Awakenings

Car window when Dr.

Sayer is sitting inside talking to Nurse Costello.

Lucy's feet relative to the checkered floor pattern when she walks towards the window.

When Dr.

Sayer takes a patient to the window and shows the street outside, 1980s cars are seen driving by though the movie is set in the 1960s.

The film is set in 1969, but the rear end of a 1972 Chevrolet Impala coupe is seen in a parking lot.

The 72 Impala is also more weathered than a 1965 model in the same shot.

Sayer's coat is unbuttoned when he caught up with Nurse Eleonor Costello at the stairs of the hospital, then when he asked her out it is buttoned.

When they descended the stairs it is unbuttoned again.

When Doctor Sayer and Leonard are driving through the streets, the New York City Buses are GMC RTSs which were not produced until 1979.

The film takes place in the 1960s.

When Dr.

Sayer takes Leonard out into the city for the first time, they see (among other things) an aircraft landing - a Boeing 747.

The movie takes place in 1969 and the first revenue flight of the Boeing 747 was January 21st, 1970.

Additionally, the 747 is in El Al livery that was used around 1990.

When Dr.

Sayer begins to type up Lucy's initial diagnosis, he puts a new form into the typewriter and begins typing.

After only a few clicks, a close-up shows him already halfway through his second line of typing.

The orientation of the eyeglasses when Dr.

Sayer attempts to hand them to new patient Lucy.

When Leonard leaves the rest of the group and ends up eating lunch in the cafeteria, he and his companion change positions at the table between shots.

Sayers takes the group to a dance hall.

He is sitting at a table and eats the cherry that was from his drink.

A woman patient pulls him to the dance floor but the cherry that he ate appears on his napkin.

Dr Sayer puts on a record saying "This is one of the most beautiful arias ever written.

The record is clearly an LP (you can even see "Long Playing" on the label) but it starts turning at 78rpm - and the music is heard at normal speed.

When Dr Sayer first arrives at the facility he remembers to retrieve his paperwork from the car.

Then he locks the door, but leaves the keys in the lock.

Next he places his hand in his pocket as if pocketing the keys.

Both times through "Slumber Boat" (Riley and Gaynor, 1898), Leonard's mother substitutes the first half of the second verse ("Baby's fishing for a dream") for the second half of the first ("His line a silver moonbeam is").

At one point Dr.

Sayers describes L-DOPA as synthetic dopamine.

It is in fact a precursor to dopamine, i.

a substance used by the body to synthesize dopamine.

When Leonard gets the correct dose of medicine and 'awakens', he walks with almost no difficulty.

If he had been catatonic for years, and even if he had been exercised regularly, he would not have been able to just get up and walk around so easily.

His muscles would have atrophied.

His voice would also have been raspy from disuse.

1969 - After Dr Sayer exits his car he looks up at the care facility he has an interview appointment.

Clearly heard in the background is a modern day electronic siren at a time when the Federal 'Pulsator' siren was still the standard siren used.

The chocolate custard that is made for Leonard and Dr.

Sayers is first shown to be crooked and off centered.

Yet in the next shot, the cones handed to them are perfectly symmetrical.

In the parking lot scene just before Eleanor tells Dr.

Sayer she believes his theory, Dr.

Sayer gets in his 1964 Dodge Polara that has a pushbutton transmission control.

When the car is shown from the outside, it has a column mounted shifter used only on 1965 and later Dodge cars.

Also, to shift from park into reverse, the shifter should have been moved down instead of up.

This movie is a ripoff of the movie Charlie, except this time instead of one Charlie there's an entire ward full of Charlies. The movie does have a certain charm, but in total the story is contrived and is heaped in sentimentality.

Roger Ebert, bless his immortal and great talented soul, wrote that Awakenings was "no tear-jerker." For once Roger was wrong, if we must take him literally, for I and most of our readers by their admissions, teared up all over the place, and I'm a hard-bitten retired trial lawyer.

Awkward Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) has more difficulties dealing with people than with worms.

Finally, a movie about patients in a hospital for mental or psychological disorders that doesn't involve doctors and nurses just doping them up. Yes, drugs, or at least a drug, is a central component to the theme of the movie, but in this case the drug isn't simply to make the patients more manageable.

We all take it for granted. We wake, we dress, we eat, we talk to people, and we go out into the world.

Being a medical school student myself, I can already relate a lot from this movie. Being the kindest doctor and highly intelligent and disciplined usually also means bad social skills.

You can tell from the music. You can tell from the credits font.

I met this beautiful movie accidentally one year ago, but I'm really grateful of finding it. The writer of the movie, Steven Zaillian is a real genius who wrote films such as Schindler's List, The girl with the dragon tattoo, American Gangster.

Awakenings is a very sweet movie, about how far a man will go to save other people. Even when no one else believes his plight, Robin William's character of Malcom perseveres and it was a very inspirational true story.