The bad guys are the doctors, who are so stereotyped that even the script writers of Casualty would have thought them over the top.
Adams and the patients are good guys, of course even the obnoxious patients are really good guys, but no one took the trouble to look beneath the surface-except Adams, that is. The film covers Adams’ time as a voluntary patient in a mental hospital and why he wanted to become a doctor, and his time in medical school and his challenge of the “establishment.” The characters are good, bad, or naive. Patch Adams is based on the true story of a doctor who wants to build a hospital where the ethos is humanity and laughter.
