What Did The Real 'Patch Adams' Think of The Robin Williams Movie? He Certainly Didn't Mince Any Words

If you weren't a big fan of Patch Adams, director Tom Shadyac's 1998 dramedy starring the late Robin Williams, then welcome the real-life Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams to the club. Adams' true feelings towards the tearjerking biopic has resurfaced online and reignited the harsh criticism of the film.

On Monday morning, Reddit users on Today I Learned shared that Adams claimed the film's earnings were supposed to help fund his nonprofit healthcare organization, the Gesundheit! Institute, but that never happened. According to Wikipedia, at the 2010 Conference on World Affairs, Adams flat-out told the late and great film critic Robert Ebert, "I hate that movie."

Users, such @plague042 and @ThinkOfANameHere weren't surprised to learn that Hollywood went back on their word.

A physician first, Adams treated his patients while wearing a big red clown nose. He did this because he believed injecting humor would help alleviate the stress and make a human connection with his patients. The movie followed Adams as attended medical school, clashed with his professors, and dated his crush, Carin (Monica Potter).

In Ebert's 2013 book, I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie, the renowned critic singled out the movie for its third act courtroom scene. Ebert was grossed out by the scene where the elderly patient, Addie (Ellen Albertini Dow) swam through a swimming pool of spaghetti and he was not alone. Can someone explain to me why Williams had to get into the spaghetti pool with all his clothes on?

Back in 2017, Adams himself didn't mince words when he told New Renaissancemagazine, "After the movie, there wasn't a single positive article about our work or me. There were dumb, stupid, meaningless things...it made my children cry. They actually thought that they didn't know the person they were reading about. I knew the movie would do this. I would become a funny doctor. Imagine how shallow that is relative to who I am."

"I keep a list of 50 books in my wallet as my card, so that when someone
comes up and asks me for an autograph I give them a little lecture on pop
culture and how it's dummified our population, and its consequences," added Adams.

If the nostalgia of Patch Adams has left you a bad taste, this fake doc recommends two viewings of Robin Williams' 1989 comedy/drama, Dead Poets Society stat.