Awakening Movie Review

In “Awakening”, a number of sociological issues about life and human interactions are analyzed in depth. Dr. Sayer, due to his empathy and altruism, dedicates his work to the identification of a means of communicating with his catatonic patients. He eventually succeeds, albeit temporarily, and is able to help his patients emerge from their half-conscious condition using an experimental drug. Leonard Lowe, one of his patients, manages to stand out from the rest, adjusting to a normal life after spending more than thirty years in a catatonic state.

Gradually, he starts to develop higher-level needs and forms relationships with those around him as the drug begins to take effect. However, he must also navigate the negative stigma associated with people who grapple with mental health issues, and he aggressively seeks permission to walk outside unaided. Through his interactions with his patients, Dr. Sayer overcomes his inherent shyness, while the hospital staff learns to treat the patients with more respect.

Brief Summary of the Storyline

“Awakenings” focuses on the work of Dr. Sayer, a consulting physician working in the Bronx area who specializes in the treatment of patients in a near vegetative state. His patients are unable to interact with other people in the usual way, which prompts Dr. Sayer to identify special ways of communicating with them. He carries out research that determines his patients can respond to certain actions and events, which can aid in providing more information about the patient and their perspective of life. He, however, meets Leonard Lowe, who seems unresponsive to most stimuli, but eventually responds to an ouija board.

While attending a conference on drugs for patients dealing with psychological complications, he identifies a drug that he believes can be effective for his group of patients and proceeds to test it on Leonard Lowe. The drug works as intended, leading to the awakening of the patient. Sayer then asks for financial aid to help procure the drug for all his patients and awaken them from their half-conscious state.

Leonard recovers quickly from the condition and is able to form good relationships with those around him. However, he feels constrained by the hospital and asks for the chance to leave as he pleases. He eventually confronts Sayer and other hospital staff, demanding more freedom. During this confrontation, Sayer discovers that the drug examined on the patients has temporary effects, as Leonard starts showing signs of remission. Despite this, Sayer still pursues his goal of getting funding for the drug. The awakenings experienced by the patients have a profound effect on their lives, as well as the lives of Sayer and the nurses dealing with the patients.

“Psychological Themes, Issues, and Concepts in the Film”

The movie accurately analyzes the changing needs that people undergo in their lives. While in a vegetative state, Leonard did not need much other than food and rest. After receiving the medication, Leonard regained his ability to move and speak, and soon his needs changed. He began to desire higher-level needs such as friendship and belonging, and soon formed relationships with those around him. Eventually, he needed more freedom, which led him to confront Sayer and other hospital staff about his ability to leave the hospital as he pleased.

The film also highlights the toll that psychological conditions have on patients. Patients portrayed in the film are in a catatonic state, unable to speak or interact with other people in a normal way. Leonard Lowe, for example, deals with the condition for thirty years and is only able to get temporary relief when Sayer provides him with the trial medication. Leonard Lowe essentially lost the best years of his life because of this condition, as evidenced by the opening scene that depicts him as a young person, and other scenes throughout the film which depict him in his current state.

Life-affirmation is also a key psychological theme explored in the film. Dr. Sayer has a positive outlook about the state of his patients and believes they will get better if he administers the right kind of treatment. The patient also feels optimistic and hopeful about his condition after his awakening and does his best to adjust to the life around him.

“Sociological Analysis of the Movie”

The functioning of human memory is one of the key factors analyzed in the film. Dr. Sayer believes that his patient still has their memories intact despite their catatonic condition. He tests his beliefs by stimulating the memories of his patients using different activities and events that the patient is aware of. He soon discovers that his patients are indeed able to respond to familiar experiences from their memory, irrespective of the state they are currently in.

The film also showcases the empathetic and altruistic nature of Dr. Sayer. Despite being somewhat of an introvert and limiting his interaction with people to a minimum, he becomes incredibly empathetic about the condition of his patients and is deeply interested in their recovery. He spends a significant amount of time with them, carrying out experiments designed to stimulate their memories, and convinces other hospital staff that they are still people, despite their conditions. He disagrees with the hospital administration about the administration of trial medication and does his best to assert his position.

The film also shows the adjustments that society has to make when dealing with stigmatized groups. Due to their catatonic condition, the patients do not receive a lot of attention from those around them, and they are not considered to be as human as other people would be. It is only after Sayer, through his experiments, discovers their human side that they begin receiving attention from those around them.

As a result of his condition, Leonard Lowe feels trapped in the hospital, unable to live his life as he intended. He is unable to reach his full potential, as he believes he can, and asks for help from Sayer and the hospital administration. He requests permission to walk outside without supervision, which seems to mean a great deal to him. This highlights the lack of freedom that characterizes his life due to his condition. He gets angry and frustrated when the hospital refuses to consent to his demands, and decides to confront Sayer. His frustration is justified – he feels confined in his current state and is expressing a natural human instinct to seek freedom.

The actual awakenings of the patients also demonstrate the optimism and hope that they, along with Sayer, harboured regarding their condition. From the start, Sayer was optimistic about the health condition of his patients and eventually resorted to an experimental drug to see if it had any impact on their condition. He did this despite the opposition of the hospital administration and medical regulations that would have prevented him from doing so. Remarkably, the trial proved to be successful in Leonard’s case, culminating in substantial progress. The remaining patients, too, brimmed with optimism once they awakened, firm in their belief that they would improve over time. Even after starting to show signs of remission as the drug began to wear off, Leonard maintained his optimism. He urged Dr. Sayer to document his condition, believing it could serve as the foundation for future research and contribute to better treatment options. The film unambiguously foregrounds optimism and hope, refusing to let existing conditions eclipse them.

Due to their interaction with patients, both Dr. Sayer and the medical staff in the hospital experience a sociological change in their outlook on life. At the beginning of the film, Dr. Sayer is presented as having a shy personality, a characteristic which changes as the film progresses. After his experience with Leonard Lowe and other patients, he seems to overcome his shyness and even asks Eleanor, a nurse working at the hospital, out. The nurses at the hospital also learn to empathize with the patients more as a result of their brief interaction with them while the effects of the drug were still in place.

New Insights from Research Sources

According to Clapper (2010), the film presents an accurate analysis of the psychological condition that characterizes catatonia, as well as the impact that the experimental drug would have on a patient. An analysis of data about real patients who have suffered from this psychological condition revealed that they exhibited similar characteristics to those depicted in the film. The effect that the experimental drug had on the patients was also accurate, mirroring the real-life situation. L-Dopa, the drug used in the film, has indeed been found to reduce the severity of certain psychotic conditions, including Parkinson’s disease. Due to the fact that both the medical condition and the drugs used in the film are real and accurately portrayed, it can be concluded that the psychological reactions and issues shown in the film are also accurate and depict what would happen in a real-life scenario.

According to Allan (2007), the awakenings depicted in the film, as adapted from the original book, are accurate. Real-life patients who suffered from the medical condition depicted in the film ended up developing a psychotic condition that left them in a catatonic state. After the administration of L-Dopa, the same drug that is described in the film, patients dealing with the condition became more optimistic about the future and showed a variety of sociological responses, including the desire to lead a normal life as well as experiencing happiness and an increased level of interaction with others. The effects of the drug were, however, short-lived; over time, it wore off, as did the sociological responses that had been recorded by the patients. This highlights the limitations that people dealing with psychotic conditions have to deal with, as shown by the temporary relief created by the drug.

According to Pathiraja (2012), Dr. Sayer’s altruism and empathy led him to commit unethical medical acts, some of which are illegal. Dr. Sayer decides to test the effects of the drug on his patients despite not having research evidence of its efficacy. He administers the drugs without knowledge of what they would do to the patients, which is unethical and in some cases, illegal.

Conclusion.

“Awakenings” explores key psychological themes about the effects that most psychological conditions have on patients. As the psychological condition they are dealing with wears off, patients slowly regain the ability to live a normal life and interact effectively with those around them. Their needs also transition from lower to higher level ones as they are able to engage more with others. The film also examines the impact of empathy and altruism and the extent to which it can serve as a motivating factor. Dr. Sayer disregards medical rules in order to aid his patients in managing their conditions.

References

Allan, C. (2007). Awakenings. British Medical Journal,, 334(7604), 1169. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1885331/
Clapper, A. (2010). Accuracy of The Film Awakenings. Andrew’s Online Journal. Retrieved from http://socrates8181nc.tripod.com/id5.html
Pathiraja, C. K. (2012). Criticism on medical ethics based on the movie ‘Awakenings’ by Penny Marshall. Retrieved from http://medicine.kln.ac.lk/depts/foremed/images/SSC/P_P_M_C_K%20Pathiraja%20Chaminie.pdf

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