I don’t remember what made me put this movie on my watch list, but I did. Awakenings, 1990, directed by Penny Marshall, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. The film is based on real events, and recorded not just by the writer, but by the participant of the events - doctor Oliver Sacks, who told about himself and the experience
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I don’t remember what made me put this movie on my watch list, but I did. Awakenings, 1990, directed by Penny Marshall, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. The film is based on real events, and recorded not just by the writer, but by the participant of the events - doctor Oliver Sacks, who told about himself and the experience of treating incurable diseases that he once undertook. In 1917-1928, the United States experienced an epidemic of lethargic encephalitis, as a result of which people who had it fell into a catatonic state, they remained alive, but did not actually live, but lived in a psychiatric hospital, where they were not even treated, because they did not know how to treat it. In 1969, Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams), a former researcher who had no medical practice at all, comes to work at the Bronx Hospital, where he sees a large number of such patients. Watching them is extremely difficult, but Sayer suddenly notices that some reactions in the patients still persist – they catch a ball or other falling object, react to familiar and liked music, someone can communicate using a board for spiritualistic sessions. Hearing at a conference about the drug L-DOPA, which is proposed to be used to treat patients with Parkinson's disease, he decides to try this drug to treat these patients. At first, the hospital doesn’t want to hear about it, but then he’s allowed to try one of Leonard’s patients. Gradually increasing the dose of the drug, Sayer really succeeds - Leonard wakes up from his catatonic state, really begins to live, returning to his favorite occupation - reading, even falling in love with a girl. Then they begin to give the drug to other patients, the result is equally stunning, the medical staff and the patients themselves do not believe their eyes, and patients are delighted with their new condition. But alas - the result turns out to be temporary, first Leonard, and then the rest of the patients return to their previous state, the only positive thing in all this - for a short period their normal life returned to them. It is also positive that after all this, the medical staff begins to treat these patients differently, before they actually paid no attention to them, now they understand that even in that state the patients understood what they were told, simply could not react to it. And the girl who fell in love with Leonard, and whose father is in this clinic, begins to come to Leonard and read him books. The film, frankly, is quite hard to watch, although it remains to admire the courage of the actors who studied the behavior of such patients and faithfully portrayed them, especially De Niro, but the film makes a pretty strong impression. Robin Williams in the role of a doctor is also good, unfortunately, later, as is known, he himself contracted Parkinson's disease and took this particular drug, but perhaps, fearing that a special result should not be expected, he committed suicide. Dr. Sacks himself was quite pleased with the film adaptation at the time.
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