MovieChat Forums > Ice Castles (2010) Discussion > Loved the Original; Both Films Hit a Per...

Loved the Original; Both Films Hit a Personal Nerve Today...

posted 14 years ago by paisley1
5 replies | jump to latest

I remember when the original came out. It was beautiful and for some reason the movie always stuck with me through the years. They say that everything happens for a reason and there are no consequences; in my mind, the reason I believe the original Ice Castles stayed so close to my heart all these years was to prepare and perhaps even help me find my way back after I began losing my sight.

In 1978, nobody knew what the future held. I had no idea that while I watched this wonderful movie that one day I would be facing the loss of my vision along with the stages of grief, the lack of will to move forward, and the desire to hide away from the world forever. Thankfully, that didn't happen or I would not have the wonderful husband I have had for more than 20 years who stood by me even when my vision began to fade due to a retinal disease and defect (possibly birth defect) in my optic nerves only complicated further by the destructive forces of two separate autoimmune diseases that are slowly taking my light perception away from me.

Granted, I wasn't able to see all of the Ice Castles 2010; hwr, what I was able to make out with the assistance of a zoom program built into my screen reader program on my computer showed me that the spirit of the original held tight in the remake. I am not completely sure about how well or what was lacking with the character Lexie's final skate at Nationals but what I do know is that perhaps there is a little girl or pre-teen/teenage girl out there who will watch this film that will later lose her sight and it will help give her the courage and the will to move forward in her life as I have in mine. This is a movie but when you lose your sight, there are very real obstacles that stand between you and your dream. Sometimes there are ways of working around those obstacles and sometimes, as was the case for me, there aren't so you go out there and make new dreams come true, which is what I did.

Perhaps I should have written this as a review instead of a post within the message board for Ice Castles. To be honest, I don't know how or where to write the reviews on this page so that is a large part as to why I wrote it here. IMDB does a tremendous job in cataloging thousands upon thousands of movies but the website is not exactly the best at being blind-friendly for screen readers for the blind at the times when I have to rely solely on the program vs the zoom program built into it as I have already gone beyond the status of a high to mid partial. Today I am a low-partial to almost totally blind hence the need to rely on the screen reader more and more as time passes. I have no illusions about the fact that one day I will wake up one morning or be doing laundry or running an errand in town when the last of the light perception I have remaining will disappear forever. I have already experiencing periods of blackouts of my sight for several years now so it is only a matter of time. I'm thankful to the director and producers who made it possible to bring this movie back as a reminder of how far I have come in just under 2 decades of deteriorating sight not to mention all the health problems that come with autoimmune diseases.

Great job and thank you for keeping the spirit of the movie intact. Thanks for reminding me of how far I've come and for the new dreams I had to make when my former ones held obstacles too large to bypass. Besides, I am forever hopeful that one day the doctors and specialists studying the disease I have along with the autoimmunes, which make the deterioration of my sight come even faster will find a cure. If not, I can live with that too... although, I do want a cure for those who are just now starting to lose their sight to the same disease as an adult and especially children with the dominant form of the disease who will otherwise miss out on so many great moments of growing up as a sighted person to have it so they won't have to miss the beautiful things only available through sight that are already fading from my memories....

"My stories propel mundane lives into magical worlds where all is possible." -Paisley

[–] Lilibetp 13 years ago

Wow! I've always loved the original and figured it would be encouraging for someone trying to make a dreams come true. Never thought about it in terms of someone losing her sight. I hope they find a cure for your condition so you can watch the movie again.

[–] macgirl66 12 years ago

I'm glad you found these movies inspiring, but my main problem with this remake is that Lexie falls over on the ice and looks like she barely knocks her head on the ice at all. My son and I were both in a roll over auto accident, we both had head injuries with concussions and bloody head wounds, we got hit in the head considerably harder than she did and neither one of us had any lasting effects (we were both unconscious). My son had another concussion from an accident on his bike the same year with loss of consciousness, no blindness. He also played football AND rugby that year. Do you get what I'm saying? The accident that Lexie has in the first Ice Castles is a much more severe accident, where I can believe she could suffer a bad head injury. Sorry, but this was lame.

BTW, I'm glad you met someone nice who appreciates you for the person you are. The movie's not worthless, but it could have been so much better. I agree with those who say, don't bother with remakes if people plan to do them half a$$ed. I'll take the original any day of the week.

To each their own...opinion

[–] whitespirit26 12 years ago

Yes, but it's WHERE she got hit in the head: right where her vital cords were, her head slammed down on rock-hard ice, then her head seemed to go in a strange direction, which might have strained the cords further (they're right below the hairline). Still, they could have made it more dramatic.

[–] macgirl66 12 years ago

Yes, not a worthless film, but it could have been better. It's almost like they didn't have very good consultants, or a very good production designer to "set up" this scene to make it look believable on screen, because they could have done a much better job with it. What the audience doesn't see or understand, they aren't going to buy. Most laypeople don't have detailed knowledge of the nerves of the eyes and will see what I saw, that she just had a wimpy fall on the ice. I agree, they definitely could have filmed this better and showed that she had really seriously fractured something, which then put swelling on her optic nerve. It was like, "Oh, sorry, you took a bad fall and now you're blind."

To each their own...opinion

[–] whitespirit26 12 years ago

Yes, they should have added something more hard-sounding than the iced "flop" sound that happened and described the optic nerves at the hospital.