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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1990s
    Movies - 1990s Movies - A 3 Mins Read

    Awakenings (1990)

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    This true story is adapted from a 1973 book by Dr Oliver Sacks, a clinical neurologist who in a New York hospital in 1969 used the experimental drug L-dopa to awaken a group of patients suffering from Encephalitis lethargica.

    These survivors of a post-World War I sleeping sickness epidemic had lived in a state of catatonia but remained “alive inside” for decades.

    Dr Sacks’s book told how his patients experienced about a month of wellness before suffering hellish side effects and retreating to their private limbos again.

    The script, by Steven Zaillian, isn’t exactly the book. Robin Williams isn’t playing Dr Sacks; he’s playing a facsimile called Dr Malcolm Sayer, a change that allows for dramatic inventions, including a flirtation with a nurse, played with flinty charm by Julie Kavner.

    De Niro’s portrayal of the patient Leonard Lowe is closer to the book, though a flirtation with an outsider, pretty Penelope Ann Miller, has been trumped up.

    The movie focuses on the doctor’s close bond with Leonard, playing down the stories of the other patients, whose more violent and sexually aggressive reactions have been softened.

    Events are condensed; the crucial awakening sequence that takes place simultaneously for fifteen patients in the film actually happened over several weeks. And the film sometimes slips into easy sentiment, which Randy Newman’s score crassly underlines.

    And yet Awakenings works. With Dr Sacks as technical advisor, the film stays devastatingly true to the nature of the illness. Penny Marshall’s direction shows the patients’ situation, which the real Leonard once described as “wonderful, terrible, dramatic and comic,” with pitiless clarity.

    Alice Drummond and the late jazz master Dexter Gordon stand out among the patients, and veteran actress Ruth Nelson is magnificent as Leonard’s protective mother.

    But the film belongs to its two stars. Williams gets under the skin of this shy, committed doctor, registering every nuance of victory and heartbreak; this is his most mature screen work to date.

    De Niro acts with staggering courage, especially when Leonard tries to stop his trembling body from dragging him back to darkness.

    Williams and De Niro are astounding. So is this movie.

    Leonard Lowe
    Robert De Niro
    Dr Malcolm Sayer
    Robin Williams
    Nurse Eleanor Costello
    Julie Kavner
    Mrs Lowe
    Ruth Nelson
    Dr Kaufman
    John Heard
    Paula
    Penelope Ann Miller
    Lucy
    Alice Drummond
    Rose
    Judith Malina
    Bert
    Barton Heyman
    Frank
    George Martin
    Miriam
    Anne Meara
    Sidney
    Richard Libertini
    Lolly
    Laura Esterman
    Rolando
    Dexter Gordon
    Frances
    Jayne Haynes
    Magda
    Le Clanché du Rand
    Joseph
    Yusef Bulos
    Luis
    Steve Randazzo
    Dottie
    Gloria Harper
    Desmond
    Gwyllum Evans
    Nurse Beth
    Mary Catherine Wright
    Nurse Margaret
    Mary Alice
    Anthony
    Keith Diamond
    Ray
    Steve Vinovich
    Janitor
    Tiger Haynes
    Dr Sullivan
    John Christopher Jones
    Dr Tyler
    Bradley Whitford
    Dr Peter Ingham
    Max von Sydow

    Director
    Penny Marshall

    Video

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