Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2959 in DVD
• Released on: 1997-09-10
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 121 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Based on the acclaimed book by neurologist Oliver Sacks, director Penny Marshall's hit 1990 drama stars Robin Williams as Dr. Malcolm Sayer. Sayer is a neurologist who discovers that the drug L-Dopa can be used to "unlock" patients in a mental hospital from the mysterious sleeping sickness that has left them utterly immobilized. Leonard (Robert De Niro) is one such patient who awakens after being in a comatose state for 30 years, leaving Sayer to guide Leonard in adjusting to the world around him. Penelope Ann Miller costars as the daughter of another patient, with whom Leonard falls tenuously in love. Earning Oscar nominations for best picture, actor, and screenplay, this moving fact-based drama was a hit with critics and audiences alike. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Penny Marshall's finest film.
Awakenings is a depressing film but an important one to watch. Directed by Penny Marshall, Awakenings is based on a true story of patients who have come out of mental illness unscathed, well temporarily of course. Robert De Niro gives the performance of a lifetime and Robin Williams proves he is more than a funny, goofy actor. Penelope Ann Miller is stunning in this film as well, very under-rated actress. Give this '90s tearjerker a viewing, enjoy!

L Dopa Really Fixed Me Up!
I think "Awakenings" is a good dramatization of the real life scientific study as presented in the book. But I'm more interested in the scientific story than a dramatazation of it that creates a love interest and basically has Robin Williams playing the role he'd redo in Patch Adams (albeit of course much better in "Awakenings") than actually relive the life of the renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks who is of course fictionalized here and wrote the book. And the portrayal of people with disabilities takes the usual Hollywood stereotypes, they are shuffling zombies who lack humanity, their humanity is restored by a "miracle" (hate that word) drug L-Dopa and then lose it again but there is a hint they were human all along. Well to tell you the truth I know this may blow your mind but having a disability is something we all will experience or may already and all people should be considered human. However, it is true this was a clinical study and its accurate that that is how people are seen in a study or certainly by medical science at the time but as a survivor of tardive dyskinesia and tardive psychosis (a condition still in study), both Parkinsonian conditions although in this case enduced by neuraleptics who has had it treated by new medications in study (as well as study anti-psychotics that can't create these conditions) and began to recover, in experiencing this kind of recovery first hand (the movement disorders depicted in "Awakenings" are startingly similar to those I have and are well depicted)I found the original book and enlightening and did find the film moving I must admit but it got a bit maudlin and took liberties with the book. However, more importantly, it seemed out of the scope of this movie and much Hollywood fare that a person with this form of disability could not only be a part of society but could advocate for treatment and to recover. And I would hope that that could be changed. But as in the movie "hope" didn't get people anywhere. Scientific research in a humanistic fashion of which I am an active participant in and advocate did and when I look at "Awakenings" in this light yes there is something moving about but more in the spirit of the original research, not at at all as a "failed" experiment but one to build on so more people can recover as I did. And there is no time for "miracles" as with the original research it only gets in the way of what is ahead.

From the author of Tales of Ancient Xenar
Yes, I saw this movie after it was released on VHS back in 1991. This movie wasn't one of Robin Williams' usual fare since comedy films are more his norm. But in this film, he performed well. This film was also different for its other actor, Robert DeNiro. Action films and Tough Guy films were more his norm. But in this film, he played a brain-disorder patient and played him very well.
I once read a chapter in a text book and the events in this film are pretty accurately described in that text book chapter although the film leaves out a couple of fact. The disease suffered by the patients in this film is called Encephalitus Lethargica. And the name of the drug that was used to treat them was called L-dopa, but the text book calls it Levodopa. Of course now if you were to look up encephalitus lethargica on webmd, you'd get only articles about Parkinson's.
But all in all, this was a good film. I would only give it 4 and a half stars, but since half stars cannot be given here, I'm foerced to give it a full 5.