Alive Inside (Film Analysis)

Alive Inside is one of the many documentaries featured at the Homer Theatre’s 11th annual documentary film festival. The movie documents the effects that music can have to elders who suffer with Dementia, Alzheimer’s, or any other memory loss diseases. It also covers how the current nursing home’s for elders contrast to the first versions. Showing the evolution of the nursing home raises some issues about how we take care of our elders in the homes. The major theme of the film is healing. With the music, they were able to heal their sadness with the joyful happiness of remembering. All of the sadness revealed in the beginning of the video was eventually healed. Some themes of government corruption was prevalent towards the end of the film, showing the government as one of the antagonists of the film aside from the disease.

This film features several characters who have all suffered losing a great portion of their early memories. In the film they are introduced as sad and empty humans until they were introduced to music once more. During the first introduction, the screen shows a shot of an elderly lady’s bright blue eyes. As the headphones were placed onto her ears, her eyes lit up immediately. That shot fit very well film, giving a good example of how the music affected the people immediately.

Personally, I loved the movie. There was no part of the movie that I found boring. Each and every moment captivated my attention and did not drag longer than it needed to. Some may say that it gave too much examples of old people getting healed by the music but I believe that they showed just enough to be not too much.

Overall, I believe that the movie is definitely worth watching especially if you have or had a loved one in a similar situation as the characters in the beginning. It may inspire you to do something.