Running On Empty

Running on empty is a heart-wrenching drama that revolves around the Pope family that went underground, after, Annie and Arthur Pope caused an explosion that hurt the janitor. This incident caused them to be fugitives one the run from the FBI. The movie mainly follows Danny Pope, Annie and Arthur's first born son. Danny Pope lives a very difficult life as he has to move around a lot with the parents as they are being pursued by the FBI. After watching this movie, I can see the main theme of the movie is about family.

In order to keep his family safe and whole, Arthur Pope brought his family into hiding. I felt tremendous sorrow for Arthur, he had face so much challenges for a mistake he made in the past. He lost so much for moving around and running away. He lost his mother and did not get to pay his last respect, and soon after he had to let go of his son to live his life, even though he knew that he would not be able to see his again.

Danny Pope fits the Identity vs. Role Confusion of Erikson's Psychosocial Theory. Danny Pope being at the age of 17, he is searching for what role he is going to play as he enters adulthood. You can see his identity crisis/role confusion emerges as he didn't know what to do with his life and he has been changing identities from all the moving around. However, he begins to start doing things differently when they moved to New Jersey. He had talent for music and he caught attention from one of his new school music teacher. Also, he fell in love with a girl and soon after, decided to stay and conflicted with his father. However, it all ended well, as he was given a chance to live his life by his father. Although sad that he will have to leave them but he was able to live his life and stop running.

Awakenings

Awakenings is a film from the 1990, directed by Penny Marshall. The film depicts Dr Malcolm Sayes portrayed by Robin Williams, about his experiences and challenges to attempt to treat patients that are deemed un-treatable catatonic for many years. Dr Sayes(Robin Williams) in the film shows signs that he is an extreme introvert that had trouble interacting with people in a social situation. This can be shown clearly when he applied for the a job at the psychiatric hospital, he looked rather uncomfortable when he was told that he was going to interact and treat living breathing human beings, another scene that show this perfectly is, when he was interacting with one of the patients Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro) , He told him that he do not have a girl friend because he was very socially awkward and could not interact well with people.

What I found absolutely intriguing for this film is the whole interaction between Dr sayes (Robin Williams) with the patients and Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro) shows the challenge between patient/clients with mental disorders and the doctors/psychologist. Some patients might think that they are cured and no longer need treatment despite the advise of doctors/therapists. It also shows the challenges that therapists/Doctor might face and accept that not all patients can be saved and although hope seems lose when treatment aren't working, and patient's life seemed meaningless to others, you should never give up on a life.

The films also depict several issues like how the world of medicine and treatment is not an easy job, it is not as simple as a treatment is found and then it is administered. Testing and experimenting are a big part to make sure the treatments are safe to be administered and to find out the side effects that it might have. Funding is another challenge for the administration of a certain treatment as a therapist/doctor has to convinces the people in power to fund the research as well and the administration of the treatment. This issue makes me wonder that how many treatment that could potential be a breakthrough to a certain mental disorder but was left aside because of lack of funding or opportunity.

The film shows many more issue and only a second viewing might I be able to voice it out clearly but overall the movie was very interesting, although the beginning, the pacing was a little show. Despite that, I really enjoyed the film and potentially going to view it a second time.