Awakenings (1990) on Netflix
In 1969, Dr. Malcolm Sayer takes a post at a Bronx psychiatric hospital, where encephalitis survivors have been catatonic for decades. He tries an experimental drug on one patient, Leonard Lowe.
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Trailer
Plot summary
Dr. Malcolm Sayer arrives at a Bronx psychiatric hospital with a research background and little ease around people. Many of his patients are catatonic, survivors of an encephalitis epidemic, and the staff can do little beyond feeding them. Sayer notices that some respond to music, touch or the sound of their own names, and he learns their condition resembles Parkinson's disease. He persuades his skeptical chief, Dr. Kaufman, to try an experimental drug on a single patient whose family consents. Leonard Lowe, forty-one, has been catatonic since childhood and has been cared for by his mother. The drug wakes him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Awakenings (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Press reports had named Shelley Winters for a part in Awakenings, but she was dismissed early after repeated attempts to pull rank on director Penny Marshall. The role went instead to 85-year-old Ruth Nelson, in what became her final feature film.
- Awakenings began principal photography on 16 October 1989 at the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn, a hospital that was still operating, and according to Robin Williams actual patients were used in the filming.
