MASK

"They told 16 year old Rocky Dennis he could never be like everyone else.  So he was determined to be better.  Sometimes the most unlikely people become heroes".  MASK, starring Cher as Florence “Rusty” Dennis, Sam Elliot as Gar, Eric Stoltz as Rocky Dennis, and Laura Dern as Diana Adams, was a drama released in 1985.  The more received positive reviews back in the day, and was a major box office success.  The movie was based on a true story.

This movie is about the life and death of Rocky (Stolz), a young man who suffered from a disorder known as craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, which causes malformation of the head.  Regardless of his deformity, Rocky is unconditionally accepted by the biker gang (friends of the family) and his biological family.  Those that do not know him aren’t so kind.  Rocky’s mother, Rusty (Cher), does her best to make his life as normal as possible, even going so far as fighting with his junior high school, who wants to relegate Rocky to special education classes because of his appearance.

As time rolls on, Rocky wins the hearts and minds of his fellow classmates, and graduated with honors.  He even earns a spot as counselor at a camp for blind people, where he falls in love with a blind girl named Diana (Dern).  As the movie nears the end, and his friends have all gone their separate ways, Rocky dies in his sleep, never having taken the cross-country bike trip he had always wanted to take.