Awakenings By Penny Marshall: Film Analysis

Awakenings (1990), a nonfictional film directed by Penny Marshall, showed the situation of patients suffering from a disorder identified as Encephalitis lethargica and its on-going search for a suitable and effective drug. It presented an unfamiliar disease towards the audience which appeared to be more of an awareness rather than a basic part of the storyline. The media is not so much aware of the existence and characteristics exhibited by the disease. This paper will be presenting the value of the importance of raising awareness towards the media about the disease and those who are suffering from it as what the film has conveyed. According to The National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke (2007), “Encephalitis lethargica is a disease characterized by high fever, headache, double vision, delayed physical and mental response, and lethargy. In acute cases, patients may enter coma and behavioral changes including psychosis. The cause of encephalitis lethargica is unknown.” Technically a patient suffering from this is bound to be experiencing the difficulties as stated above. Given the fact that the causative agent of this is still unknown gives almost no justification to the origins of the disease.

This is due to the inadequacy of statistics available in which consequentially is due to varying number of cases reported. As stated by a physician at The Encephalitis Society, Easton (2014), the history of the disease to have been found of difficulty in diagnosing and insufficiency of statistical records due to varying estimated number of cases of various countries. The incomplete data gives the scope of the disease an unreliable data and a working progress in decoding and understanding the basis for the