The Best of Men is a 2012 period drama television film, which dramatizes the pioneering work of Dr Ludwig Guttmann with paraplegic patients at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, which led to the foundation of the Paralympic Games.
Ludwig Guttmann (Marsan) is a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, sponsored to stay in the United Kingdom by CARA,[1] while his patients were injured British servicemen, initially bewildered at finding themselves under the care of one of "the enemy".
On arrival at the hospital, the patients are kept under sedation, and immobile in bed, a regime leading to bedsores, infection, and, in many cases, death.
As he gradually wins the staff over with his determination and optimism, Guttmann faces a further problem in the hopelessness of some of the patients, particularly exemplified by the youngest inmate, William Heath (MacKay), who joined the army from school.
William's despair is contrasted with the irrepressible humour of veteran Wynn Bowen (Brydon), who offers a constant stream of irreverent comments from his bed.