Awakenings Movie Analysis
wakenings
Part 1: In the movie Awakenings, a man named Dr. Malcolm Sayer applies for a job at a hospital in The Bronx, New York. As he's being interviewed it's obvious that he's nervous and not comfortable around people. His resume shows how in the medical field, he's mostly spent his time doing research and experiments but never working with humans or psychological problems. The manager hires him anyways and he gets right to work. They give him a patient named Lucy who has been in a catatonic state for over 30 years. She isn't able to talk or move any part of her body. When her glasses drop, Dr. Sayer notices how she only grabs them when he drops them in front of her hand. He then experiments by throwing a tennis ball to her and watches …show more content…
When Dr. Sayer finds out about a drug for Parkinson's patients, he believes the catatonic patients will respond to the drug. The drug is expensive but Leonard's mother pays for it because she wants her son to get better. The first dosage of L-Dopa doesn't work at all. When Dr. Sayer increases the amount of the drug he gives to Leonard, he finds the patient completely awake from the catatonic state he's been in for years. The results are amazing and he tries to get the hospital to pay for the drug for all the other catatonic patients but he is told that it's too expensive. Most of the staff give up their paychecks for the drug and Dr. Sayer hosts a lecture about the drug to which he gets many donations. All the patients are put on the drug and have successful awakenings. Not long after, Leonard starts showing the negative side effects of the drug. His personality changes and he has spasms. Dr. Sayer attempts to find a dosage of L-Dopa that won't have such harsh side effects but soon he must give up and Leonard along with the other patients returned to their catatonic states once again. Although the L-Dopa drug didn't work, the last scene shows Dr. Sayer experimenting with Leonard once again yet because this was based on a true story, we know that a cure was
Part 1: In the movie Awakenings, a man named Dr. Malcolm Sayer applies for a job at a hospital in The Bronx, New York. As he's being interviewed it's obvious that he's nervous and not comfortable around people. His resume shows how in the medical field, he's mostly spent his time doing research and experiments but never working with humans or psychological problems. The manager hires him anyways and he gets right to work. They give him a patient named Lucy who has been in a catatonic state for over 30 years. She isn't able to talk or move any part of her body. When her glasses drop, Dr. Sayer notices how she only grabs them when he drops them in front of her hand. He then experiments by throwing a tennis ball to her and watches …show more content…
When Dr. Sayer finds out about a drug for Parkinson's patients, he believes the catatonic patients will respond to the drug. The drug is expensive but Leonard's mother pays for it because she wants her son to get better. The first dosage of L-Dopa doesn't work at all. When Dr. Sayer increases the amount of the drug he gives to Leonard, he finds the patient completely awake from the catatonic state he's been in for years. The results are amazing and he tries to get the hospital to pay for the drug for all the other catatonic patients but he is told that it's too expensive. Most of the staff give up their paychecks for the drug and Dr. Sayer hosts a lecture about the drug to which he gets many donations. All the patients are put on the drug and have successful awakenings. Not long after, Leonard starts showing the negative side effects of the drug. His personality changes and he has spasms. Dr. Sayer attempts to find a dosage of L-Dopa that won't have such harsh side effects but soon he must give up and Leonard along with the other patients returned to their catatonic states once again. Although the L-Dopa drug didn't work, the last scene shows Dr. Sayer experimenting with Leonard once again yet because this was based on a true story, we know that a cure was