Film review - ‘The Savages’
(Director: Tamara Jenkins, 2007)
‘The Savages’ tells the story of two middle-aged siblings, Wendy and John, estranged from their father Lenny for many years, who are suddenly faced with his physical and cognitive decline in older age. The film explores the different responses of the two siblings to this enforced caring relationship in light of the revelations about their father’s abusive relationship to them both as children.
‘The Savages’ opens in a retirement village in Sun City, Arizona, where Lenny Savage, is living with his partner Doris, who is assisted by Eduardo, in her with her daily living. When Lenny fails to flush the toilet after Eduardo asks him to do so, and writes insults on the wall with his faeces, concerns are aroused. Doris dies and her family call Wendy, to inform her of the crisis. John and Wendy are engrossed in their own lives on the east coast of the USA where John is a professor of drama and Wendy a playwright whose finances are somewhat precarious. Neither have settled relationships and both seem to struggle with a life outside of their work. As they meet in Arizona to visit Lenny, they learn that he has no legal right to live in his Doris’ home and in addition to the faecal smearing there have been fainting episodes,resulting in his hospitalisation for tests. John and Wendy visit Lenny and find him restrained in bed because he was attempting to pull out his intravenous drip and to get up from bed despite being unsteady and having falls. The doctor informs them that their father does not have vascular dementia but most likely a dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease, which accounts for his masked face and blank stare, his disinhibition, aggression and fluctuating disorientation.
John decides to find a nursing home for Lenny near to where he lives but Wendy considers that they should try to look after their father or find him a supported living placement, However, she is persuaded otherwise and John sorts out a residential placement for Lenny. Wendy is tasked with bringing Lenny to Buffalo, New York state, by plane from Arizona. This is a painful scene that brings home the reality and potential difficulties of traveling any distance with someone who suffers from a significantly disabling dementia, as Lenny becomes perplexed and agitated in the unfamiliar surroundings of the plane and cannot move about freely. Once admitted to the Valley View home in Buffalo, Lenny shows his complete lack of understanding about his circumstances, believing it to be a hotel.
Wendy’s guilt about Lenny’s situation in the care home drives her to attempt to get her father admitted to ‘a much nicer’ residential home. However, this requires Lenny to ‘pass an interview’ to prove he is not cognitively impaired. He fails this test but remains unaware and unaffected by the heated emotional discussion that follows between Wendy and John as the latter tries to get his sister to accept their father’s disability and his consequent care needs. The film follows the siblings as they deal with Lenny’s death and the period that follows it as they move forward positively in their individual lives, able to mourn for their father, whilst being released from their traumatic childhood experiences.
Considerations for musicians working in the Dementia field
‘The Savages’ offers an excellent opportunity to consider the issue of care for an elderly person who may not have any close biological family ties as well as dealing with the issue of (estranged) adult children forced into the caring role by duty. As society ‘ages’ and the numbers living with dementia increase, issues such as these are likely to more common as not everyone has family members prepared to take on the unpaid role of personal carer. The need for greater support of people suffering with dementia in the community is acknowledged in the UK and a recent initiative by Public Health England and the Alzheimer’s Society is encouraging people to learn more about dementia in order that they might befriend someone with the illness.
In his book, ‘Dementia Reconsidered’ (1997), Tom Kitwood asserts that people living in residential care settings, including those with dementia, benefit from forming relationships with their new neighbours. Friendships and close personal relationships can help ease the transition into a strange new environment for dementia patients, who can become easily disoriented in an unfamiliar place. As Kitwood writes, “people with dementia are continually finding themselves in situations that they experience as ‘strange’ and that this powerfully activates the attachment need”. Bonding and attachment create a kind of safety net when the world is full of uncertainty, and “there is every reason to suppose that the need for attachment remains when a person has dementia; indeed it may be as strong as in early childhood”. Gerdner (2000) and Gerdner and Swanson (1993) suggested that playing recorded music which has been selected according to individuals preferences, rendered environmental noise familiar and predictable, and provided a connections with positive memories from the past, which evoked soothing feelings in the present. Ragneskog et al (1996b) suggested that playing recorded music created a relaxing atmosphere whilst Denney (1997) and Goddaer and Abraham (1994) viewed music as a 'buffer' which masked startling and extraneous noise in the environment. Given Lenny and Wendy’s estrangement coupled with the unfamiliar environment of the plane cabin and subsequently the care home, a simple music intervention, such as supplying Lenny with recordings of his preferred music, may have gone some way to providing him with comfort, soothing and fulfilled some of his needs for attachment.
The other topic of interest in this film is Lenny’s tentative diagnosis of dementia related to Parkinson’s disease. This provides the opportunity for learning about dementia in Parkinson’s disease and Lewy-body dementia. As Lenny has a masked face with a blank stare, disinhibition, aggression, apathy, faintness, unsteadiness with falls and fluctuating disorientation it may be that he has dementia with Lewy bodies as the cognitive change precedes the development of the classic Parkinsonian movement disorder. Dementia in Parkinson’s disease usually presents first with the classic movement disorder and later with the cognitive impairment. However, both conditions are caused by the presence of Lewy bodies in various areas of the brain and their location determines the symptoms that are seen.
‘The Savages’ deals with a difficult subject that many people may wish to avoid until it affects them personally. However, by the end of the film there is a positive sense that the siblings have found a stronger and more meaningful relationship with each other as a result of being forced to confront the care of their father and that this may have helped them to achieve more fulfilled lives for themselves.