Patch Adams (Wide Screen) > Reviews > Treat the Patient, Not just the Disease

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	There are alot of lessons in life to be learn't from watching this film
Disadvantages:	That back in the 60's and early 70's Patch wasn't taken seriously

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Isn't it an amazing feeling to come away from a film where you feel so inspired, and it leaves you thinking about things for a long while afterwards. A film that can even change you as a person for the better, just through learning more about the little things that most people take for granted. Well that's what this film did for me and I am sure it would have a similar effect on others that watch this film as well.

ABOUT THE FILM
This film was made in 1999, but the film is based around life in the late 60's, early 70's. The film is about a man called Patch Adams who is struggling to find his place in life. After suffering many bouts of depression he tries to commit suicide and is sent to a mental hospital. His stay in the mental hospital however turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. But it wasn't the doctors that helped him to feel better. It was the patients that helped him. By him helping them he found that he could forget about his own problems. This is when he decides that what he wants to do with his life is become a doctor.

So 2yrs later he starts medical school to do just that. However he quickly finds himself making not just friends, but enemies. You see Patch also wanted to be a clown and so he knows how to make people laugh. Patch believes that laughter is a form of medicine, and realises that he can be a clown and a doctor at the same time.

Patch isn't supposed to have any contact with his patients until Year 3 - but breaks those rules and sneaks into the hospital as he believes he can learn more about medicine though patient contact and learning more about the people he would be treating. He tries to find out from each of the patients what there dreams are, or what makes them happy and what they love and then he goes about fulfilling there dreams or wishes. In doing this it increases there endorphin levels and their desire to recover. So he would perhaps dress up as a clown, or fill a room with balloons just to get a smile or simple moment of pleasure from the patient.

Patch's friends and everyone around him think he acts the way he does as a doctor to cope with his own insecurities, and so don't take him seriously. They think a doctor should just treat the disease, but Patch thinks that a doctor should treat the patient as well as the disease. One of the many small things that Patch did was this: When the doctors were doing there rounds they went up to a lady that looked very scared and confused as all the doctors stood round her stating there medical opinions on her diabetes. Patch stopped them half way and said to the lady, 'Can I ask what your name is?'. When she told him her name was Margery, Patch then said to her, 'Hello Margery', and her face lit up with a smile and she felt good that someone had taken an interest in her and made her feel a little more relaxed. But it just showed how important such little things can be, and there were many more incidents like that. But the doctors thought that to start talking to the patients and getting to know them was in a sense bringing down there level as a doctor to the level of the patient. So Patch's good intentions were disregarded.

So Patch had everything against him in the way he believed a doctor should be, and yet he still stay's true to what he believed in even if it meant risking his future in becoming a doctor. It may sound like I have already told you a lot about this film, but there is a lot more to follow which I won't spoil for you. All I will say is that there are some very dramatic events that follow both with his friends and colleagues and some events you would just never predict happening. This is not one of those silly comedies by any means. This is a very inspiring film that will make you laugh and cry and is very thought provoking.

MAIN ACTORS AND A BIT ABOUT THE CHARACTERS THEY PLAY
Robin Williams (Patch Adams)
Patch Adams is very inspiring and he has his own mind and ways of doing things. He is very intelligent and is determined to be a great doctor. He is incredibly funny, but also has a very down to earth, sensitive and caring side to his personality which really shines through. He lives life without limits and breaks rules if he has to just to get his values and beliefs across.

Daniel London (Truman Schiff)
Truman is one of Patch's friends at Medical School. He is very interested in how people's lives change from when they are a child and they start off so spontaneous and open, and then over time they are drawn into conformity. Patch challenges Truman's ideas and interests and Truman becomes inspired by his findings.

Monica Potter (Carin Fisher)
Carin is one of Patch's friends at Medical School. She is a very interesting character with a lot of mystery about her. She has a dark side to her life and buries herself in her studies to cope with her past and shows a cold side towards Patch when he grows very fond of her. She has a very caring side, but her vulnerability hides her true self.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Mitch Roman)
Mitch is Patch's room mate. He is very serious in both his studying and personality. He spends every spare minute studying, striving to be number one in everything he does and is determined to be the best doctor there is. He sees Patch as a joke and someone who shouldn't be in medical school.

Bob Gunton (Dean Walcott)
Dean Walcott is Head of the Medical School and follows many years of research on how to be a good doctor and believes that the research and the ways he teaches should be respected. So when Patch has his own methods of being a doctor and breaks these firm rules set by the medical school, Dean Walcott instantly sees Patch as a threat and wants him out of medical school.

DIRECTOR
The Director of this film is Tom Shadyac. He has been the director of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor and Liar Liar. He wanted to be the director for Patch Adams because he wanted to do a comedy that had a reality-based tone to it and a dramatic storyline.

DID YOU KNOW?
During the filming of Patch Adams the cast and crew worked closely with the 'Make a Wish Foundation' to fulfil the dreams of several children who were at the time going through cancer treatment. These children appeared with Robin Williams in the scenes at the paediatric ward. So it is nice to think that this film has helped these children in some way.

THE REAL PATCH ADAMS
This film is based on a true story. For me, this made the film much more appealing to watch. The real Patch Adams journey in life went from suicidal despair in his youth to the decision to devote his life to the study of how to heal others through joy and laughter. Today we know about endorphins and the importance of the mind in the healing process. But back in the 60's and 70's when Patch was forming his philosophy, that knowledge didn't exist. So his concepts were really radical back then.

HOW THE FILM MADE ME FEEL
This is a film that from the moment it started I was hooked. I found it to be a film that I could learn a lot of lessons in life from. Some of those lessons weren't clear at first when I watched the film, but by going away and thinking about things they became a lot clearer. The advantage with this sort of film is that I found I could watch it again and again and each time still get something out of watching it, something that perhaps I had missed the first time round. But for each time I watched the film it just seemed to get better.

1. The film made me realise how important it is to have my own mind about things, and to not just follow the safe route of following others opinions.
2. It taught me how important a smile or saying hello to a stranger in the street can be. To cheer someone up if only for a few seconds with a simple smile can not only make that person happier, but it is also very satisfying to do that for someone else.
3. It taught me that if I have a problem, then I should look beyond the problem to find the solution and not focus on the problem. That's something that probably sounds confusing, but if you watch the film you will understand it better and that is a very valuable lesson to learn.

I got so much more out of this film as well, but I want to leave you to find out for yourself other lessons you can gain from watching this incredible film. This is a film that would certainly be in my Top 10 Films I have ever watched.

THIS DVD ALSO CONTAINS
Making of Featurette
Interviews
Production Notes
Filmography
Theatrical Trailer
Out Takes

PRICES
On Amazon you can buy this new for £9.99 plus P&P. Or you can purchase it second hand off Amazon from just £3.85 plus P&P. On E-Bay I have seen this DVD sell for as little as £1.50 plus P&P. At HMV you can buy the DVD for £9.99.

Thanks for reading this.
Sarah