MovieChat Forums > Proof (1992) Discussion > Did Martin have a PC in his living room?...

Did Martin have a PC in his living room? SOLVED

posted 17 years ago by TimeNTide
7 replies | jump to latest

First of all, please excuse my ignorance of the lives of blind people and enlighten me if possible.

In the first scene in Martin's house I saw what appeared to be a computer monitor and keyboard on a hutch in the living room. My first thought was "Ah, a goof, a blind person wouldn't have a PC, especially in the early 90's". Then, near the end of the film, Martin actually sits down in front of the hutch, and I realized that it couldn't be a goof because the keyboard, monitor and printer were too prominent in the shot to not be noticed, even though Martin doesn't touch any of them.

So, any guesses on what the equipment was, and how a blind person would use it?

Maybe a regular PC (or just a word processor) to type letters to seeing people? And the monitor was only used if the blind person were being assisted by a seeing person? Or the monitor was only there because it came with the PC? Or Martin owned a PC, but had the housekeeper or someone else actually use it when he needed something?

Or, is it possibly special equipment for the blind. Maybe the blind person types at the keyboard, and the printer prints Braille? And again, the monitor is used only when a seeing person is assisting?

Any ideas or knowledge to share...

You can catch the devil,
You just can't hold him very long...

[–] MisterZed 17 years ago

Home computers were fairly common in Australia in the early 90s (at least the big cities - maybe not so much rural areas). In 1991, most of my friends had one. Australians typically have a very rapid up-take of new technologies. This leaves only the question of *why* he would have one, and how he could afford it. Someone on a pension wouldn't be able to, but then again, he wouldn't be able to afford a housekeeper either. So obviously he has money... (see my other thread about this).

[–] TimeNTide 16 years ago

Oh... I had no intention of suggesting that Australia was backwards in any way. The PC was surprising because he was blind, not because he lived in Australia.

IIRC, where I lived (big city USA) in 1991, most nerds had a PC (myself included), but PC's didn't become a "must have" item for everyone until 3-4 years later when the internet because widely popular and when most people started using standard software packages (e.g. Word, Excel) for both home and office. That's another reason why I was surprised.

However... after reading the two replies below, it seems possible that PC's are so helpful to blind persons that maybe they became "must have" items for them before the general public.

Thanks for your reply.
That's part of your problem, you haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies.

[–] BentWarpedAndTwisted 16 years ago

The printer in the movie is for braille. The monitor would be for setting up the computer and for configuring the system and printer. The keyboard had extra function keys on it in place of a mouse.

(My cousin is in the process of getting his Ph.D. in computer science. His guide dog totally freaks out the underclassmen.)

[–] TimeNTide 16 years ago

Thank you for the info.
That's part of your problem, you haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies.

[–] severus_snapepm 16 years ago

Martin used the computer to type reviews of music records (this is mentioned in two unfilmed scenes, that I found in an Actor scene book). The computer would have a voice synthasizer that would read back what he wrote so he would know if there where any mistakes. Note that the letter he gives his house keeper is typed.

[–] TimeNTide 16 years ago

Thanks for the great info.
That's part of your problem, you haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies.

[–] misschicken 14 years ago

I worked in a Braille library for a while and there were two computers used by the clients, plus another computer that was connected to a Braille printer. This was in 2000 but I believe that a couple of the visually impaired patrons had been using computers for a number of years. Those particular people were legally blind but seemed to have had more vision than Martin did in the movie.

However I imagine there were quite a lot a blind person could use a computer for in the early 1990s.