Warm Springs Information

Warm Springs is a 2005 television film about U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's struggle with polio, his discovery of the Warm Springs, Georgia spa resort and his work to turn it into a center for the aid of polio victims, and his resumption of his political career. Roosevelt's emotional growth as he interacts with other disabled people at Warm Springs prepares him for the challenges he will face as president during the Great Depression. The film is not a remake of Sunrise at Campobello.

Cast

Actor	Role
Kenneth Branagh	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Cynthia Nixon	Eleanor Roosevelt
Kathy Bates	Helena Mahoney
Tim Blake Nelson	Tom Loyless
Jane Alexander	Sara Delano Roosevelt
David Paymer	Louis McHenry Howe
Melissa Ponzio	Lucy Mercer
Marianne Fraulo	Missy LeHand
Brian F. Durkin	Elliott Roosevelt
Turner Dixon	James Roosevelt
Tripp Hennington	Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr.
Sam Frihart	John Roosevelt
Carrie Adams	Anna Roosevelt
Wilbur Fitzgerald	Al Smith
Felicia Day	Eloise Hutchinson

Actress Jane Alexander who plays Sara Delano Roosevelt, FDR's mother; also played Eleanor Roosevelt in the acclaimed 1976 telefilm Eleanor and Franklin and its 1977 sequel Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years. Many of the bit part actors in the film are actually physically challenged, though Branagh and several other of the principal actors are not. The withered look on Branagh's legs was achieved through the use of CGI.

Production

The film was produced by HBO Films and directed by Joseph Sargent. The majority of the film was made at Warm Springs, Georgia and its surrounding locations. The producers strove to make sure that many of the physical details were as authentic as possible. For example, Kenneth Branagh, as Roosevelt, is seen driving the very same specially-equipped automobile that FDR was taught to drive at Warm Springs. The cottage that Roosevelt stays in during the film is one of the cottages that the real FDR stayed in. And the swimming pool in which the patients swim in is the actual therapeutic swimming pool at Warm Springs, refurbished specifically for the film.

Reception

The film was nearly unanimously praised by the critics, and won five Emmy Awards out of an astounding sixteen nominations, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (Jane Alexander), Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) (Bruce Broughton), Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie and Outstanding Single-Camera Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie. Joseph Sargent, who was also Emmy-nominated for his direction, did not win. He did, however, receive a Directors Guild of America award for Warm Springs. Screenwriter Margaret Nagle won a Writers Guild of America Award for her script. The film was also nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, but did not receive any.

See also

• Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation
• Sunrise at Campobello