The Plight of Homeless, Deaf Youth Gangs in mid-80's New York

The mid-80's romance-fantasy 'Beauty & The Beast' has its fans and critics, but there's no way around how awesome this clip is. Vincent (the Catman, played by future Hellboy Ron Perlman) is sending one of the "unwanteds" from their loving, underground community out into the big scary world. Laura's deaf, and she needs resources they don't have. Hugs and tears ensue, and then she's shepherded above-ground by Linda Hamilton (Sarah Conner from the Terminator films, before she bulked up.)

Cut to later, and she's fallen in with a gang of deaf teens. And I don't mean a "group" or a "bunch of kids." This is *literally* an all-deaf gang. Of thugs. Street toughs!

Watching their evil leader plot the robbery of a warehouse has to be seen to be believed.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Beauty
• the
• Beast
• deafness
• gangs

[interpreter2006]

Thanks for posting this! I saw this episode when it first aired but not since. I remember it was newsworthy because it was the first time in network television that Sign Language wasn't interpreted by a voice but by subtitles. It was an amazing episode!

[briggybear]

My oh my, methinks I found a gem. I want to beam this and only this into outer space so that aliens think that this is how we live.