Patch Adams is a movie about a man who, after losing his way in life, manages to rediscover a sense of purpose when he utilizes his ability to make connections with people in order to ease their suffering, and help them emotionally as well as mentally. Hunter “Patch” Adams is determined to earn a medical degree in order to help people through both medicine and laughter, which often gets him into trouble with the austere dean and the somewhat rigid rules of the university at which he studies. Patch, adamant about helping others (and often breaking rules to do so) is struck once again by the darkness that lies even within the patients he is trying to assist when his girlfriend is killed and contemplates suicide for the second time in his life, though he ultimately decides otherwise and continues to help people and establish more emotional and empathetic bonds with his patients as a Doctor of Medicine.

Is tragedy beautiful? In most scenarios one would be labelled as sadistic for taking even an aesthetic pleasure in any form of the sad or the tragic, but it seems that when beauty is found in the sheer moving power of a terrible image that it escapes the non-objective views of society and indeed becomes viewed as something beyond belief, regardless of the spectrum of morality that it once presented. Beauty in the physical sense is viewed as either ethereal or sinful- something resulting of the angelic, or the payment of some deal made at the crossroads.

   However, beauty can also be simply that which evokes emotions in the strongest command. Awe, intense desire, love, wonder, inspiration, hope, and also jealousy, bewilderment, and ambition- one can define beauty as a culmination of feelings and sensations that make something stand out because of its relatability- the lazy way to achieve popularity and aesthetical or visual enjoyment, according to Rebecca Mead’s article- or its existence outside of our own experiences. Something is beautiful when it is familiar and comfortable, or when it is painfully or even devastatingly new to us.

Personal experiences have led me to believe that beauty is something ever present and completely unavoidable. A person could be ugly as sin, but there is more to someone than surface attraction. When we can share an emotional connection with someone, they become more attractive because they are relatable. For example, I believe that my friend may not be the most fair of face, but her beautiful personality and amazing sense of humor make her more likeable for me than almost any other person I know. On the other hand, I have never personally known what it is like to stand at the edge of a building, climb out over the edge of a steel beam to look at the city below with its lights and cars twinkling like fireflies through willow strands and clumps of steel brush. That doesn’t mean I can’t imagine it- this is empathy. Empathy is what makes things beautiful to me. Understanding what we know, and imagining what we cannot can help us see beauty in others, find the beauty even in the ugliest situations and even in our ugly selves (no offense intended).

There is one scene in “Patch Adams” that both of these elements of beauty are present- both aesthetic and empathetic appeals. After learning of his girlfriend’s murder by one of his patients, Patch again feels the misery that once drove him to attempt suicide. 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. Here, he directs a solitary conversation between God and 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. Man dies. 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.” (Shadyac, 1998)

This is a beautiful moment- Patch stands, overlooking a vast fall over the mountainside, into a valley filled with vivid green forestry and rolling hills and mountains in the background. When he turns around and looks back, there is a small monarch sitting on his bag. It flutters over, gently, and lands on his shirt. It seemed to be a message from God- or at least, a sign that not everything was falling apart around him. There is the aesthetic of this setting, of the nature of West Virgina (where the movie was filmed) and of the blue skies, and of the brightly colored butterfly that landed on Patch’s Hawaiian shirt. There is also an empathetic beauty here- we’ve all known pain, though most of us not nearly as great as Patch’s, and we can understand it. There is also a beauty in this moment that we cannot understand- the more non-relatable message that was the butterfly. It is not often that people sit on a cliff about to attempt suicide when they decide that God isn’t worthy of their souls, and then are allowed a moment of clarity and rekindled spirit because a butterfly landed on them and then fluttered skyward. Although it is easy to imagine, it is likely it will not occur to any of us in our lifetime, and thus, the unattainable cuteness of this imagery becomes even more beautiful. He later goes on to fill a pool of spaghetti noodles for an older woman, which is also beautiful because it’s hard to imagine anyone ever doing something so kind for your personal self.

    “Patch Adams”, despite negative critical reviews, was extremely popular with many people. I would guess that most viewers would feel a similar appeal to the movie. It is an excellent, silly, heart-wrenching movie about the healing powers of laughter, and the benefits of helping others. Not to mention that Robin Williams is a great actor, and always had an exceptional ability to convey emotion and genuineness.

Works Cited

Mead, Rebecca. "The Scourge of "Relatability"" The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2014. Web. 04 Sept. 2014.

Patch Adams. Dir. Tom Shadyac. By Patch Adams. Perf. Robin Williams. Universal, 1998. DVD.