Films Illustrating Psychopathology Danny Wedding Mary Ann Boyd ...

234 Movies and Mental Illness
neurological disease that they are told is ultimately
fatal. Good illustration of the effects of chronic
illness on family functioning.
Majestic, The (2001) Drama ΨΨ
Jim Carrey plays a disenfranchised screenwriter
who develops amnesia after his car topples over a
bridge. He washes on the shore of a small town
whose citizens take him in as a lost war hero.
Man Without a Past, The (2002) Drama ΨΨΨ
A man is severely beaten while sleeping outside
and is proclaimed dead. He awakens with amnesia
and begins to create a new life for himself before
eventually discovering parts of his old life.
Memento (2001) Suspense/Mystery ΨΨΨΨΨ
Christopher Nolan directs this one-of-a-kind,
exquisitely crafted masterpiece about a man suffering
from anterograde amnesia. The film demands
the viewer have very good short-term memory as
the major plot progresses backwards scene by
scene while juxtaposing past events (going forward)
in black-and-white. This is a film not to be
missed.
“How am I supposed to heal if I
can’t feel time?”
Guy Pearce in Memento
Memories of Me (1988) Comedy ΨΨ
Henry Winkler directs Billy Crystal, a high-powered
surgeon who has just had a heart attack, and
Alan King, his actor father who may have
Alzheimer’s. It turns out that an aneurysm is present,
and father and son eventually learn to care for
one another.
Mercy or Murder? (1987) Drama ΨΨ
Made-for-TV movie about a Florida man who went
to prison after killing his wife because she had
advanced Alzheimer’s Disease. The film raises
interesting questions that society will increasingly
be forced to confront.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Mystery/Drama/Suspense ΨΨΨΨ
David Lynch film about a woman who experiences
a head injury from a car accident, becomes amnestic,
and finds refuge in an aspiring Hollywood
actress’ condominium. This is characteristic Lynch
in its non-linearity and themes of reality vs. illusion,
identity confusion, and nightmarish dream
sequences.
My Girl (1991) Comedy ΨΨ
Eleven-year-old girl is a hypochondriac with a
mortician for a father and a grandmother who has
Alzheimer’s disease.
“You was my brother, Charley,
you should’ve looked out for me
just a little bit so I wouldn’t have
to take them dives for the shortend
money.”
Marlon Brando
in On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront (1954) Drama ΨΨΨΨΨ
Classic Elia Kazan film starring Marlon Brando as
Terry Malloy, a prizefighter of limited intelligence
who is exploited by almost everyone around him.
Brando won an Oscar as Best Actor for his performance
as Terry Malloy, who took a dive and
spent the rest of his life regretting it.
Pride of the Yankees (1942) Biography ΨΨΨ
Gary Cooper stars in this Samuel Goldwyn film
about legendary Yankees’ first baseman Lou Gehrig,
who had to give up baseball due to amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis, which came to be known more widely
by the eponym “Lou Gehrig’s disease.”
“Some people say I’ve had a bad
break, but I consider myself to be
the luckiest man on the face of
the earth.”
Lou Gehrig giving up baseball in
Pride of the Yankees
Private Matter, A (1992) Biography ΨΨ
Provocative made-for-TV movie starring Sissy
Spacek as a TV personality who gets national
attention after her decision to abort a child likely to
be affected by the drug thalidomide.
From: Wedding, D., Boyd, M.A., & Niemiec, R.M. Movies and Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology
© 2005 Hogrefe & Huber Publishers (www.hogrefe.com)