it was a completely honest one!

Obviously Philly's parents care about him. But his mother is entitled to an unguarded moment when she can express her root feelings. Cut her some slack.

If you had kept watching only ten minutes later she says she loves her baby boy and is worried for him. And you have to remember this is 40 years ago and his mother was born in 1904.
You cheated yourself out of a wonderful and emotoinally moving film.

I find it both perplexing and disconcerting how often people on these boards judge films produced in another time by the standards that exist today. It's as if they have no understanding that social & popular culture evolve over time. Believe it or not, there actually was a time in the not too distant past when people could express themselves candidly and honestly without fear of being judged by clueless strangers on social media.

After devoting 50+ years of lovingly caring for a child who is “mentally disabled” (euphemism for ‘retarded’ after that word was commandeered by ‘the common folk’ and deployed as an insult) this woman’s greatest concern was how her son would survive once she was 'no longer able to care for him'. (Euphemism for 'dead’) If that’s your definition of cruelty, you must live a terribly sheltered life.

She just means you live a life of worry.