Regarding Henry
Regarding Henry The film Regarding Henry (1991) directed by Mike Nichols attempts to shed light on the phenomenon of amnesia or a loss of memory. Hollywood’s portrayal of memory tends to focus on the idea that, through rehabilitation, memory can recover. Memory is not something that can be pulled out of remission. Hollywood also emphasizes that memory is split up into different regions, a point furthered by the fact that Henry knows basic skills but fails to remember his family. Henry Turner was an accomplished lawyer who was shot in his right frontal lobe and also suffered from a lack of oxygen to his brain for some time. The right frontal lobe is responsible for many non-verbal abilities (neuroskills.com). Damage to this area can cause pseudopsychopathy. Childish behavior and a lack of tact characterize this condition. Evidence of this damage could be seen in Henry Turner when he threw paper at his daughter and how he tried to get out of going back home. Henry acted as if he was a child resisting school in the morning. Hollywood was accurate in this regard and also accommodated how there is a lack of nonverbal abilities such as recognition with his wife and daughter’s faces. However, many points do not seem to add up. Henry Turner demonstrates various activities that do not seem to make any sense, given his injuries. For instance, Henry Turner could recognize words after reading them out loud but could not recall how to read in general. This was accompanied by a very quick recovery of this ability. Given his injury, Henry should not be able to recognize words, which was correct, but his ability to relearn how to read should not have been so quick by any means. In addition, Henry displays accurate and explicit facial expressions which should not be possible with his frontal lobe damage. For the most part, Henry remembers his basic skills such as how to eat and drink, and he recovers others very quickly such as how to walk, speak, and