Mask is a 1985 film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and starring Cher and Eric Stoltz. Sam Elliott and Laura Dern are featured in supporting roles. Cher received the 1985 Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actress. This article is about the year. ... Films are produced by recording actual people and objects with cameras, or by creating them using animation techniques and/or special effects. ... Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (born July 30, 1939) is an American film director and writer, born in Kingston, New York. ... Cher on the cover of her album Living Proof Image:CherCher Photo Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946) is an American actress and singer of half Armenian, Scots Irish, and 1/16th Cherokee descent. ... Eric Stoltz Eric Stoltz (born September 30, 1961) is an American actor widely considered one of the most prominent performers in independent film. ... Sam Elliott (born Samuel Pack Elliott on August 9, 1944 in Sacramento, California) is an American actor of motion pictures and television. ... Laura Dern Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967 in Los Angeles, California) is an American film and television actor. ... Cher on the cover of her album Living Proof Image:CherCher Photo Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946) is an American actress and singer of half Armenian, Scots Irish, and 1/16th Cherokee descent. ... The Palais des Festivals in which the festival takes place. ...

Tagline: Sometimes the most unlikely people become heroes.

Plot summary

The film concerns the life and early death of Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis, a boy who suffered from craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, an extremely rare disorder known commonly as lionitis due to the disfiguring cranial enlargements that it causes. Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia (also known as lionitis) is a disease that causes calcium to build up in the skull, disfiguring the facial features and reducing life expectancy. ...

Rocky's mother Rusty Dennis (Cher) is determined to give the boy as normal a life as possible, despite her own wild ways as a member of a biker gang. She fights to have him included in a mainstream junior high school, when the principal would rather classify him with mental retardation in order to have him sent to a special education school. Rocky (Stoltz) goes on to thrive in the school, gradually overcoming discrimination and eventually finding a girlfriend (Dern). At the end of the film, Rocky dies at the age of 16. Although the term refers to any motorcycle enthusiast, sometimes the word biker is used to mean an outlaw biker, or bikie, who is a member of a 1%er or outlaw motorcycle gang. ... Middle school and junior high school cover a period of education that straddles primary education and secondary education and serve as a bridge between them. ... Mental retardation (also called mental handicap and, as defined by the UK Mental Health Act 1983, mental impairment and severe mental impairment) is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills (milestones) during childhood, and a significantly below-normal global intellectual capacity as... Special education (also known as special ed, SPED or defectology) refers euphemistically to the teaching of students with a learning disability, a developmental disability or a behavioral problem, or to that of gifted children. ... To discriminate is to make a distinction. ...

Impact

The commercial success of Mask was a milestone in the career of Bogdanovich, who had directed a string of critical and financial failures following his three successful films of the early 1970s. It also helped launch the careers of Stoltz and Dern.

The American animated series Family Guy spoofs the film's portrayal of Rocky Dennis in the episodes "Petarded" and "Peter's Got Woods". An animated series or cartoon series is a television series produced by means of animation. ... Family Guy is an animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for FOX in 1999. ... Petarded is the title of a fourth season episode of the animated series Family Guy. ... Peters Got Woods is an episode from the fourth season of the FOX animated television series Family Guy, which first aired on September 11, 2005. ...

After the film's release, Swedish pop musician Jens Lekman published Rocky Dennis EP, an EP containing four songs about Rocky and his portrayal in the film. Jens Lekman (born 1981) is a Swedish pop musician. ... An extended play or EP, is the name given to vinyl records or CDs which are too long to qualify as singles but too short to qualify as albums. ...

External links

• Mask at the Internet Movie Database