‘Gleason’: A raw look at ALS

SR critic Nathan Weinbender reviews “Gleason,” the documentary re: Steve Gleason’s fight against ALS:

The first thing Steve Gleason did after learning he was succumbing to Lou Gehrig’s disease was turn on his camera. The former NFL safety was diagnosed with ALS in 2011, around the same time that he and his wife, Michel, discovered they were having a baby, and he began producing a series of video diaries expressing his fears and doubts and dispensing nuggets of fatherly wisdom to a son he would likely never speak to in person.

Those videos, so raw and immediate and nakedly emotional, make up a good portion of the documentary “Gleason,” which stares as unflinchingly and candidly at the effects of terminal illness as few films I’ve seen.

Born and raised in Spokane, Gleason played football for Gonzaga Prep and later played as a linebacker for Washington State University. After college, he was signed by the New Orleans Saints, and though he was smaller in stature than many of his teammates, he was such a lithe and go-for-broke player that his intensity was likened to that of a kamikaze pilot.

Gleason’s seven-year NFL career is defined by a single remarkable play, later memorialized in a bronze statue outside the Superdome. During the first quarter of the Saints’ first game in their home stadium following Hurricane Katrina, Gleason blocked a punt from the Atlanta Falcons that resulted in a Saints touchdown. It was a moment of stunning athleticism, but it also came to represent the city’s rebirth in the wake of destruction. More here (subscription).

• ‘Gleason’: The movie will move you /David Kilmer, Coeur d’Alene Press

Question: Do you know someone with ALS?