Awakenings

Awakenings (1990)

Timing: 2:0 (120 min)

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All about film

Video 5

Photo 46

Actors and characters

Release date

1990-12-04

Country

United States

Production

Parkes/Lasker productions

Genre

Drama

Budget

$31 000 000

Revenue

$52 096 475

Website

Director

Penny Marshall

Actors

Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, John Heard, Julie Kavner, Penelope Ann Miller, Ruth Nelson, Max von Sydow, Anne Meara, Dexter Gordon, George Martin
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Walter F. Parkes, Lawrence Lasker, Arne Schmidt, Penny Marshall, Elliot Abbott

Operator

Miroslav Ondříček

Composer

Randy Newman

Artist

Alan E. Muraoka

Audition

Bonnie Timmermann

Editing

Gerald B. Greenberg, Battle Davis
All team (69)

• The film is based on Oliver Sacks' memoir "Awakenings" (1973).
• The film is based on real events that occurred in 1969–1970 with the neurologist Oliver Sacks, who later wrote a memoir about them. Harold Pinter also wrote a play, “A Kind of Alaska,” based on this book. The epidemic of Economo's lethargic encephalitis, causing catatonia, did indeed occur in 1917–1928; the drug “L-Dopa” is also real.
• Oliver Sacks served as a consultant during the making of the film.
• De Niro and Williams observed Dr. Sacks and real patients in the hospital for a long time before beginning to create their characters.
• During the filming of a scene where security guards try to prevent De Niro's character from leaving the hospital, Robin Williams, awkwardly swinging his elbow, broke Robert De Niro's nose. According to De Niro, his nose was already broken, and the blow, strangely enough, straightened it.
• In one of the film's scenes, Lillian T., a truly sick patient with lethargic encephalitis and the only one of Dr. Sacks' patients still alive at the time, appears.
• Vin Diesel can be seen among the hospital staff; the film was his first appearance on the big screen, but he is not credited in the film.
• Director Penny Marshall considered Bill Murray for the role of Leonard Lowe, but ultimately abandoned the idea, believing that audiences would expect a comedy with Murray, not a drama.
• Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) prescribes the drug levodopa (L-DOPA) to patients. Robin Williams himself used the same medication to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease shortly before his death in August 2014.
• When Lucy stops while walking to the fountain, it's visible that she is standing on a green square and stripe on the floor. When Malcolm calls out to her, "Lucy, come here," Lucy stands in front of the green stripe on the floor, on the green and light square. Afterwards, the doctor calls to the elderly woman again, and she is standing on the green square and stripe, as before.
• At the beginning of the film, when the nurse states her willingness to help, Malcolm (the doctor) lowers the window of his car to about shoulder height. With changes in shots, it is noticeable that the window position changes – when filmed from inside the car, the window is rolled down completely, and when filmed from the nurse's side – it is lower than it initially was.
• The film is based on Oliver Sacks' memoir, "Awakenings" (1973).
• When Lucy stops walking towards the fountain, it's visible that she's standing on a green square and stripe on the floor. When Malcolm calls out to her, "Lucy, come on" – Lucy is standing in front of the green stripe on the floor, on the green and light square. Afterwards, the doctor calls to the old woman again, and she is standing on the green square and stripe, as before.
• Filming took place from October 16, 1989, to February 16, 1990.