It is the time of the week again, and this time the movie watched is a tragic one, depicting the real-life experiences of neurologist Oliver Sacks in hospitals and dealing with mental patients, starring famous actors Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. Sounds familiar? It probably should, since this movie got 3 Oscar nominations according to IMDB and was rated 7.8/10 on the same site and 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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| There is no such thing as a simple miracle |
Plot :
In the year 1969, Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) gets a job at a local hospital in the Bronx, New York City. After working extensively with catatonic patients who have been diagnosed with encephalitis lethargica, he discovers that there are certain stimuli that can elicit a reflex reaction beyond their catatonic states from the patients, such as ball-throwing and listening to certain types of music. He also discovers that a patient, Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro), is able to communicate with him via an Ouija board. After attending a conference, Dr, Sayer has the idea of trying to use a new drug, L-Dopa to help his own group of patients, all of which end up successful. Leonard completely 'awakens' from his catatonic state and Dr. Sayer tries to get donors to fund the medication for all the other catatonic patients. Meanwhile, Leonard experiences the simple things in his life that he never has had the chance to : walking, making his own decisions, and love. Slowly, Leonard starts to resent the restrictions placed upon him and demands more freedom. In the midst of Leonard's rebellion against his doctors, he starts displaying tics and slowly starts to suffer full body spasms, up to the point when he can't move. In the end, all the other catatonic patients slowly revert back to their catatonic, regardless of the dosage amount of L-Dopa administered. The movie ends with Dr. Sayer standing behind Leonard with his hands on Leonard's on an Ouija board, and him saying "Let's Begin".
Analysis & Reflection :
At the beginning of the film, when Dr. Sayer entered into the local hospitals and the states and condition of the mental patients were shown, with mass hysteria and then moments of silence and blank stares from the catatonic patients being displayed, I thought I was watching a horror movie. Furthermore, with a name like "awakenings" and me being an avid movie buff, I assumed that the plot was about exorcisms and spiritual possessions. But enough about me, let's talk about the movie. There were many events that occurred in the plot throughout the movie, for example, the catatonic patients discovery that they were already old and not as young as they were back when they contracted encephalitis lethargica. Their reactions all provoked a thought within me : what if I were to have undergone a similar process? What would I do if I woke up one day and found myself a 22-year old man in a 60-year old body? This brought to mind Erik Erikson's theory of development. As stated in the theory, us humans go through the stages of development as we age and mature throughout our whole lives. This being said, Leonard is a school-age kid who wakes up 30 years later in an adult's body, and he has had no prior training or experience for his new role in life, making it a terrifying experience, as seen by another patient's reaction, in which the woman said, "I just can't imagine being older than 22. I have no experience at it. I know it isn't 1926, I just need it to be". These reactions would indicate that the patients would most likely be in the identity vs identity diffusion stage, in which they start to discover their new self-identities.
Another key point in the movie that can be associated with the same theory is when Leonard takes a liking to Paula, a patient's daughter who visits. This indicates that Leonard is in the stage of intimacy vs isolation, and is discovering young adult love for the first time in his life.
Another theory by Orbuch & Veroff in 2002 stated that physical attractiveness, apart from similarity, proximity, and familiarity (mere exposure) are also determinants of interpersonal attraction and Paula fits all four determinants, making this theory a valid explanation of why Leonard took a liking to Paula.
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| How's this for close proximity? |
This movie ultimately teaches us to appreciate the simple things in life. As Dr. Malcolm Sayer spoke towards the end of the movie, it might have looked like only the doctors were giving the patients awakening, but in turn, the patients gave the doctors and nurse a new sense of awakening, that being the behaviour of humans taking the simple things in life for granted, with it only pointed out when contrasted with a catatonic patient's mindset.
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This movie also changes our perspectives on catatonic patients and people with mental or physical disorders in general, showing that things are not always as it seems.
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| Very clearly awake |
Rating : 7.5/10
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| Thank you for reading. See you in the next blog post!! :) |
References :
Orbuch, T. L., & Veroff, J. (2002). A programmatic review: Building a two-way bridge between social psychology and the study of the early years of marriage. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 19(4), 549-568. doi: 10.1177/0265407502019004053
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