| Awakenings |
Articles about Awakenings |
Information AboutAwakenings |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT AWAKENINGS | |
| 1990 films | |
| films based on actual events | |
| films based on non-fiction books | |
| films directed by penny marshall | |
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''Awakenings'' is a 1990 drama film based on Oliver Sacks ' memoir, '' Awakenings ''. It tells the real story of a doctor (Oliver Sacks) who, in 1969 , discovers beneficial effects of the then-new drug L-Dopa . He applied it on Catatonic patients who survived the 1917-1928 Epidemic of Encephalitis Lethargica . The patients awake after decades of catatonic state and have to deal with a new life in a new time. Directed by Penny Marshall , the film stars Robert De Niro , Robin Williams , Julie Kavner , Ruth Nelson , John Heard , and Penelope Ann Miller . Jazz legend Dexter Gordon also appears as a patient. The movie was adapted by Steven Zaillian from the book of the same name. The book was also used by Harold Pinter as the basis of his one-act Play ''A Kind of Alaska'', performed in 1982 . The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor In A Leading Role (Robert De Niro), Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium . The film's plot was also the basis for one section of the Dream Theater song Octavarium . EXTERNAL LINKS |
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