PATCH ADAMS
US, 1998, 112 minutes, Colour.
Robin Williams, Daniel London, Monica Potter, Bob Gunton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Josef Sommer, Michael Jeter, Frances Lee Mc Cain, Irma P. Hall, Harold Gould.
Directed by Tom Shadyac
Hunter Adams suffers from depression and attempts suicide. He fails. What he does not fail at is connecting with other patients in his ability to make them laugh. He decides to become a doctor himself.
While he is successful at his studies, he is upset at the lack of contact with patients. He starts to visit them and makes a great difference to their time in hospital, cheering them and enabling them to laugh. The dean of studies forbids him to visit the patients. Meanwhile, Adams is attracted to a serious student, Carin.
Adams starts a free hospital (the Gesundheit Institute) with Carin and another friend. People flock to it. He is utterly dismayed when one of the patients murders Carin and he despairs of God and his life. When he is summoned by the dean to answer charges, his supporters rally and he makes a powerful case for dealing with people as people rather than treating theme merely as patients.
This movie was very popular at the American box-office despite many critics accusing it of 'gross sentimentality' and of Robin Williams capitalising on his zany screen presence. 'To like the film would strike a massive blow to any cineaste's credibility' (London Daily Telegraph). It is true that Patch Adams is a feeling movie which presses all the emotional buttons. Even though some may find 'sugary' sequences, (the butterfly on the cliff when he is contemplating suicide, the children and their red noses at his medical board hearing), it has a great deal to say about healing.
The movie is quite critical of medical theorists. Another reviewer wrote, 'What I emphatically do not want is some hippy moron in a clown's red nose telling me that laughter is the best medicine and doing pratfalls'.
The dean is portrayed as a villain-doctor. He gives a lecture to an admiring class which concludes with his asserting that for professionalism's sake he must 'train the humanity out of you - to make you something better, a doctor'. Doctors must never lower themselves to the level of the patients. Patients want professional expertise. He appeals to the tradition of time-honoured rules and systems that work. Patch Adams takes a more creative and personalised stance.
Robin Williams has played a number of healers and educators, especially in Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, Good Will Hunting.
1.A popular film? For American audiences? Sentiment and heart on sleeve? Non -American audiences?
2.Hunter Adams and his contribution to the screenplay? The comparison between Robin Williams and the real Patch Adams, height, manner? A film for Robin Williams and his characteristic comedy and turns?
3.Institutions and hospitals, wards, private rooms, lecture theatres, student accommodation, the Gezundheit Institute, the mountain scenery, the score?
4.The introduction to Hunter Adams, his character, age, the direction of his life, relationships, the pressures? The experience of depression? His suicide attempt and failure? His decision, committing himself to the institution?
5.In the cells, with the various inmates, Rudy and the others, the mental behaviour, attitudes, illnesses? Hunter and his interactions with the authorities? His role in the institution, joking, bringing joy, Rudy’s fantasy and helping him to overcome it, the discussions with Arthur Mendelssohn? Leaving?
6.His ambitions, to be a doctor, to have contact with people? Enrolment, sharing the room with Mitch Roman, Roman and his snobbish attitudes? The lectures, Professor Woolcott and his philosophy, looking down on the patients, not at their level …? His seeing Corinne? Following her, her negative reaction?
7.On the wards, asking the patients’ names, making jokes, playing with the children, the Robin Williams-style comedy, pratfalls, the red noses? Going into Bill Davis’s room, the hostile reaction? Returning, as the angel, the quotations? With the old ladies? The nurses, their watching him, enjoying his behaviour? Doctor Eaton and his supporting him?
8.Woolcott, his being demonised, institutional medicine, management, rules, the discussions with Adams, his stances? His forbidding him to go to the wards?
9.Corinne, her angers, Adams pursuing her, sharing things with her, the results and his success, listening to him, sharing experiences, the birthday party and her being overwhelmed?
10.Truman, friendship, sharing ideas, on the ward, the jokes?
11.Mitch Roman, his family, his aims, his arrogant attitudes, his marks, resentment of Adams, the arguments about health and the need for good medicine or for laughter?
12.The doctors and the gynaecologists, the entrance and the joke, Woolcott and his not being amused, the interview with the dean, the ploy to avoid Woolcott and allow Patch to continue studying?
13.His going to Bill, talking with him, joking, his dying, the family, his death?
14.His plan, the Gezundheit Institute, discussions with his friends, explaining it to Corinne, the vision, Truman helping him, the house, dilapidated, Arthur Mendelssohn helping, the various friends, the repairs?
15.Larry, his asking for help, Patch welcoming him, the phone call, Corinne going, her death? The dean telling Patch?
16.The funeral, his leaving, Truman pleading with him? His running away? On the cliff, his despair, calling on God?
17.The return, the children, the red noses, Woolcott, the support?
18.Patch Adams’ subsequent career, humanising medicine? His focus on people rather than on beds and identifying patients by illnesses?
