Awakenings

Post Reply New Topic

Has anyone seen the film, "Awakenings" which stars Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro? Robin Williams plays the part of the
Neurologist in this true story by Dr. Oliver Sacks.

"Awakenings" is based on a true story about the Encephalitis Virus Outbreak which occurred in the 1920s and affected many
children and adults. No one knew how to treat these children and adults ...who became institutionalized in mental hospitals as the
Encephalitis Virus caused them to slip into coma-like, vegetative states.

Some patients spent thirty years in the mental hospitals as they were children in the 1920s and the cause of their condition was a mystery that the Neurologist was trying to solve... and treat with the right kind of medication.

The film reminds me of the mystery of Autism...so many children and adults are affected by Autism and AS and how the current race in research is to find a "cure."

Maybe there really is something in the environment... or a virus...causing Autism...we really don't know.

good movie..

thought i doubt there will ever be chemical treatment for people currently with autism.... even if only briefly.

I thought it was a good movie. De Niro's best performance imho.

Very good movie. I don't know if they'll ever sort out what makes us us. I don't know if they'll even narrow it down to one cause.

It sounds like a good film; how old is it?

80's maybe? williams and deniro are kinda young. very good watch. warning: sad though

"Awakenings" takes place in the Bronx, New York in 1969...it shows you what mental hospitals were really like at that time before de-institutionalization went into effect. Yes, it is a heart-breaking movie...because it is a true story.

I saw the movie one night when I was in college.

One of my very favorite films...

http://www.answers.com/topic/oliver-sacks

http://www.oliversacks.com/about.htm

Zsazsa posted (in part): Has anyone seen the film, "Awakenings" which stars Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro? Robin Williams plays the part of the Neurologist in this true story by Dr. Oliver Sacks. ---- Zsazsa - Yes, have seen the movie. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awakenings - Good movie. The movie can be interpreted on more than one level. The level I viewed the movie was that the movie showed something very, very unusual - a chemical (L-Dopa) being able to temporarily restore gross and fine motor control movement to some people who had lost those abilities due to a type of encephalitis. That idea is completely amazing - a chemical which can get inside the brain and make some connections so human behavior is temporarily normalized (not a cure). In my own life I have experienced a kind of small awakenings too. Am ADHD Inattentive and, for some reason, I am very sensitive in a positive fashion to several FDA approved medicines: Tirend (an alertness aid - contains caffeine - 100 mg), NoDoz (an alertness aid - contains caffeine - 100 mg), and Bonine (an anti-motion medicine - caffeine-free). Both the Tirend and NoDoz will reduce distractibility and increase attention span for me in under 1 hour (not a cure); the Bonine will allow me to sense the center of balance in my body much better in under 1 hour so I am temporarily far more gross and fine motor coordinated (not a cure). The Awakenings movie is one of the very few movies which addresses the temporarily kind of improvements I see with Tirend, NoDoz, and Bonine (which are just as real as what is shown in the movie) so I am very grateful for the movie. Of the three medicines which work for me, the Tirend works the best (not a cure). The Tirend will allow me to play the piano a little better (a little more smoothly, a little more rhythmically) for several hours after I take the Tirend. My sensory integration and ability to cross the midline of my body on the piano keys is temporarily much better (not a cure). I talked to a neurologist about the movie, Awakenings, and the neurologist I saw appeared unimpressed by the movie Awakenings. The same neurologist was unimpressed too (my view) when I told him that, for me, caffeine works better than Ritalin for some reason for my ADHD Inattentive. My personal view is that if most neurologists play down both a movie like Awakenings as well as my own personal experience with caffeine that there never will be any real progress in the area of gross and motor control ever. - pgd

nope, but it sounds like an interesting movie

I liked the movie more for the information in it than the movie itself (which kind of trotted out a lot of standard disability stereotypes, one of the worst being when the man tried to organize the ward into making some demands about the living conditions, and was portrayed as doing so only because he was impaired somehow rather than because he had real points). I have a movement disorder that isn't as severe but is in the same general family (as do many autistic people), and I could relate a lot to only being able to do certain things if the environmental conditions were just right, and to being judged as not being there when I can't move (to the point people will abuse me and say things in front of me then that they would never say and do when I am moving).