Oliver Sacks Movies
- 2007
With his self-reflexive documentary Indestructible, director Ben Byer - a victim of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease - films his own emotional and spiritual journey-of-self-discovery (and physical deterioration) as he searches, in vain, for an ALS cure before the window closes on his life. This almost painfully intimate and revealing film finds single father Byer faced with an estimated lifespan of between 2-5 years. He then makes a long, desperate journey to Greece and China, where he will undergo an innovative procedure that he hopes will end the disease once and for all. Byer then returns home to be with his son, and rapidly arrives at the conclusion that the treatment has failed. Throughout it all, Byer exudes an ebullient and celebratory attitude, and experiences a series of unspeakable joys and sorrows, carrying the audience along with him. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Byer, Steve Byer, (more)
- 2003
Brazilian filmmakers Joao Jardim and Walter Carvalho ponder the old adage "the eyes are the windows to the soul" as they explore vision and perception in their 2002 documentary A Janela Da Alma (Window of the Soul). Beginning with an interview with Brazilian jazz musician Hermeto Pascoal, Carvalho and Jardim attempt to make sense of how the musician perceives his world with a pair of impaired eyes that appear to simultaneously look in different directions. From there, the Brazilian co-directors interview a number of famous subjects with varying degrees of ocular health, ranging from the non-vision impaired director Wim Wenders to blind photographer Evgen Bavcar, while both the filmmakers and the interview subjects ponder how their lives and existences would be different had their abilities or inabilities to see the world around them been different. Released in Brazil in the summer of 2002 to mixed reviews, A Janela Da Alma was screened at a number of film festivals around the world in late 2002 into early 2003. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evgen Bavcar, Antonio Cicero, (more)
New York architect Amy Benic (Mira Sorvino) meets blind masseur Virgil Adamson (Val Kilmer) and falls in love. As she learns his lifelong blindness may be curable through experimental surgery, she convinces him to undergo the operation. Virgil then learns vision may not quite be what he expected. At First Sight is directed by Irwin Winkler and also stars Bruce Davison, Nathan Lane, and Kelly McGillis. At First Sight is a romance adapted by writer Steve Levitt based upon the story To See and Not See from noted writer Dr. Oliver Sacks' collection, An Anthropologist on Mars. Dr. Sacks' work is also the basis for the Penny Marshall film Awakenings, starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams and the opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Michael Morris with music by Michael Nyman. In his original story, Dr. Sacks tells of receiving a call in October 1991 from a retired minister in the Midwest. His daughter was about to marry a fifty-year old man, Virgil, who had been blind since early childhood. He had thick cataracts and been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease which slowly eats away the retinas. As he could still make the distinction between light and dark, it was found he was misdiagnosed and simple cataract extraction could possibly restore his sight. While surgery was a success, Virgil, like his cinematic counterpart, found he would have to learn to use his vision much like an infant would, even though he was adept at relating to the world through touch. In his A New Theory of Vision, written in 1709, George Berkeley concluded there was no necessary connection between a tactile world and a sight world; a connection between them could be established only on the basis of experience. This same story was also adapted into the play Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Mira Sorvino, (more)
Based on a true story as related by neurologist Oliver Sacks, Awakenings stars Robin Williams as the Sacks counterpart, here named Dr. Malcolm Sayer. Something of a klutz and naif, Dr. Sayer takes a job at a Bronx psychiatric hospital in 1969. Here he's put in charge of several seemingly catatonic patients who, under Sayer's painstaking guidance, begin responding to certain stimulati. Apprised of the efficacy of a new drug called L-DOPA in treating degenerative-disease victims, Sayer is given permission to test the drug on one of his patients: Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro), who has not communicated with anyone since lapsing into catatonia as a child. Gradually, Lowe comes out of his shell, encouraging Sayers to administer L-DOPA to the other patients under his care. Julie Kavner and John Heard also star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Robert De Niro, (more)
Persons who suffer from Tourette syndrome find that one of the more disturbing symptoms of the disorder is the steady barrage of obscene phrases and words that pour from their mouths, seemingly beyond their control. For many years, the illness has been little understood, and recently, Dr. Oliver Sacks has made progress in his research. He is on hand to discuss the case of John, a teenager who has a particularly extreme case. In John's Not Mad: Tourette Syndrome, viewers can see that it is almost impossible for John to have a social life due to his troubling symptoms. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide
