Oliver Sacks: His Own Life

The extraordinary life of the celebrated neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks is explored in a deeply rewarding profile.

Oliver Sacks, distinguished neurologist and admired author, was remarkable in more ways than one. That fact was illustrated in 2015 when, on being informed that he had terminal cancer and only a few months to live, he opted to be a central presence in this film looking back on his life. But the whole character of the man was exceptional and that emerges clearly from this documentary which was directed by Ric Burns. Sacks was a born storyteller, but to call his manner engaging would be too weak a word to describe his personality. His participation here, virtually unmarked by his being 81 years of age and so close to death, makes for a deeply rewarding film in addition to which his life story is extraordinary in itself.

The film may begin with the actual start of shooting in 2015 but before long it become a largely chronological narrative with neatly inserted comments from others that nevertheless still leave Sacks himself the major voice. In effect, his story falls into three sections. First, there was the childhood in Britain leading to two traumatic events: the realisation that his brother Michael was schizophrenic and the reaction of his parents when he disclosed to his father the fact that he was gay (the father ignored his plea not to tell his mother and she on learning of his sexuality described him as an abomination).

This situation launched the second phase of his life since it led Sacks to start afresh in America, initially in San Francisco and then in New York. There he developed what for a time could be thought of as two personalities. One was that of a leather-clad biker and weightlifter who took drugs and played with death (fortunately he heeded the psychiatrist he approached in 1966 and soon put drug-taking behind him). The other side of his life saw him embarking on a career which, while also involving writing, saw him become an analyst who would take the lead in key work done at the Beth Abraham Hospital for Chronic Diseases in the Bronx. This led to his advocating the drug L-dopa in 1969 to help catatonic patients there who had been put in that state by the sleeping sickness pandemic of the 1920s and, despite setbacks in its use, this brought him fame as recorded in his book Awakenings which appeared in 1973 and which would later be filmed as a drama starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Having remained close to his mother despite her homophobic outburst, Oliver Sacks had a bad decade following her death in 1972, a period when his procedures were questioned, abuse claims were made and a leg injury interfered with his writing. But the third phase of his life would be marked by professional recognition of his achievements and the appearance of further books that won acclaim while on the personal level he found love at last when after decades of celibacy he met his partner, Bill Hayes. By the time he reached old age his ideas could be seen to have been ahead of their time with developments in neuroscience catching up with much of what he had long advocated.

The sections that stand out in Oliver Sacks: His Own Life are those revealing the conflicts he encountered and those in which we see his quite special empathy with his patients. The later stages of the film are informative but not quite so striking. However, this is a valuable film which allows posterity to view the man himself: he may contend that all individuals are unique but his own uniqueness was of a very special calibre.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  Oliver Sacks, Kate Edgar, Bill Hayes, Roberto Calasso, Isabelle Rapin, Lawrence Weschler, Temple Grandin, Paul Theroux, Shane Fistell, Atul Gawande, Anna Horowitz, Jonathan Sacks, Steve Silberman, Jonathan Miller, Robert Silvers, Mark Homonoff, Robert Krulwich, Eric Kandel. 

Dir Ric Burns, Pro Kathryn Clinard, Leigh Howell and Bonnie Lafave, Ph Buddy Squires, Ed Li-Shin Yu, Tom Patterson and Chih Hsuan Liang, Music Brian Keane.

Steeplechase Films/Vulcan Productions/Motto Pictures-Altitude Film Entertainment.
114 mins. USA/UK/Germany. 2019. Rel: 29 September 2021. Cert. 15.