Cinema & Psychiatry
IMDb -Internet Movie Database is celebrating its 19th birthday this year. This virtual database has been a great source for people who seek information on movies in the internet. Another important source is the Yahoo Movies as well as internet’s most used encyclopedia; wikipedia. Both IMDb and Yahoo Movies are inter-active sites letting people around the world rating movies.
When thinking about the movies in which psychiatric conditions have a “role” (i.e., involved with psychiatric states, mental illnesses), you realize that the list is long, and you really do not know where to start. As IMDb seems the popular site as a movie database and they listed the top 250 movies according to the ratings of the visitors of the site I decided to go over this list. Going through the summaries of the movies I have not watched one by one, I chose the top 10 movies where the script is somehow related to psychiatric conditions.
Here is the Top 10 movies related to psychiatric conditions out of top 250 movies of IMDb. (The number in the first parentheses demonstrates the rank of the movie in the list, and the one in the second shows the average rating).
1 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (8) (8.8)
Psychiatry itself as a concept, frontal lobotomy
2- Psycho (23) (8.7)
Psychosis
3- The Silence of the Lambs (24) (8.6)
Cannibalism, psychopathy
4- Taxi Driver (38) (8.5)
Post-traumatic stress disorder
5- Forrest Gump (39) (8.5)
Learning disabilities
6- Vertigo (40) (8.5)
Phobias
7- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (64) (8.4)
Retrograde amnesia
8- Requiem for a Dream (66) (8.4)
Substance abuse/Drug addiction
9- Trainspotting (169) (8.1)
Substance abuse/Drug addiction
10- Harvey (186) (8.1)
Delusional state
Of course, this is one way of creating a list of movies on psyhiatric states/disorders . There are many other movies out there. Some of them are Oscar-winners. Rainman (autism), and A Beautiful Mind (schizophrenia) are two important examples for those movies.
There are several webpages where you can find a list movies of that type classified according to psychiatric disorders e.g., Mental illness in film, List of films featuring mental illness, Psychiatry in the cinema. Of these movies (One flew over the cuckoo’s nest being my favourite movie of all times) the hippocampus/memory movie Butterfly Effect & brain research enthusiasm/passion movie Awakenings are my favourites.
Below you will get information on the top 10 movies associated with psychiatric conditions out of IMDb’s top 250 movie list. When you click on “Release dates according to countries” you will also see the movie’s title in different countries. Enjoy!
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Release Date: 26 February 1976 (Sweden)
Release dates according to countries
Director:Milos Forman
Awards and Honors: Won 5 Oscars. Another 28 wins & 11 nominations
Critiques/Analysis:
Great Scene: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
Sane or Crazy: Who’s to Decide?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Best Classic Movie
A detailed analysis of the book
Based on the novel with the same name
Psycho
Release Date: 25 August 1960 (Brazil)
Release dates according to countries
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Awards and Honors: Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 3 nominations
Critiques/Analysis:
Critical Analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”
Watch the full movie
Based on the novel with the same name
The Silence of the Lambs
Release Date: 14 February 1991 (USA)
Release dates according to countries
Director: Jonathan Demme
Awards and Honors: Won 5 Oscars. Another 39 wins & 27 nominations
Critiques/Analysis:
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Based on the novel with the same name
Taxi Driver
Release Date: 8 February 1976 (USA)
Release dates according to countries
Director: Martin Scorsese
Awards and Honors: Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 18 wins & 9 nominations
Critiques/Analysis:
Watch the full movie
Soundtrack
Forrest Gump
Release Date: 6 July 1994 (USA)
Release dates according to countries
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Awards and Honors: Won 6 Oscars. Another 32 wins & 38 nominations
Critiques/Analysis:
Watch the full movie
Soundtrack
Based on the novel with the same name
Vertigo
Release Date: 21 July 1958 (Brazil)
Release dates according to countries
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Awards and Honors: Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 2 nominations
Critiques/Analysis:
The theme of imbalance in Hitchcock’s Vertigo
Interviews
Watch the full movie
Soundtrack
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Release Date: 19 March 2004 (USA)
Release dates according to countries
Director: Michel Gondry
Awards and Honors: Won Oscar. Another 36 wins & 50 nominations
Critiques/Analysis:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Movie title taken from the poem: Eloisa to Abelard
Abelard and his pupil, Heloise by Edmund Leighton.Requiem for a Dream
Release Date: 3 November 2000 (Canada)
Release dates according to countries
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Awards and Honors: Nominated for Oscar. Another 20 wins & 34 nominations
Critiques/Analysis:
Based on the novel with the same name
Trainspotting
Release Date: 26 July 1996 (Canada)
Release dates according to countries
Director: Danny Boyle
Awards and Honors: Nominated for Oscar. Another 18 wins & 13 nominations
Critiques/Analysis:
Soundtrack
Based on the novel with the same name
Harvey
Release Date: 13 October 1950 (USA)
Release dates according to countries
Director: Henry Koster
Awards and Honors: Won Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations
Critiques/Analysis:
Review summary and plot commentary about Harvey
Based on the play with the same name
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