Moral Deliberations in Modern CinemaVaknin, Samuel
Philosophy
Moral Deliberations in Modern Cinema
Vaknin, Samuel
Motion pictures -- Reviews
Thus, we are subtly introduced to the two over-riding themes of the
antisocial personality disorder (still labelled by many professional
authorities "psychopathy" and "sociopathy"): an overwhelming dysphoria
and an even more overweening drive to assuage this angst by belonging.
The psychopath is an unhappy person. He is besieged by recurrent
depression bouts, hypochondria and an overpowering sense of alienation
and drift. He is bored with his own life and is permeated by a
seething and explosive envy of the lucky, the mighty, the clever, the
have it alls, the know it alls, the handsome, the happy - in short:
his opposites. He feels discriminated against and dealt a poor hand in
the great poker game called life. He is driven obsessively to right
these perceived wrongs and feels entirely justified in adopting
whatever means he deems necessary in pursuing this goal.
Ripley's reality test is maintained throughout the film. In other
words - while he gradually merges with the object of his admiring
emulation, the young Greenleaf - Ripley can always tell the
difference. After he kills Greenleaf in self-defense, he assumes his
name, wears his clothes, cashes his checks and makes phone calls from
his rooms. But he also murders - or tries to murder - those who
suspect the truth. These acts of lethal self-preservation prove
conclusively that he knows who he is and that he fully realizes that
his acts are parlously illegal.
Young Greenleaf is young, captivatingly energetic, infinitely
charming, breathtakingly handsome and deceivingly emotional. He lacks
real talents - he know how to play only six jazz tunes, can't make up
his musical mind between his faithful sax and a newly alluring drum
kit and, an aspiring writer, can't even spell. These shortcomings and
discrepancies are tucked under a glittering facade of non-chalance,
refreshing spontaneity, an experimental spirit, unrepressed sexuality
and unrestrained adventurism. But Greenleaf Jr. is a garden variety
narcissist. He cheats on his lovely and loving girlfriend, Marge. He
refuses to lend money - of which he seems to have an unlimited supply,
courtesy his ever more disenchanted father - to a girl he impregnated.
She commits suicide and he blames the primitiveness of the emergency
services, sulks and kicks his precious record player. In the midst of
this infantile temper tantrum the rudiments of a conscience are
visible. He evidently feels guilty. At least for a while.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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