PANACEA 2020

Awakenings (1990)
Wow! What a movie! What an ending! What a story and what
good performances! Often criticised for its sentimentality,
I personally find it restrained in its presentation of what
is an incredibly sad situation. Directed by Penny Marshall.
Screenplay by Steven Zaillian.
It is based on a book of the same name by the neurologist,
Oliver Sacks. It was released in 1973 and based on his
experience treating patients institutionalised due to
encephalitis lethargica. The movie received three academy
award nominations but unfortunately no awards. (Best picture
that year - 1991 - went to Dances with Wolves.)
Still, it manages a Rotten Tomatoes score of 88%, an IMDb
score of 7.8/10 and a Metacritic score of 74.
Oliver Sacks, the author, oversaw some aspects of the
production and said he was mostly pleased. Robin Williams’
serious role as the neurologist is solid and nuanced but it
is Robert de Niro's immersion in his role as a patient with
a Parkinsonian-like illness that is an acting tour de force.
Sacks commented that even after filming ceased, he could
still detect these mannerisms when conversing with de Niro.
Many top actors, those who do not merely play versions of
themselves in each performance, often seem to reach the
pinnacle of their acting when playing those with
disabilities. viz. Dustin Hoffman in 'Rain Man', Daniel Day-
Lewis in 'My Left Foot' and Sean Penn in 'I am Sam'. Care
must be taken not to overact and make it cartoonish but I
think de Niro nails it.As a medical history of institutions,
diseases and how we treated them, it scores; as a depiction
of a disease process it scores and as at treatise on how we
should not only treat our patients but care for them as
well, it is wins a spot on my top ten movies for medical
students.
Contagion (2011)
This was the first medical movie that grabbed my
intention. 'Contagion' follows the evolution of a
pandemic. It embraces the science so well that it feels
like a docudrama. It starts with a star-laden cast that
give pretty authentic if not exactly riveting
performances. (Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Kate
Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Bryan
Cranston) It moves at a good pace but avoids over
dramatisation.. It obviously had good medical input from
experts in infectious disease. Director - Steven
Soderbergh. Writer - Scott Z Burns.
However, it only received a few nominations and two
awards. David and Margaret gave it 4.5 and 4/5, IMDb
6.6/10, Rotten Tomatoes 84%. Interestingly, the LA Times
reviewer invited three infectious disease experts to
critique it. They did think that it massaged the science a
little for greater dramatic effect but they said that the
movie 'mostly got it right'. One did comment that it
should be seen by all medical students!
Why do I like it? I like the fact that it looks at the
personal and sociological elements of a pandemic. It
doesn't talk down to you, perhaps a reason it wasn't more
appreciated by the general audience. It also mentions our
own Nobel prize winner in medicine, Barry Marshall!
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But to cap it off, with the ubiquity of modern jet travel
and the fact that some cultures still live in close
proximity to animals, pandemics will continue to be a
concern for future doctors and the world they live in.
SARS, Ebola and now, Covid-19 are reminders of this. In
the words of George Satayana: “Those who cannot remember
the past are condemned to repeat it.”