Ah, Hollywood loves a good mental patient. Someone who may not necessarily need to be in a mental institution but somehow ends up in one.
Blame it on the intense The Snake Pit (1948) for starting it all. The film, starring the quietly disturbed Olivia de Havilland, was a groundbreaking piece of work, giving moviegoing audiences a first-hand look at state-run insane asylums. De Havilland’s character Virginia is not sure why she is there and the doctors, although not intentionally, make it worse by keeping her there.
There have been plenty of memorable performances: Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, inciting the local patients to uproarious mischief when pretending to watch the World Series on the TV; Winona Ryder in Girl, Interrupted, making out with her boyfriend in her room; Geoffrey Rush in Quills, writing with the only utensils at his disposal: wine and chicken bones.
There’s also Kevin Spacey, who manages to make everyone in a mental ward believe they are going to live on a happy alien planet K-PAX. He says he is from the planet K-PAX, and Jeff Bridges plays the doctor who tries all he can to get to the root of Spacey’s bizarre behavior rather than simply believing him. Usually these guys help their fellow patients realize they are not so crazy after all. But they also have someone in the hospital working against them–keeping them, well, crazy.
So, after some analysis, we’ve picked some of the better movie mental cases.
Patient: Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson)
Movie: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Diagnosis: Delusional, subject to violent outbursts
The real reason he’s in a hospital: Pretending he is crazy to get out of a jail term for having sex with a minor.
Nemesis: Nurse Mildred Ratched (Louise Fletcher), a pure evil being hell-bent on keeping her ward patients crazy and dependent on drugs.
How he helps: By getting the other patients to let loose and have fun in various ways. At one point, he brings in some girls he knows from the outside so the gang can have a little after-hours party.
Does he get out? No, unfortunately. Shock therapy leaves him a vegetable. But it does inspire the mute Chief (Will Sampson) to throw a sink through a window and escape.
Best line: “What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin’? Well you’re not! You’re not! You’re no crazier than the average asshole out walkin’ around on the streets and that’s it.”
Patient: James Cole (Bruce Willis)
Movie: 12 Monkeys
Diagnosis: Paranoid delusional
The real reason he’s in a hospital: He’s a convict sent back in time to gather evidence on a devastating plague that will wipe out most of the world’s population. But he shoots too far in the past and ends up in a mental institution, ranting about the end of the world.
Nemesis: Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), the insane son of a famous scientist and virus expert who listens a little too carefully to Cole’s predictions on the world’s end while in the mental ward.
How he helps: Once those in the future perfect the time travel process, Cole may be able to stop the plague from happening altogether.
Does he get out? Yes, easily. The people who sent him there in the first place transport him back to the future.
Best line: “Oh, wouldn’t it be great if I was crazy? Then the world would be OK.”
Patient: Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder)
Movie: Girl, Interrupted
Diagnosis: Suicidal, with an overactive libido
The real reason she’s in a hospital: Her uptight, society mom can’t handle her daughter’s restlessness and puts her in a hospital.
Nemesis: Lisa Rowe (Angelina Jolie), a fellow patient who manipulates everyone around her and destroys lives. (Think Nurse Ratched, only crazier and with bigger lips)
How she helps: Befriending the other girls in the ward, and showing them how a wounded soul is able to set herself straight.
Does she get out? Yep. She comes to terms with who she is and heals herself.
Best line: “Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still? Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the ’60s. Or maybe I was just a girl… interrupted.”
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Patient: The Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush)
Movie: Quills
Diagnosis: Obsessive/compulsive behavior
The real reason he’s in a hospital: He writes perversity for the masses, which irks the power-that-be, so in order to stop his stories from reaching the public, he’s put into an asylum. But that doesn’t stop him.
Nemesis: Dr. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine), the sadistic doctor who uses unconventional and tortuous methods to cure his patients.
How he helps: He stages plays with the fellow inmates as the actors and lifts the spirits of the common folk, including the beautiful laundry maid (Kate Winslet), with his stories.
Does he get out? Only through death
Best line: “I write what I see, the endless procession to the guillotine. We’re all lined up, waiting for the crunch of the blade… the rivers of blood are flowing beneath our feet… I’ve been to hell, young man, you’ve only read about it.”
Patient: Billy Caufield (Michael Keaton)
Movie: The Dream Team
Diagnosis: Delusional subject to violent outbursts
The real reason he’s in a hospital: He’s not really crazy, just needs a little anger management counseling.
Nemesis: Dr. Newald (Milo O’Shea), one of the idiot doctors who thinks drugs is the only cure, not fresh air.
How he helps: Even though he’s lost in New York City with three other, much more messed-up fellow patients, he manages to band them together, get the bad guys and save the day.
Does he get out? He sure does and finally makes up with his girlfriend (Lorraine Bracco).
Best line: “Yeah, I got a big story for ya’–we came to town to see a ball game, and now they wanna give us the chair. I love New York. Bring your kids. Have ’em arrested. Do some time in The Big Apple.”
Patient: Don Juan (Johnny Depp)
Movie: Don Juan DeMarco
Diagnosis: Delusional, but is a really good way
The real reason he’s in a hospital: He insists he is the Don Juan, the greatest lover in the world–and has the life story to prove it.
Nemesis: All the other doctors at the hospital. At first, Dr. Jack Mickler (Marlon Brando), the one assigned to the patient, tries to find out who Don Juan really is but against the counsel of the other doctors, actually begins to believe the young man.
How he helps: But opening the eyes of the people taking care of him, especially Mickler, whose sex life with his wife (Faye Dunaway) steps into high gear.
Does he get out? Yes, he does, with the help of Dr. Mickler–and Don Juan finally reunites with his lost love, Donna Ana.
Best line: “I would say that he has a rather limited and uncreative way of looking at the situation. Look, you want to know if I understand that this is a mental hospital? Yes, I understand that, but then how can I say that you are Don Octavio and I am a guest at your villa? Correct?”
