Contents. Plot Hunter 'Patch' Adams is suicidal and admits himself to a mental institution.
Once there, he finds that using humor, rather than doctor-centered psychotherapy, better helps his fellow patients and provides him with a new purpose in life. Because of this he wants to become a medical doctor and two years later enrolls at the Medical College of Virginia (now known as ) as the oldest student. He questions the school's soulless approach to medical care and clashes with the school's Walcott , who believes that doctors must treat patients as patients and not bond with them as people. Because of this and incidents such as setting up a giant pair of legs during an obstetric conference, he is expelled from the medical school, although he is later reinstated when it becomes apparent to the school that his unconventional methods often help cure his patients. Adams encourages medical students to work closely with nurses, learn interviewing skills early, and argues that death should be treated with dignity and sometimes even humor. Patch begins a friendship with fellow student Carin Fisher and develops his idea for a medical clinic built around his of treating patients using humor and compassion. With the help of Arthur Mendelson , a wealthy man who was a patient whom Patch met while in the mental hospital, he purchases 105 acres (425,000 m²) in to construct the future.
Together with Carin, medical student Truman Schiff , and some old friends, he an old cottage into a clinic. When they get the clinic running, they treat patients without and perform for them. Patch's friendship with Carin soon turns into romance. When she tells him that she had been as a child, Patch comforts her and reassures her that she can overcome her pain by helping others.
Encouraged, Carin tries to help a disturbed patient, Lawrence 'Larry' Silver (Douglas Roberts), only for him to murder her before committing suicide. Patch is guilt-ridden by Carin's death and begins to question the goodness in humanity. Standing on a cliff, he contemplates again and asks for an explanation. He then sees a butterfly that reminds him that Carin had always wished she was a caterpillar that could turn into a butterfly and fly away. The butterfly lands on his medical bag and shirt before flying away. With his spirits revived, Patch decides to dedicate his work to her memory. He is expelled from medical school a second time for running a clinic and and because of complaints that he has made his patients uncomfortable (which is obviously not true).
He files a grievance with the state medical board on the advice of his former medical school roommate, conservative Mitch Roman. Patch succeeds in convincing the board that he must treat the spirit as well as the body.
The board allows him to graduate and he receives a standing ovation from the packed hearing room. At graduation, Patch receives his diploma and, bowing to the professors and audience, reveals his. as, initially a mental patient, who wishes to change the way doctors think and treat their patients. as Truman Schiff, Patch's best friend and most loyal follower, in medical school. as Mitch Roman, Patch's uptight roommate, who initially clashes with Patch, but later joins his cause.
as Dean Walcott, rigid dean of the Medical School, who locks horns with Patch right from the start. as Carin Fisher, a serious medical student, who is later touched by Patch's passion.
as Judy, a nurse at the hospital. as Joletta, a nurse at the hospital.
as Dr. Eaton, professor at the Medical School, who does appreciate Patch's efforts. as Arthur Mendelson, wealthy mathematician who is in the mental hospital, and initially coins Patch's nickname. as Dean Anderson, head of the Medical School; more tolerant of Patch than is Walcott. as Rudy, Patch's roommate at the mental hospital, who is sciurophobic (fear of squirrels). as Emmet.
as Dr. Prack, a humorless doctor at the mental hospital and a colleague of Dean Walcott.
Titan, chair of the State Medical Board. as Neil. as Bill Davis, a dying, ill-tempered patient in the hospital, who eventually bonds with Patch, and accepts his fate with dignity. as Everton. as Miss Meat.
Douglas Roberts as Lawrence 'Larry' Silver, a mentally disturbed patient, whom Carin tries to help, but he later murders her. as Truck Driver. James Greene as Bile. as Jaime. as Organizer Production Development The film was shot in three locations:, (near ), , and the.
A diner was temporarily placed in (a neighborhood in ) and served as the University Diner. Several interior classroom scenes were filmed on the campus of. The film has several major departures from Adams' real history. One is that the character of Carin is fictional, but is analogous to a real life friend of Adams (a man) who was murdered under similar circumstances. Another difference is the then 47-year-old Robin Williams portrays Adams as enrolling in medical school very late in his life, his older age even being brought up in dialogue. In reality, Adams started medical school immediately and his educational progress was quite normal for a physician: He graduated high school at 18, college at 22, and medical school at 26. Release Box office The film was released on December 25, 1998 in the and and grossed $25.2 million in 2,712 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office.
After its first weekend, it was the #2 film for four weeks. The film grossed $202,292,902 worldwide — $135,026,902 in the United States and Canada and $67,266,000 in other territories.
Reception Critical reception The film received negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator reported that the film averaged a rating of 25%, and currently has a score of 22% on based on 64 reviews with the consensus reading, 'Syrupy performances and directing make this dramedy all too obvious.'
Noted film critic gave the film one and a half stars out of four and wrote, 'Patch Adams' made me want to spray the screen with. This movie is shameless. It's not merely a tearjerker.
It extracts tears individually by liposuction, without anesthesia.' Elder of the called 'the best thing about the otherwise dopey Patch Adams.'
It received 'Two Thumbs Down' on the television series, with particular criticism towards the character of Patch, whom they viewed as 'overbearing', 'obnoxious' and 'sanctimonious' as well as noting that they would never trust a doctor who acted like Adams does. Said 'I would rather than see another moment of Patch Adams again'. He later singled it out as the worst film of 1998; it was the last film he gave a 'Worst of' to before his death in 1999. Awards 's score was nominated for the. The film was also nominated two, for and (Robin Williams). Patch Adams' reaction The real has been openly critical of the film, saying that it sacrificed much of his message to make a selling film. He also said that out of all aspects of his life and activism, the film portrayed him merely as a funny doctor.
At a Conference of World Affairs, he told film critic, 'I hate that movie.' During a speech in 2010 at the, Patch Adams said, 'The film promised to build our hospital. None of the profits from the film ever came to us, and so, basically 40 years into this work, we are still trying to build our hospital.' Furthermore, Adams stated, Robin Williams made $21 million for four months of pretending to be me, in a very simplistic version, and did not give $10 to my free hospital.
Patch Adams, the person, would have, if I had Robin's money, given all $21 million to a free hospital in a country where 80 million cannot get care.' However, in another interview, Adams did clarify that he did not hate Williams, and Williams actively supported for several years. After Williams' death in 2014, Adams said, The terrible news of the passing of Robin Williams reached me here in the Peruvian Amazon late Monday night with tremendous sadness.
Surrounded by over 100 friends and clowns on our annual clown trip, we mourn this tragic loss and continue to treasure his comic genius. Robin Williams was a wonderful, kind and generous man.
One important thing I remember about his personality is that he was unassuming—he never acted as if he was powerful or famous. Instead, he was always tender and welcoming, willing to help others with a smile or a joke.
Robin was a brilliant comedian—there is no doubt. He was a compassionate, caring human being. While watching him work on the set of the film based on my life—Patch Adams–I saw that whenever there was a stressful moment, Robin would tap into his improvisation style to lighten the mood of cast and crew. Also, I would like to point out, Robin would be especially kind toward my children when they would visit the set. Contrary to how many people may view him, he actually seemed to me to be an introvert. When he invited me and my family into his home, he valued peace and quiet, a chance to breathe—a chance to get away from the fame that his talent has brought him. While early in life, he turned to drug use and alcohol to escape, he replaced the addiction with moments of solitude to help cope with the stress that fame brought.
This world is not kind to people who become famous, and the fame he had garnered was a nightmare. While saddened, we are left with the consequences of his death. I'm enormously grateful for his wonderful performance of my early life, which has allowed the Gesundheit Institute to continue and expand our work. We extend our blessings to his family and friends in this moment of sadness.
Thank you for all you've given this world Robin, thank you my friend. Home media Patch Adams was released on a Collector's Edition on June 22, 1999. On August 16, 2016, the film was released on for the first time.
Soundtrack Patch Adams: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Various artists Released December 22, 1998 ( 1998-12-22) Length 57: 19 from Patch Adams: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. ' Released: 1999 The soundtrack for Patch Adams was released on December 22, 1998 on and cassette. Track listing No. Title Artist Length 1.
'Only You Know and I Know' 4:07 4. 'Carry On' 4:26 5.
' The Rascals 3:01 9. 'Main Title' (Score) 2:16 11. 'Look Beyond the Fingers' (Score) Marc Shaiman 1:46 12. 'Children's Ward' (Score) Marc Shaiman 2:33 13. 'Ranch Reveal' (Score) Marc Shaiman 1:28 14. 'Hello' (Score) Marc Shaiman 1:31 15.
'Speech/Children's Reprise' (Score) Marc Shaiman 2:39 16. 'Front Porch' (Score) Marc Shaiman 2:36 17.
'Butterfly/Noodle Pool' (Score) Marc Shaiman 2:57 18. 'The Ruling/Graduation' (Score) Marc Shaiman 3:24 Total length: 57:19 See also. a film with a similar premise References. Retrieved 2008-02-08. Retrieved 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2012-07-07. Chicago Sun-Times.
Elder, Robert K. (February 2, 2001). Retrieved January 13, 2014. chalomirof63 (2011-02-17).
Retrieved 2012-07-07. Retrieved 2012-07-07. Retrieved 2012-07-07. Retrieved March 26, 2017. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
Retrieved 11 September 2017. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to:. on. at.
'Patch Adams' made me want to spray the screen with Lysol. This movie is shameless. It's not merely a tearjerker. It extracts tears individually by liposuction, without anesthesia. It is allegedly based on the life of a real man named Patch Adams, who I have seen on television, where he looks like Salvador Dali's seedy kid brother. If all of these things really happened to him, they should have abandoned and brought in for the telethon. As the movie opens, a suicidal Patch has checked into a mental hospital.
There he finds that the doctors don't help him, but the patients do. On the outside, he determines to become a doctor in order to help people and enrolls in medical school. Soon he finds, not to our amazement, that medicine is an impersonal business.
When a patient is referred to by bed number or disease, Patch reasonably asks, 'What's her name?' Patch is a character. To himself, he's an irrepressible bundle of joy, a zany live wire who brings laughter into the lives of the sick and dying. To me, he's a pain in the wazoo. If this guy broke into my hospital room and started tap-dancing with bedpans on his feet, I'd call the cops.
The lesson of 'Patch Adams' is that laughter is the best medicine. I know Norman Cousins cured himself by watching Marx Brothers movies, but to paraphrase Groucho, I enjoy a good cigar, but not when it explodes. I've been lucky enough to discover doctors who never once found it necessary to treat me while wearing a red rubber nose. In the movie, Patch plays the clown to cheer up little tykes whose hair has fallen out from chemotherapy. Put in charge of the school welcoming committee for a gynecologists' convention, he builds a papier-mache prop: enormous spread legs reaching an apex at a lecture hall entrance. He's the nonconformist, humanist, warm-hearted rebel who defies the cold and materialist establishment and stands up for clowns and free spirits everywhere.
This is a role Robin Williams was born to play. In fact, he was born playing it. We can see at the beginning where the movie is headed, but we think maybe can jump free before the crash.
(Spoiler warning!) Consider, for example, the character named Carin , who is one of Patch's fellow students. She appears too late in the movie to be a major love interest. Yet Patch does love her. Therefore, she's obviously in the movie for one purpose only: to die. The only suspense involves her function in the movie's structure, which is inspired by those outlines that Hollywood writing coaches flog to their students: Will her death provide the False Crisis, or the Real Crisis? She's good only for the False Crisis, which I will not reveal, except to say that it is cruel and arbitrary, stuck in merely to get a cheap effect. It inspires broodings of worthlessness in Patch, who ponders suicide again, but sees a butterfly and pulls himself together for the False Dawn.
Life must go on, and he must continue his mission to save patients from their depression. They may die, but they'll die laughing. The False Dawn (the upbeat before the final downbeat) is a lulu.
A dying woman refuses to eat. Patch persuades her to take nourishment by filling a plastic wading pool with spaghetti and jumping around in it. This is the perfect approach, and soon the wretched woman is gobbling her pasta.
I would have asked for some from the part he hadn't stepped in. Next comes the Real Crisis. Patch is threatened with expulsion from medical school. I rubbed my eyes with incredulity: There is a courtroom scene!
Courtrooms are expected in legal movies. But in medical tearjerkers, they're the treatment of last resort. Any screenwriter who uses a courtroom scene in a non-legal movie is not only desperate for a third act, but didn't have a second act that led anywhere. What a courtroom. It's like a fantasy. This could be the set for '.'
The main floor and balcony are jammed with Patch's supporters, with a few seats up front for the villains. There's no legalistic mumbo-jumbo; these people function simply as an audience for Patch's narcissistic grandstanding. (Spoiler warning No. 2:) After his big speech, the courtroom doors open up, and who walks in? All those bald little chemotherapy kids Patch cheered up earlier. And yes, dear reader, each and every one is wearing a red rubber nose.
Should these kids be out of bed? Their immune systems are shot to hell. If one catches cold and dies, there won't be any laughing during the malpractice suit.
I have nothing against sentiment, but it must be earned. Cynics scoffed at Robin Williams' previous film, ',' in which he went to heaven and then descended into hell to save the woman he loved. You bet-but with the courage of its convictions.
It made no apologies and exploited no formulas. It was the real thing. 'Patch Adams' is quackery.
Did the media attention from the movie help the real Patch Adams' efforts? In an interview with New Renaissance Magazine, the real Patch Adams responded to this question by saying the following, 'After the movie, there wasn't a single positive article about our work or me. There were dumb, stupid, meaningless things.
It made my children cry. They actually thought that they didn't know the person they were reading about.' Patch admits that he never expected the movie to be a catalyst that would help spread his idea of care to the masses. 'I knew the movie would do this,' Adams said.
Best Friend Definition
'I would become a funny doctor. Imagine how shallow that is relative to who I am.'
Patch had dreamed that the film might help him to raise enough money to build a 40-bed hospital on 310 acres of land in Pocohontas County, West Virginia. In the least, he had hoped that the release of the movie would have raised some awareness to what he is doing, which includes being on the road 300 days out of the year, giving as many as eleven lectures a day and visiting the sick all over the world, in countries such as Russia, Bosnia, Cuba, and Afghanistan. Did allowing the movie to be made help Patch's cause at all? The real Patch Adams didn't receive much money for the rights to his story. Universal Pictures did however give Patch's Gesundheit Institute a grant to establish a fundraising infrastructure.
This included the services of a professional fundraiser for a period of time. Was Patch happy with Robin Williams' performance in the movie? In a CNN interview, Patch said the following, 'I think Robin himself is compassion, generosity and funny. I like to think that that's who I am, and so I think he was the only actor I wanted to play me, and I think he did a fabulous job, and my friends around the country are feeling that he gives that basic message.'
Pictured at left is Robin Williams laughing with the real-life Hunter 'Patch' Adams. Is Patch's girlfriend in the movie based on a real person? In the movie, Patch's girlfriend is a fellow med student by the name of Corinne Fisher (Monica Potter). Corinne, who dies at the end of the film, is only very loosely based on Patch's real life wife Lynda, who Patch did meet at medical school like in the movie. As the real Patch Adams explained in an interview, certain aspects of his real life romance with his wife Lynda were injected into the film. This includes the room-full-of-balloons scene. 'I filled my apartment with balloons from floor to ceiling.
With twenty or so people in the room, no one could see anybody else, but whenever one person moved, everybody could feel it. It was a circus of sensations. She went back to the dorm and told her friends; 'I just had the strangest date of my life. I think I'm going to marry this guy.' Lynda and Patch were married in 1972 and have two sons. Why did Hunter 'Patch' Adams decide to go by the name Patch? 'Oh, Hunter is a Southern-boy name, and during the civil rights movement I was interested in abandoning all the parts of my Southern heritage,' Patch said during an interview with CNN.
He opted for the name Patch after his stay at a mental hospital. At the hospital, one of the patients who he became friends with dubbed him 'Patch', because his friendship had patched up the loneliness in the patient's life.
Did the real Patch Adams really contemplate suicide like in the film? Like Robin Williams' character in the film, the real Patch Adams did in fact contemplate suicide. After Patch's father passed away of a heart attack when they were stationed in Germany, Patch's family moved back home and had to adjust to civilian life in suburban northern Virginia. For a short time, they stayed with his aunt and uncle. His uncle was a lawyer and an independent thinker, who quickly became Patch's surrogate father.
Even after he, his mother, and his brother moved into their own house, Patch still spent a lot of time talking to his uncle. Early during his freshman year in college, the uncle who Patch admired committed suicide. It didn't happen long after his high school girlfriend Donna had broke up with him. Just before Halloween in 1964, an extremely depressed Patch Adams dropped out of college. In an interview, he discussed his thoughts of suicide: 'I obsessed about suicide every day but needed to work up to it, so I went to a cliff near the college called Lover's Leap and sat at the edge, writing epic poetry to Donna. I composed sonnets, searching for the right words that would really get to her.
If I had ever finished my outpourings I would have jumped. Fortunately, I was too long-winded. After a disastrous visit with Donna, I took a Greyhound bus home and trudged six miles through snow to my mother's doorstep. When she opened the door I told her that I'd been trying to kill myself so she'd better check me into a mental hospital.' Did Patch really decide he wanted to be a doctor during his stay at a mental hospital?
After considering suicide, Patch Adams advised his mother to check him into a psychiatric facility. It was there that he realized that many of the patients around him suffered from extreme lonliness. They didn't have people in their lives who loved them as did he.
He made friends with the patients, and he soon discovered that the key to human happiness is having loving and caring people in your life. It was then that he decided that the best way to spread his newfound knowledge was by becoming a doctor.
Patch became 'a student of life, of happy life. I wanted to know everything possible about people and happiness and friendship,' Patch says. He had been a student of science since he was a boy, and he always had a desire to be a doctor. His temporary stay at the mental hospital provided him with the right motivation to become one. How old was the real Patch Adams when he ended up in a mental hospital? The film depicts a mid-life Patch (Robin Williams) staying at a mental hospital. In reality, Patch Adams endured three different mental hospitalizations when he was much younger, during the time when he was 17 and 18-years-old.
How did the real Patch Adams learn to interact with strangers? Making someone who is sick smile is not always an easy thing to do. During an interview with Spirit in the Smokies Magazine, Patch discussed how he taught himself to relate to other human beings, 'I experimented with friendliness by calling hundreds of wrong numbers, pretending to be a sociology student, or anything that would help me draw people out. Out in public I engaged strangers in conversation as much as possible. For example, I rode elevators to see how many floors it would take to get the occupants introduced to one another, and even singing songs.' Knowing how to make friends was never a secret to Patch. When he was a boy his father was in the army and his family moved around a lot.
They lived in places like Germany, Japan, Texas, and Oklahoma. He learned to make friends at new schools and in different cultures. Does the real Patch Adams have any children?
Patch and his wife Lynda have two sons, Lars and Zag. What is Patch Adams' Gesundheit Institute?
Gesundheit is the German word for health. Germans and Americans say gesundheit when someone sneezes to wish them good health.
The vision of Dr. Hunter 'Patch' Adams, the Gesundheit Institue is a health community spread out over 310 acres of land in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
For years there have been plans to build a 40-bed hospital on the grounds, but funding has yet to come through. If built, the hospital/healing community would practice holistic medicine, which is an approach to medical care that focuses on the human body's ability to heal itself without the use of prescription drugs and similar over-the-counter medications. Holistic medicine encompasses acupuncture, biofeedback, faith healing, folk medicine, meditation, megavitamin therapy, yoga and other natural healing methods.
What is Patch Adams' Vision of a perfect world? With families and other volunteers living on the grounds of the Gesundheit Institute, it seems to be Patch's own island community isolated from the rest of society.
If so, what is the real Patch Adams' vision for this community? When interviewed on the Art Bell show, Patch said the following about his idea for a society based on compassion and generosity, 'there would be integration of all people. See, right now, in the current system of profit, care has been relegated to the burden category: the burden of our elderly, the burden of our poor, the burden of our mentally ill, the burden of the criminal element—and these are all burdens—where it's really the multinational corporations that are getting the gigantic cuts in subsidies and benefits but we never hear about them being our burden. And so though we.in the world that I'm working for we wouldn't need mental hospitals; we would have.one, people would not be working all the time just to make money to consume more; they would.the work would be connected to the integration of their community.'
Patch Adams Video Clips: Watch the video clips below to see and hear the real Patch Adams as he talks about his life and his stay at a mental institution during his latter teenage years. Also, watch a clip of Patch performing as a clown.
The real Patch Adams talks about contemplating suicide and eventually turning his life around to become an instrument for social change. He reflects on the time he spent in a mental hospital where he noticed that the doctors and staff were just as unhappy as him.
Watch Patch dressed as a clown performing with a prop fish. We also see the real Patch Adams speaking in front of a Swedish audience. He asks the audience to speak of the joy in their lives.
In this interview, Patch emphasizes the importance of moving away from a society reliant on antidepressants to a society that is infected with the joy of living. He says that this is why he wears colorful clothing, because it makes people smile. Patch's 10 Everyday Actions to Help Heal Society Below is the real Patch Adams' prescription for society; everyday actions you can take to make your community a better and happier place to live. The list came from the Gesundheit! Institute website at PatchAdams.org.Note: ChasingtheFrog is in no way affiliated with the Gesundheit! Institute nor do we endorse any of the ideas below.
Pick up all the trash in an area in your hometown; be its guardian. Tell others about it. Be friendly to everyone at all times; experiment outrageously. Offer a shoulder or foot rub in any environment. Always speak up for justice, no matter how much it costs. Go once a week on a 'house call' to a nursing home to cheer people up as a friend.
Turn off your TV and become interesting. Perform yourself. Consider being silly in public. Sing out loud. Wear funny stuff.
Find ways to need a whole lot less money; share beyond belief. Have potlucks frequently, with neighbors, co-workers, strangers. Work toward living in extended families. Take your vacations in your own hometown and spend the money working on projects there that help build community. Link-to-Learn More: Watch the Patch Adams Movie Trailer.
The concept of beauty is difficult for any one person to define. For the writer, beauty is found in the narrative, form, and the character of their work.
For the artist, in the subject and the method. For the sadist, beauty is found in the suffering of others. Luckily many of us are at least mildly sadistic when it applies to tragedy. This is not to say that we all possess a hidden malevolence, but rather that we actively attempt to experience others' suffering in order to alleviate our own. This letting of emotion, either as purification or purgation, is also known as catharsis (Schaper). Tragedy and its sibling, horror, are always made as spectacular and sinister displays of ruin.
Frequently, films seek to take something beautiful or meaningful and destroy it beyond repair. Sometimes it is the act of suffering itself which can render something or someone beautiful.
May 25, 2011 - Another heavy gust of wind viciously tore at my clothing, and there was a strong possibility that the ominous darkness on the horizon was a. Download pigeon john dragon slayer rar.
Take, for example, film Patch Adams. The film, despite its overuse of sentimentality, tells the story of a man who truly comes to understand the beauty of the world, but only at the height of his suffering. Is a about a man who manages to restrengthen his will to live after realizing that he could give his life meaning by helping people heal.
In the beginning of the film, Adams- played by the late Robin Williams- has checked himself into a mental institution after a suicide attempt. While he is there, he finds he actually enjoys the company of his fellow patients and has a revelation: Perhaps, he thinks, he could become a doctor and use his charisma to connect with people who were suffering. Adams felt that since he could relate to his patients’ feelings of isolation and depression, he could help alleviate their pain with his ability to make them laugh. He enrolls himself into medical school, determined to make a difference. He is met with a world of indifferent doctors, people referred to as their diseases and case numbers, and the frigid Dean Walcott who disapproves of Patch’s personal touch.
Nevertheless, the hospital staff and patients come to adore him. Over time, his passion even convinces some of his fellow medical students, such as Carin Fisher and Truman Schiff, to help him in his elaborate pranks and gifts. Unfortunately, tragedy dogs Patch persistently. While Adams is doing his best to combat the Dean’s impersonal medical regulations while operating an unlicensed medical clinic, Carin, now his girlfriend, is killed in a murder-suicide by one of their patients. For the second time in his life, Patch weighs his life against his misery. He drives out to a cliff in a heavily wooded area, and after setting his bag of belongings down behind him, stands at the precipice to question God himself: So what now, huh?
What do you want from me?” Patch pauses as he looks over the cliff. “Yeah, I could do it. We both know you wouldn't stop me.
So answer me please. Tell me what you're doing.
Okay, let's look at the logic. You create man. Man suffers enormous amounts of pain. Maybe you should have had just a few more brainstorming sessions prior to creation.
You rested on the seventh day. Maybe you should've spent that day on compassion.” He looks over the edge once more, then backs up and turns away.
“You know what? You're not worth it.” In this moment, Patch stands and looks across the rolling green hills of the valley below to a vast waterfall on the mountainside and waits for an answer. When he turns away from the view and back to his belongings, a small monarch butterfly sits on his bag. It flutters towards him and lands on his shirt. For Patch, it seemed to be a message not from God, but from his girlfriend, Carin, who had once likened herself to a caterpillar wishing to change into a butterfly. In this short scene, the natural wonders and beauty of North Carolina are captured extensively, at first contrasting sharply, are almost mocking Adams’ torment. Hume writes about such an employment of an emotional turn in his essay, 'On Tragedy.'
In Shadyac's case, he takes Adam's moment of near-suicide and converts it into a noble and courageous despair that leads to his success and devotion to holistic medicine (Hume). When turns from the face and the brightly colored butterfly lands on Patch’s Hawaiian shirt, we are almost grateful to have watched Patch Adams suffer if only to have one final scene of contentment. Works Cited Adams, 'Patch' Hunter, MD.
'Me: A Short Autobiography.' Institute, n.d.
'ESSAY XXII: OF TRAGEDY.' Department of English.
Robin Williams. Universal, 1998. Schaper, Eva. “Aristotle's Catharsis and Aesthetic Pleasure.” The Philosophical Quarterly (1950-) vol. 71, 1968, pp.
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