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Well, mental disorder is one of the most reliable material sources for movies. I almost forgot that for a while, until I saw Shutter Island (I like Scorsese and DiCaprio, something tells me that, given a decade or so, it could edge out Scorsese – De Niro). Shutter Island promptly reminded me of The Fisher King and that lead to others. It’s practically a goldmine if you think about it: directors love it because it allows them to be creative and actors love it because it means awards. Unless, you know, you go full retard.
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With or without research, movies have been known to resort to all kinds of mental illnesses. Anterograde amnesia comes to mind. Memento was one movie that was praised for its depiction of the affliction, as being quite accurate. And it turned out to provide one hell of a storytelling device. Not necessarily a new one, but Nolan had his own take on the subject. Not as praised, and surely forgotten come the future, is the Sandler vehicle 50 First Dates (let Drew behind the camera from now on, she proved she could do it with Whip It!, no more sappy mediocre romances for her please). Not as known as the previous two, but a decent movie was The Lookout (Joseph Gordon-Levitt is proving to be a good actor), though the movie is less about the illness and more about choices. More amnesia, but of a different kind in the Bourne movies (dissociative), The Number 23 (retrograde) and many others (in film, amnesia is quite the cinematic star).
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Don’t get me started on autism. Does Rain Man ring a bell? Well I guess it does since it’s still being referenced heavily after 2 decades (i.e. The Hangover). Mercury Rising teamed Bruce Willis with an autistic kid (there’s a throng of those in cinema and television), not a good pairing if you ask me. Bruce Willis should only be teamed up with black sidekicks and European villains (preferably played by Alan Rickman). I think I mentioned I am Sam (oh wait, it was just a reference to a reference), the one that Sean Penn got nominated for the Academy Award but didn’t win. There’s The Other Sister (double the action, double the horror), Forrest Gump (though this one actually fits better into another category, but that’s a different box of chocolates, I mean, article), What’s Eating Gilbert Grape(to be noted that Leo appears in not one but three movies on this list) and many more.
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorders also caught Hollywood’s eye. One could say Hollywood’s suffering from a compulsion when it comes to stories about people with mental disorders (bad joke, but I can’t help myself). Let me see: As Good as It Gets – Oscar for Jack Nicholson (but what about the dog? no recognition whatsoever?), The Aviator – Nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio (is it that Scorsese sees him as crazy?) , this almost ranks right up there with autism doesn’t it? Also, Nicholas Cage in Matchstick Men (Nick Cage still in wonderfully nuanced Adaptation mode, before National Treasure and ,ugh , The Wicker Man), and even if it’s a bit of a cheat, Tony Shalhoub in Monk (it had a great run on TV), but he’s suffering from more than one disorder that annoyingly clever man.
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The personality disorder is one of the few that have been in movies for a while. Most of the others less than 3 decades old. Jessica Walter played a woman suffering from such a disorder in Play Misty for Me in 1971 (now she’s lending her voice to a dysfunctional mother in Archer, which is equally disturbing), you know, one where Clint Eastwood was neither a cowboy, a soldier, nor a cop. Glenn Close’s character from Fatal Attraction also presented characteristics of a personality disorder (that Michael Douglas sure likes his female characters playing opposite crazy doesn’t he?) not to mention something called de Clérambault’s syndrome (couldn’t help but put that in here, it’s such a mouthful). As we all know Glenn Close went on to portray the live action version of a psychopath, aptly named De Vil.
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And we come to the all time favorite: schizophrenia. From Benny & Joon to A Beautiful Mind, to Spider (sick little movie) and The Soloist (such a wasted pool of talent), and to the most recent of Shutter Island. Though many times romanticized, schizophrenia is the winner of the mental disorder pagent when it comes to judge Cinema. Maybe because it’s the one that allows quite a bit of altering of perception and offers a great storytelling device: what? a Red Knight? On a horse? In New York? What is this, The Fisher King?
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But of course none of these match up to a movie placed in a mental institution. That one offers endless possibilities, like Angelina Jolie winning an Oscar, Jack Nicholson appearing to be the most sane person in a room, or Johhny Depp in a cape. Frankly I’ll take One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest over a lot of the movies mentioned, but I just like crazy people and Danny DeVito before he became famous.
Posted on March 20th, 2010 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: Movies
Bruce Willis should also get a lifetime achievement award for the many great films that he had .
when i am watching action movies, i really love to see bruce willis in it .;’
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