Awakenings

Awakenings is a film directed by Penny Marshall in 1990. It is based on a true story, that of the British neurologist Oliver Sacks who wrote it in his 1973 book of the same title. The film is starred by Robin Williams, who plays an American neurologist working with catatonic patients who suffered from encephalitis lethargica some decades before. Dr. Sayer begins using a new discovered drug, L-DOPA, which was prescribed for Parkinson patients, with his own patients, and suddenly, all of them "awake" and recover consciousness. The film focuses on the story of Leonard Lowe, played by the great Robert De Niro, and how his new condition thanks to this medicine affects his life.
This film has made me reflect about the importance of our senses in acknowledging the real world in order to provide information to our brain so it can translate it into our perception of reality. If there is no previous contact with reality, it is impossible to create an image of it so the whole process is never complete and as we don't have experience of it, we don't have memory either. Also, in a sensitive or even moral level, this film thinks over the importance of living in our world, participating from culture and society as key elements of our own enjoyment of life, instead of being isolated. Furthermore, as Leonard says, we seem to have forgotten about the things that make life worth living it; we might think that those are always there, until they are gone. So those little moments and things are very important for our lives and we must enjoy and appreciate them. It is about being awake, rather than being alive.
One of the most beautiful secuences in the film is when Leonard and his girlfriend farewell dance. Leonard is aware that the the drug will not keep doing effect on him for too long but while dancing with Paula his spasms dissapear, for a brief moment.
By the way, De Niro deserved his third Oscar by his role in this film, though he lost it.