''Patch Adams'' is a 1998 American
biographical
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
comedy-drama film directed by
Tom Shadyac
Thomas Peter Shadyac (born December 11, 1958) is an American director, screenwriter, producer, and author. The youngest joke-writer ever for comedian Bob Hope, Shadyac is widely known for writing and directing the comedy films '' Ace Ventura: P ...
and starring
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
in the lead role,
Monica Potter
Monica Gregg Potter (née Brokaw; born June 30, 1971) is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles in the films ''Con Air'' (1997), ''Patch Adams'' (1998), and '' Along Came a Spider'' (2001). She also appeared in the horror films ...
,
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—typically lowlifes, eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical produ ...
,
Bob Gunton
Robert Patrick Gunton Jr. (born November 15, 1945) is an American character actor of stage and screen. He is known for playing strict authoritarian characters, including Warden Samuel Norton in the 1994 prison drama '' The Shawshank Redemption'' ...
,
Daniel London
Daniel London (born 1973) is an American actor, best known for his roles in ''Patch Adams'', ''Rent'' and '' Old Joy''.
Life and career
Born and raised in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, London began writing and acting in plays in high school. Whil ...
, and
Peter Coyote
Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author and narrator of films, theatre, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films such as ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), '' Cro ...
. Set in the late 1960s/early 1970s, it is loosely based on the life story of
Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams and the book ''Gesundheit: Good Health Is a Laughing Matter'' by Dr. Adams and Maureen Mylander. It received generally unfavorable reviews from critics, with criticism for the sentimentality and direction. Despite the terrible reviews, the film was a box office success grossing $202.3 million against a $50–90 million budget.
Plot
In 1969, Hunter "Patch" Adams, after developing suicidal thoughts, admits himself to a
mental institution
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
. 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 swiftly leaves the facility. Two years later, he enrolls at the Medical College of Virginia (now known as
VCU School of Medicine
The Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine is the medical school of Virginia Commonwealth University, a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. It is the largest and oldest continuously operatin ...
) as the oldest
first-year student. He questions the school's soulless approach to medical care, particularly why students do not work with patients until their third year, as well as the methods of the school's
Dean
Dean may refer to:
People
* Dean (given name)
* Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin
* Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk
* Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean
Titles
* ...
Walcott, who takes an instant disliking to Patch and believes that doctors must treat patients his way and not befriend them. Because of this and incidents such as setting up a giant model
papier-mâché
upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti
upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico
Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...
pair of legs in stirrups 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 unorthodox methods often improve his patients' physical and mental health. 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, during their third year as medical students, develops his idea for a medical clinic built around his
philosophy 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 in
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
to construct the future
Gesundheit! Institute. Together with Carin, medical student Truman Schiff, and some old friends, he renovates an old cottage into a clinic. When they get the clinic running, they treat patients without
medical insurance
Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...
and perform
comedy sketches
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term origin ...
for them.
Patch's close friendship with Carin soon turns into romance. When Carin reveals to him that she had been
molested as a child, Patch comforts her and reassures her that she can overcome her pain by helping others. Encouraged, Carin wants to help a disturbed patient, Lawrence "Larry" Silver. However, Larry
murders
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...
Carin with a shotgun, then immediately commits
suicide. Patch, guilt-ridden by Carin's death, begins to question the goodness in humanity. Standing on a cliff, he contemplates suicide again and asks
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
for an explanation. He then sees a
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...
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.
Walcott eventually discovers that Patch has been
illegally running a clinic and
practicing medicine without a license and attempts to expel him again because of this, as well as complaints that he has made his patients uncomfortable (which is obviously not true). Desperate to prove Walcott wrong, Patch 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, although they still find some of his methods very unorthodox, allows him to graduate and he receives a standing ovation from the packed hearing room.
At graduation, Patch receives his
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...
and, bowing to the professors and audience, reveals himself to be naked underneath his cap and gown.
Cast
Production
Development
Paul Attanasio
Paul Albert Attanasio (born November 14, 1959) is an American screenwriter and film and television producer. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, for ''Quiz Show'' (1994) and ''Donnie Brasco'' (1997).
...
was brought in as a
script doctor to work on the film prior to shooting.
The film was shot in three locations:
Treasure Island
''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
(near
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
),
Asheville
Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous ci ...
(
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
), and the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
. A diner was temporarily placed in
Point Richmond (a neighborhood in
Richmond, California) and served as the University Diner. Several interior classroom scenes were filmed on the campus of
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...
.
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.
Reception
Box office
The film was released on December 25, 1998, in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and grossed $25.2 million in 2,712 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office. Upon opening, it achieved the third-highest December opening weekend, behind ''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unit ...
'' and ''
Scream 2
''Scream 2'' is a 1997 American slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. It stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Kennedy, Laurie Metcalf, Jerry O'Connell, Elise Neal, Tim ...
''. It went on to set a record for having the highest Christmas opening weekend, beating ''
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
''. For two years, the film would hold this record until 2000 when ''
Cast Away
''Cast Away'' is a 2000 American survival drama film directed and produced by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, and Nick Searcy. Hanks plays a FedEx troubleshooter stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in ...
'' took it. After its first weekend, it was the #2 film for four weeks. The film grossed US$202.3 million worldwide—$135 million in the United States and Canada and $67.3 million in other territories.
Critical reception
On the review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, ''Patch Adams'' has an approval score of 21% based on 71 reviews and an average rating of 4.20/10. The critical consensus reads, "Syrupy performances and directing make this dramedy all too obvious."
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film holds a score of 25 out of 100 based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Audiences surveyed by
CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B" on scale of A to F.
Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' criticized the film's lowbrow comedy, which did not mesh well with its "maudlin streak" and that the sentiment felt "fabricated". Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' gave the film an F, deeming it "an offensive and deeply false 'inspirational' drama", lambasting the over-simplified portrayal of the medical establishment of the time. Robert K. Elder of the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' called
Monica Potter
Monica Gregg Potter (née Brokaw; born June 30, 1971) is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles in the films ''Con Air'' (1997), ''Patch Adams'' (1998), and '' Along Came a Spider'' (2001). She also appeared in the horror films ...
"the best thing about the otherwise dopey ''Patch Adams''."
''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...
'' film critic
Roger Ebert gave the film one and a half stars out of four and wrote, "''Patch Adams'' made me want to spray the screen with
Lysol
Lysol (; spelled Lizol in India) is a brand of American cleaning and disinfecting products distributed by Reckitt, which markets the similar Dettol or Sagrotan in other markets. The line includes liquid solutions for hard and soft surfaces, ai ...
. This movie is shameless. It's not merely a tearjerker. It extracts tears individually by liposuction, without anesthesia." It received "Two Thumbs Down" on his television series ''
Siskel & Ebert
Gene Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) and Roger Ebert (June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013), collectively known as Siskel & Ebert, were American film critics known for their partnership on television lasting from 1975 to Siskel's d ...
'', with particular criticism towards the character of Patch, who was viewed as "overbearing", "obnoxious" and "sanctimonious" as well as noting that they would never trust a doctor who acted like Adams does. Co-host
Gene Siskel said "I would rather
turn my head and cough 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
Marc Shaiman
Marc Shaiman (; born October 22, 1959) is an American composer and lyricist for films, television, and theatre, best known for his collaborations with lyricist and director Scott Wittman. He wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics for the Broa ...
's score was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score. The film was also nominated for two
Golden Globe Awards, for
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and
Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Robin Williams).
Patch Adams' reaction
The real
Patch Adams
Hunter Doherty "Patch" Adams (born May 28, 1945) is an American physician, comedian, social activist, clown, and author. He founded the Gesundheit! Institute in 1971. Each year he also organizes volunteers from around the world to travel to var ...
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 on World Affairs, he told film critic
Roger Ebert, "I hate that movie."
During a speech in 2010 at the
Mayo Clinic, 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,
obin Williamsmade $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.
Adams later clarified that he did not hate Williams,
and Williams actively supported
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for several years. After Williams' death in 2014, Adams said "I'm enormously grateful for his wonderful performance of my early life, which has allowed the Gesundheit Institute to continue and expand our work."
Home media
''Patch Adams'' was released on a Collector's Edition
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
on June 22, 1999. On August 16, 2016, the film was released on
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
for the first time.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for ''Patch Adams'' was released on December 22, 1998 on
CD and cassette by
Universal Records
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...
.
Tracks 10 through 18 written and performed by
Marc Shaiman
Marc Shaiman (; born October 22, 1959) is an American composer and lyricist for films, television, and theatre, best known for his collaborations with lyricist and director Scott Wittman. He wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics for the Broa ...
.
Adaptations
* ''
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.'' – a 2003
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
film with a similar premise
* ''
Vasool Raja MBBS
''Vasool Raja MBBS'' () is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film directed by Saran. It is a Tamil remake of the 2003 Hindi film ''Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.'', which is inspired by the 1998 American film ''Patch Adams''. The film stars Kamal ...
'' – a 2004
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
film which is a remake of ''Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.''
* ''
Shankar Dada M.B.B.S.'' – a 2004
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
which is also a remake of ''Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.''
* ''
Uppi Dada M.B.B.S.'' – 2007
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
film, which is also a remake of ''Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.''
* ''
Dr. Nawariyan'' – a 2017
Sinhala film which is also a remake of ''Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.''
See also
*
List of films featuring diabetes
There is a body of films that include a character with diabetes as part of the plot. In the late twentieth century, most films' references to diabetes were minor. Characters with diabetes were developed in plots in which the disease "played a more ...
References
External links
*
The Real Patch Adams Official Web SitePatch Adams the film VS the real Patch Adams
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patch Adams
1998 films
American comedy-drama films
American biographical drama films
Comedy-drama films based on actual events
Films directed by Tom Shadyac
Films shot in North Carolina
Films set in Virginia
Films set in West Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth University
1998 comedy-drama films
Medical-themed films
Universal Pictures films
Biographical films about physicians
Films scored by Marc Shaiman
1990s biographical films
Films with screenplays by Steve Oedekerk
1990s English-language films
1990s American films