Awakenings - To Be Still Living

  Before I begin, I have to say that it's been a journey full of nostalgia with Robin Williams in the film. The world lost a great man when he had finally succumb to his depression and took his own life. Through his life stories and the movies that he portray, it has always been funny but mostly hopeful. This post is dedicated to Robin Williams, who showed that he's not just an amazing actor but also a man full of generosity and a love for those living.

Introduction
"In the winter of 1916-1917, an epidemic of a rare disease occurred, springing up, as virus diseases sometimes do, seemingly out of nowhere. It spread over Europe and then to other parts of the world and affected some five million people. The onset of the disease was sudden and took different forms. Some people developed acute restlessness or insomnia or dementia. Others fell into a trance-like sleep or coma. These different forms were recognised and identified by the physician Constantin von Economo as one disease, which he called encephalitis lethargica, or sleepy sickness. Many people died of the disease. Of those who survived, some recovered completely. The majority remained partly disabled, prone to symptoms reminiscent of Parkinson’s disease. The worst affected sank into a kind of ‘sleep’, unable to move or speak, without any will of their own, or hope, but conscious and with their memories intact. They were placed in hospitals or asylums. Ten years after the epidemic had begun, it just as remarkably disappeared. Fifty years later, the epidemic had been forgotten. In 1966, when Dr. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist trained in London, took up his post at Mount Carmel, a hospital in New York, he found there a group of eighty people who were the forgotten survivors of the forgotten epidemic. It was clear that hundreds of thousands had died in institutions. Dr. Sacks called them ‘the lepers of the present century’. In his book, ‘Awakenings’, he tells of his attempts to understand the nature of their affliction, but also of his growing appreciation of them as individuals, with their own unique histories and experience. In 1969, Dr. Sacks tried out a remarkable new drug, L-DOPA. For some of his patients, there then followed a rapid and brief return to something like normality. They were suddenly restored to the world of the late nineteen sixties. His book documents this remarkable awakening, as experienced by twenty of his patients. L-DOPA was not, however, the magic cure that it first seemed. The normality that it promoted soon broke down, with patients subject to all kinds of bizarre behaviours" - taken from http://www.filmeducation.org/

Characters
Dr. Malcolm Sayer - A doctor who was recently hired into a local hospital in the New York City borough of The Bronx. Shown earlier on, he is portrayed as a timid  and  an awkward man who prefers to keep to himself. He sees very little interest in the world outside of his work and research. It's ironic that despite being in a profession of helping people, he prefers to be by himself outside of work. If there's any consolation, he is extremely passionate in his work and looks beyond the issues and limitations that others tend to accept. Eventually, he did break out of his shyness and takes the first step towards living outside of his work.

Leonard Lowe - A patient of Dr Sayer and the first receiver of L-DOPA. He was first shown as a bright child who was doing extremely well for class until the onset of his symptoms which renders him slowing down and eventually catatonic. After he awakens, he showed a huge zeal for life (as with others after him) and a hunger to to experience the four walls that of the hospital. His anger in not being allowed to be free, eventually and possibly triggered his onset of tics that would become worse. Leonard, showed more than just the first patient that received L-DOPA. He was also the first to go through the challenges that would eventually overtake him and the other. He was also the first to show the ward, staff and patients that there's more than life than the four walls of the hospital.

Eleanor Costello - The nurse that assisted Dr Sayer throughout the film. She was also the first to believe in Dr Sayer and also to ask him if he would life to have coffee after work. Eleanor was integral to Dr Sayer, in the sense that she truly believe in him and helped him throughout the entire film. Even to the point getting other nurses together to help with Dr Sayer's quest to gather the post-encephalitis patients. In a sense, it could be said that she is the one that kept Dr Sayer rooted in his humanity.

Paula - She caught the eye of Leonard when she was reading to her comatose father due to stroke. An integral character to Leonard despite being minimally shown throughout the film, she was the cause that prompted Leonard to be interested in her or being interested to romantically explore.

Themes
The main themes that was discussed in the film, such as life, belief, and hope.

The idea of life is the most visible due to the fact of the patients coming to life after being given L-DOPA. Many of the patient whom being rendered catatonic, once woken begin to pursue life again in their passion and pursuits. After all, being trapped in their own body for 20 years, they have no time to waste in doing nothing.

Belief in a sense, that it's often that not everyone can ever believe in what we believe in. It is not always that people who don't believe are against us but simple that they do not necessary want to or to need to share our beliefs. After all, it is only up to us to fully work on what we believe in than to constantly fight to make people share in our beliefs.

Hope was ever present throughout the film. With Dr Sayer who sees a glimpse of what could be with the encephalitis  patients.It was hope that drove Dr Sayer to attend a drug conference and eventually try out on his patients. Even as his patients went back to their previous conditions, there was hope that they could possibly wake up again. Even then, perhaps there was even hope for those around them. Namely the nurses, the doctors, the sponsors and even those who briefly come into contact with them.

Thoughts
The main thing that stayed with me was this one line. "..only because the other possibility is unthinkable."

It is often that when you've been living the same secured life that you think that the other possibly is unthinkable. That you should be in a secured job that pursuing your passions  that does not guarantee an income is impossible.

Opportunities should never be wasted. It could be only once in your lifetime. You may never get it again. After all, you only live once. So go and live your life.