Awakenings (1990)

This movie was one of the saddest I have watch - because of how real it is. This movie has reinforced my passion for psychology and reminded me why I am here today.


It Gets Easier. But Does It?

Does it ever get easier?

"It gets easier over time" - Nurse Eleanor advised Dr Sayer. Have nurse Eleanor and the rest of the medical staff been desensitized to the conditions of the patients?

I believe that they have been desensitized because seeing their patients suffer has evoked negative feelings in them causing them to have a gradual decrease in responsiveness towards the patients' conditions (Krahe & Möller, 2011). They do no feel empathy when they see their patients suffering nor do they feel the need to go beyond their duties to help them. Eventually, the nurses start helping them only when Dr Sayer managed to stimulate responses from the patients. 

I believe that we should have an active realisation of how much the patients are suffering, just so we would push ourselves to find a cure and to care for them. 

Life is A Gift

Appreciate life because we only have one of it

Watching this movie has made me realised that we are too busy living for the future and not for the present. We should learn to appreciate the life that we have because we only have only have one opportunity to do so. 

In the movie, Leonard sees life as a gift and tells everyone to appreciate it. He tells the doctors not to take the simplest things, like the ability to take a walk for granted because he is unable to do so. Leonard sees his life as a glass half full, as he is not frustrated and angry that he lost 30 years of his life, instead he is appreciative and thankful that he has managed to gain a chance of living his life. He's puzzled to why newspapers tend to report the negative events and not positive ones, because lets face it, negativity always sells. To Leonard, we should not dwell on the bad, but focus on the good and what life has given us. 

Logic vs. Emotions

Faith leads to possibilities

Sometimes all we need to is follow our gut, or have a little faith. Though Dr Sayer was mocked as he had no concrete evidence for the reactions shown by Lucy or why the L-Dopa medications will work, Dr Sayer had faith in the patients and in himself. He believed that all was not lost, that the catatonic patients like Lucy and Leonard were somewhat aware of the world, in their own way. 

When Dr Kaufman refused to allow the any of the patients to consume L-Dopa as he believed that it would not work, Dr Sayer appealed to his logical side by attempting to explain the symptoms shown by the patients in the garden ward. Gradually. Dr Kaufman hesitantly allowed Dr Sayer to run is test. With this, the message that came through to me was, sometimes we should listen to our emotions because not everything can be explained by logic or science. Our gut feeling has helped us time and time again; where's the harm on relying on it, sometimes?

Kindness and Love Goes A Long Way

Kindness and love is what we need

Caring for the mentally ill is not an easy feat. Factor in the age of the mentally ill, the discrimination and negative treatment becomes more prominent. Ageism (Age UK, 2017) is a thing, even when the senior citizens have a perfect physical health. Therefore, one of the prominent messages of this movie is that individuals with mental illnesses are also people and should be treated with the same care and respect as other healthy individuals. Although the mentally ill are unable to care or defend themselves from negative treatment, they should be treated positively as they are still human beings. 

The patients do have a sense of awareness of how they are treated because Leonard tells Paula that her father is aware of how Paula treats him. Towards the end of the movie, Paula willingly dances with Leonard although he was fidgeting and had severe body spasms. She showed Leonard, a mentally ill patient, kindness and love, and that action positively affected him, as for that brief moment his spams disappeared.



References
Age UK. (2017). Discrimination and rights: What is ageism? Retrieved from http://www.ageuk.org.uk/work-and-learning/discrimination-and-rights/what-is-ageism/

Krahe, B., & Möller, I. (2011). Desensitization to media violence: Links with habitual media violence exposure, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive behaviour. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(4). 630-646. doi:10.1037/a0021711

Cinema Paradiso

Movie Poster

Trying to pen out my thoughts about this movie is not easy because I do not usually contemplate and ponder on movies after watching them - but here goes

I'll talk about some scenes that piqued my interest and why it did.

Nostalgia

Toto going through the debris in the cinema

One of the most prominent scenes in this movie is when Toto returns back to Giancaldo to attend Alfredo's funeral. Seeing Toto staring forlornly at the debris in the cinema before it was demolished gave me a feel of nostalgia (McDonald, 2016). I felt as though I had grown with Toto and had missed the memories that were created in the cinema and in Giancaldo. Toto had grown so much and had become successful, but at Giancaldo is where he found his passion, a fatherly figure and his first love. Seeing the building be demolished and watching the scenes of Alfredo's funeral made me feel as though Toto's childhood had come to an end. 

Personally, I felt the director did a great job directing this scene as it evoked a few positive feelings in me. I felt proud of Toto and how far he had came and had grown from the young boy that got excited over film reels.  

Relationships

A beautiful relationship

I loved the relationship that blossomed between Toto and Alfredo. To me, it was refreshing and just something unique than the usual father-son relationships portrayed in other movies. Toto was a nuisance as he was mischievous and cheeky but Alfredo took him on as an assistant, albeit reluctantly. Their relationship blossomed soon after, with Alfredo protecting and helping him. Also, Toto willingly went back to the burned cinema to save his life. What warmed my heart was when Alfredo told Toto to leave Giancaldo and never to give in to nostalgia. Alfredo was willing to sacrifice his companionship with Toto so Toto could make a name for himself.

Alfredo had great love for Toto

This scene captured my attention as how many individuals out there would gladly sacrifice relationships with their good friend? In this case, even telling their friend to never come back or think about their family so their friend could achieve greater things. Alfredo had great love for Toto as he willingly placed Toto's well-being before his own. 

Sacrifices comes with a cost

Toto attending Alfredo's funeral

Chasing after your dreams and ambitions comes with a cost. Alfredo was very much aware of this; hence, he insisted that Toto leave Giancaldo and to never return. With that, Salvatore Di Vita became a successful movie director at the cost of familial relationships and love. Till the present day in the movie, Salvatore moved from one relationship to another as he could not find love. What else did Toto had to sacrifice? He was not present at Alfredo's last moments, instead only being present at his funeral. He missed out on spending quality moments with his father-figure, Alfredo and his mother.

With this, I've come to be aware that we cannot have everything we want in life. In order to be successful in a particular aspect in life, we have to sacrifice another aspect in our life.   

A gift

Toto, touched by his gift from Alfredo

What could be the reason for Alfredo leaving the spliced films of couples kissing for Toto? In my opinion, I think that Alfredo intended the gift for Toto to remember his roots and how his passion came about as Toto was fascinated with the spliced film containing the kissing scenes. Alfredo also wanted Toto to remember the necessary sacrifices he had to make to be the person he is today. It is a reminder that his passion for movies had and should further push him to achieve more greater things. 

Significance of the cinema

The cinema meant so much to the villagers, and the cinema was always packed

The cinema signifies the power of dreams. It is where everyone goes to forget their problems, as one villager can be seen as saying how he came to the cinema to escape from his wife. It is also assumed that the patrons of the cinema come to watch movies to escape their problems as they became frustrated when the second part of the film they were watching were not shown or when the villagers became angry as they had to leave the cinema as it had closed for the night. 

Toto has passion for films

To Toto, the cinema signifies the beginnings of his dream as it is where he found his passion for film. To Toto, the cinema is where he found Alfredo, someone he regarded as family. Consequently, the cinema lead him to be a successful and respected movie director. 




References
McDonald, H. (June 23, 2016). The two faces of nostalgia. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/time-travelling-apollo/201606/the-two-faces-nostalgia