Films Illustrating Psychopathology Danny Wedding Mary Ann Boyd ...

246 Movies and Mental Illness
to get revenge by hurting Nolte and his family and
seducing his teenage daughter.
“Do not speak to me of rules.
This is war. This is not a game of
cricket. He’s mad, your Colonel.
Quite mad.”
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Casualties of War (1989) Drama ΨΨΨ
Sean Penn leads a group of five soldiers who kidnap
and rape a Vietnamese girl and subsequently kill her.
Michael J. Fox subsequently shows the moral
courage to confront the four rapists and murderers.
Based on a true story.
City of God (2003) Drama ΨΨΨΨ
Painfully sobering and graphic look at violence
associated with child and adolescent gang-life,
drug trafficking, and poverty in a section of Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil. Depiction of young children and
adolescents walking around with no fear, guns, and
only revenge on their minds.
Clockwork Orange, A (1971)
Science Fiction ΨΨΨΨΨ
Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece about “ultraviolence,”
stereotypes, Beethoven, pathological youth,
the future of society, the evils of aversion therapy,
good vs. evil, the rehabilitation of prisoners, and
free will vs. determinism is regarded by many film
experts as one of the greatest films ever made.
Cold Mountain (2003) Drama/Romance ΨΨ
Amidst a dramatic love story (between characters
played by Jude Law and Nicole Kidman) is a lot of
antisocial behavior, violence, immoral behavior,
attempted rape, and senseless tortures and killings.
Compulsion (1959) Crime ΨΨΨ
Two homosexual law students kidnap and kill a
young boy. Based on the Leopold-Loeb case, the
film examines the morality of capital punishment
and features Orson Wells in the role played by
Clarence Darrow in the actual case.
Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, The
(1989) Drama ΨΨΨΨ
Peter Greenaway film far too complex to capture in
a sentence or two. Full of psychopathology, the
film deals with passion, deceit, gluttony, murder,
cannibalism, and man’s inhumanity to man.
Copycat (1995) Drama ΨΨΨ
Sigourney Weaver plays a forensic psychologist
trying to understand the psyche of a serial killer
who models his murders after those committed by
infamous murderers, such as Son of Sam and the
Boston Strangler.
Das Experiment (2001) Drama/Suspense ΨΨΨ
Depiction of psychological research experiment in
a prison setting where subjects are divided into
prisoners who waive their civil rights and guards
who are to maintain peace and order. While this
film bears some initial structural similarity to the
famous Zimbardo Prison Experiment, it in no way
portrays it accurately as the film’s violence goes
well beyond actual events.
“They got me on a greased rail to
the Death House here.”
Sean Penn
in Dead Man Walking
Dead Man Walking (1995) Drama ΨΨΨΨ
Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn star in this dramatic
examination of a nun’s need to understand and
help a man sentenced to die for the rape and murder
of two teenagers. The film skillfully examines
the death penalty, family dynamics, themes of
redemption, and the mitigating role of drugs without
ever providing easy answers. Sarandon won an
Academy Award for her performance in this film.
Deliberate Stranger, The (1986) Drama Ψ
Made-for-TV movie about serial killer Ted Bundy.
“Lewis, don’t play games with
these people.”
Deliverance
Deliverance (1972) Adventure ΨΨΨΨ
Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, and Burt Reynolds on a
white water rafting trip in Appalachia. Beatty
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)