The 411 Movies Top 5 12.03.10: Week 246 - Top 5 Movie Mental Breakdowns

Posted by Trevor Snyder on 12.03.2010

From Jack Nicholson in The Shining and Michael Douglas in Falling Down to Lester Burnham in American Beauty and more, the 411 Staff ranks their top 5 movie mental breakdowns!



In honor of this weekend's long-awaited release of Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller Black Swan, this week I invited my fellow 411 writers to join me in going a little mad, with a look at:

THE TOP 5 MOVIE MENTAL BREAKDOWNS

TREVOR SNYDER

5. Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams), Death to Smoochy

Although mental problems are typically nothing to laugh at in real life, they can certainly be played for big laughs in the world of cinema. That's why I wanted to make sure my first couple choices were a little on the lighter side. First up is what I consider to be a criminally underappreciated dark comedy from director Danny Devito. Williams plays Rainbow Randolph, a beloved kids show host who doesn't handle it very well after he is fired and replaced by the dinosaur-suit wearing Sheldon Mopes, otherwise known as Smoochy (Edward Norton). At first, Randolph tries to sabotage Smoochy's new show, but as he goes even further off his rocker he eventually goes so far as to even attempt murdering him. Unfortunately, the movie wraps up with an out-of-place happy ending, rather than delivering the dark conclusion it seems to be building towards. Still, Williams performance is pretty hilarious, and well worth a look despite the film's unfortunate bad reputation.




4. Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Drefuss), What About Bob

When egotistical psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin goes on a family vacation, he is dismayed to find that he has been followed by his newest patient, the multiphobic Bob Wiley (Bill Murray). Leo is even more upset over the fact that his family is not only not bothered by Bob's intrusion, but even seem to like the guy's company. This is all bad news for Leo, who just wants to concentrate on his upcoming appearance on Good Morning America to promote his new book. But as Bob continues to be the guest who just won't leave, Leo spirals further and further down into his own sort of insanity. Although played totally for laughs, there's still a somewhat interesting message here about how even the so-called experts on mental illness are only one push away from sinking into the same sort of problems they seemingly understand.




3. William Keane (Damian Lewis), Keane

In this haunting independent drama from 2004, Band of Brothers' Damian Lewis plays William Keane, a mentally disturbed man who spends nearly every minute of his days approaching strangers at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and asking them if they have any information on his young daughter, who went missing from there several months ago. Eventually, Keane befriends a financially desperate women and her young daughter (Amy Ryan and Abigail Breslin). Keane begins watching the young girl while her mother works, but because she reminds him of his own daughter, it turns out this might not be the best idea. Writer/director Lodge Kerrigan's film cleverly plays with its audience, leaving you to constantly wonder not only Keane's intentions with Breslin's character, but also whether or not his missing daughter even ever really existed, or is simply a figment of his fractured mind. It's a darn shame this didn't get a bigger audience, because Lewis' performance is Oscar-nomination worthy, if you ask me.




2. William "D-Fens" Foster (Michael Douglas), Falling Down

Sure, he got an Oscar for Wall Street, but personally I believe Michael Douglas' finest hour is this 1993 Joel Schumacher thriller about an unemployed defense engineer who snaps one day and goes on a violent rampage across Los Angeles. What has probably made this movie so popular over the years is the fact that a lot of the things that set Foster off throughout the film are the same sort of things that annoy all of us – traffic jams, high prices, arbitrary time limits on fast food breakfasts, etc. Sure, he's a sick man, and his reactions are, to put it lightly, a tad extreme. Still, there's a part of you that just can't help but cheer him on a little on the inside…at least until he starts coming for his clearly frightened ex-wife and young daughter.




1. Carol Ledoux (Catherine Deneuve), Repulsion

Roman Polanski's 1965 film is still widely considered to be one of the best psychological thrillers of all time, if not the best. Deneuve plays Carol, a young woman who suffers from a near crippling fear of men. When left alone by her roommate sister, Carol sinks further and further into her own paranoia. Unable to even leave her apartment, Carol begins suffering hallucinations, and her growing psychosis eventually even leads to murder. Although the story might seem a little simplistic, Deneuve's performance and Polanski's directing are both exquisite, turning the movie into an intense and frightening depiction of mental illness and its potential effects of those who suffer it.

SHAWN S. LEALOS

5. Nick, The Deer Hunter

I've never been a huge fan of The Deer Hunter, although I concede it is a brilliantly constructed movie. Maybe part of it is my dislike for most war movies and part of it might be having to watch it for the first time in film school but I just don't care for it that much. But, one of the best breakdowns in movies has to be Nick's (Christopher Walken) loss of sanity thanks to the horrors of war. We start off with three friends, regular guys, living life in a small town. Then, by the end, one friend (Steven) has lost both legs, another (Michael) is mentally distraught and the third, Nick, is insane, playing games of Russian for sport. The final scene where Michael (DeNiro) faces off with Nick in a game of roulette, trying to reach his friend, is heart wrenching.




4. David, An American Werewolf in London

Two friends are hitchhiking across Europe when they are attacked by a wolf. One friend is killed and the other becomes a werewolf. However, what makes the movie great isn't the fact it is a werewolf movie (although that is awesome). What makes this John Landis movie incredible is the fact that, the entire time David is transforming into the werewolf, he is going completely nuts. The scene in the movie theater towards the end, while the ghosts of the victims are haunting him, is great but the best, most whacked out scene, is the one with the Nazi werewolves attacking him in the hospital. The movie is brilliant and that scene is one of the reasons why.




3. William Foster, Falling Down

Not enough people have seen this movie. In what might be the greatest Michael Douglas performance ever, he plays William Foster, a guy down on his luck. He is recently divorced and is not allowed to see his child. He has also recently been laid off from his job and, while sitting in a traffic jam on a hot day, his mind finally snaps. He goes on a violent rampage across town that, ironically enough, was not really entirely his fault to begin with. It is a disturbing look at a man pushed by society until there is no give left and what results when that man is finally broken.




2. Jack Torrance, The Shining

One of the best Stephen King novels was made into one of the greatest horror movies of all time in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. I would rank this No. 1 but feel that the movie did not transform Jack from sane to insane quite as well as the book, despite the fact Kubrick cared more about that aspect of the story than the haunted hotel part of it. Jack Nicholson just comes across as crazy right from the start. But, the fact that Jack went from being a husband and father into a raving psychotic madman mixed with the fact this might be one of the top five horror movies ever made means it deserves a place near the top of this list.




1. Howard Beale, Network

There is no finer character breakdown than the one presented in the Sydney Lumet classic, Network. When Howard Beale, a news anchor, learns he is about to lose his job due to bad ratings, he announces to the world he will commit suicide on the air. He is fired but, thanks to a friend, is allowed back on the air to apologize. He immediately breaks into his classic monologue the movie remains known for. He becomes a folk hero to the common public when he states: "I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!'" His life continues to spiral out of control until the shocking end. It is a brilliant movie, one of the best of all time, and the perfect example of a person suffering a breakdown.

BRYAN KRISTOPOWITZ

5. Tommy Callahan III (Chris Farley), Tommy Boy (1995)

Poor Tommy Callahan. He's trying his best to save his family's company and keep all of its workers employed, but he's clearly not the salesman that his father was. Up until the moment of his hair pulling meltdown Tommy tried to keep up his enthusiasm despite repeated failure and the douchebag nagging of "friend" Richard. It would all work out if he just kept trying. But then he screws up the classic "bull's ass" speech and just loses it. He stalks the potential client's office like a maniac and starts talking loudly. Tommy says:

"Forget it, I quit, I can't do this anymore, man! My head's about to explode! My whole life sucks! I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know where I'm going! My dad just died, we just killed Bambi, I'm out here getting my ass kicked and every time I drive down the road I wanna jerk the wheel into a Goddamn bridge abutment!"

Yeah, it's an incredibly funny moment, a funny speech, but it's also very, very sad. Because up until that point in the movie that's exactly what happened to him. Luckily for all of us Tommy never did jerk the wheel into a Goddamn bridge abutment. Had that happened the movie wouldn't have been as funny.




4. John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone), First Blood (1982)

John Rambo's emotional breakdown at the end of "First Blood" is the culmination of about ten years of anger, resentment, pain, and severe trauma, all of it triggered by the scumbag police force led by Brian Dennehy's Teasle. If Teasle hadn't been such a fucking douchebag to Rambo Rambo could have just passed through town and gotten on with his life. He still would have had all of that built up anger, resentment, and pain, but it would have remained inside him. That situation probably would have been best for everyone. Good job, Teasle.

Rambo's breakdown is a great scene, easily one of the best acting moments of Stallone's career, and it helps give "First Blood" an emotional element that, up until that point, the movie hadn't possessed. It sort of makes the whole movie worth it. So I guess I have to thank Teasle for what he did to Rambo. Otherwise the moment never would have happened. Good job, Teasle.




3. Pvt. Miguel Salazar (Antone DiLeo), Day of the Dead (1985)

When we first meet Miguel he clearly isn't well emotionally. He's jittery, upset, probably suffering from some form of shell shock. There are freaking flesh eating zombies everywhere, the world is essentially over, and he doesn't have enough bullets to kill them all. He's also got a hot and strong girlfriend (Sarah, as played by Lori Cardille) that refuses to be anything else but hot and strong. Oh, and his commanding officer, Captain Rhodes (Joe Pilato) is a fucking lunatic. So it was just a matter of time before Miguel went nutzoid.

And when Miguel goes nutzoid he doesn't scream out in pain or cry or anything like that. After he loses control of a zombie, gets bitten by a zombie, then gets his arm cut off by Sarah in a bid to "stop the infection," Miguel stews for a little while before hatching a plan to end it all for everyone. He opens the underground bunker he and Sarah and the others had been living in and lets the zombies in. And then the zombies eat every human in sight (well, except for Sarah, John, and McDermott. They manage to get out).

Miguel gets eaten, too. He prays a little before the zombies rip him to shreds. So at least he had that going for him. Under the circumstances it was probably the best he could expect.




2. William "D-Fens" Foster (Michael Douglas), Falling Down(1993)

The moment we see William Foster, good old "D-Fens," he's in the midst of a meltdown. We don't know why he's in the middle of a meltdown, but it's obvious that he's not well emotionally. The meltdown, though, helps Foster act out his fantasies. He complains about a convenience store worker's poor English, he almost gets mugged by two thugs, he beats up a white racist scumbag homophobe, he grabs a bag of guns and complains about the burgers at a fast food restaurant, causes a rich old man to die of a heart attack on the golf course, and then he menaces his ex-wife. So what causes Foster's meltdown? Did it happen because he lost his job? Did it happen because he couldn't handle the social change around him? Or was Foster always like this and now he's just breaking down because it's time? Does anyone out there know?




1. Aaron Hallam (Benicio Del Toro), The Hunted (2003)

Aaron Hallam's problems are all caused by the nasty shit he had to do as a Special Forces operative. Constantly surrounded by death and destruction while on the job he couldn't figure out how to "turn off" the survival instincts that he developed while training with L.T. Bonham when he wasn't working. So one day, after a particularly harrowing mission Hallam completely lost it, killed a bunch of innocent civilians, and decided that everyone was out to get him. He retreated into the woods where he thought it was safe (he ends up killing hunters he thinks are "sweepers," assassins out to kill him). He tried to contact his girlfriend. He even tried to contact Bonham. But it was all a waste of time. Hallam couldn't figure out how to shut off that side of his personality. It's all incredibly sad. The world can just chew you up and spit you out.

JEREMY THOMAS

5. Ian Curtis (Sam Riley) – Control (2007)

This biopic of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis is unfortunately an oft-overlooked film due to the fact that it was released with little fanfare. However, it's an exceptional film that fantastically displays Curtis' spiral into depression caused by the turmoil of his marriage and the physical ravages that epilepsy and medication take on his body. Sam Riley captures this depression brilliantly, making Curtis a sympathetic character while never going so far as to deify him the way some biopics have made the mistake of doing to their subjects. This isn't a flashy, over-the-top mental breakdown and in fact tends more toward being understated most of the time, but that makes it different, unique and more to the point, authentic…which sets it apart from other cinematic breakdowns.




4. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) – The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Most of the time in film, breakdowns are the fault of some mental imbalance or a traumatic accident. In the case of Major Bennett Marco, the protagonist in the political thriller The Manchurian Candidate, the breakdown is a calculated effect brought upon by the efforts of an outside party. Marco is subjected to brainwashing along with the rest of his platoon, and has his mind begins to unravel throughout the film due to said conditioning he starts to realize that one of his men has been programmed into being an unwitting assassin. The remake starring Denzel Washington and Live Schreiber was a huge disappointment considering the talent involved, but the original as directed by John Frankenheimer is a brilliant, tense piece of political filmmaking. Sinatra did a top-notch job with his performance and turns in what is arguably his finest performance. The film may have been Cold War propaganda, but it was an exceptional political thriller as well and gave a nearly perfect portrayal of a man whose mind is falling apart.




3. Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) – Shutter Island (2004)

Okay, anyone who has not seen Shutter Island yet, there ARE SPOILERS HERE. It is impossible to discuss without revealing them, so skip past this if you don't want the film ruined for you.


Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, onto the praise. Leonardo DiCaprio has done some great work with characters featuring mental breakdowns. His turn as Howard Hughes in The Aviator just narrowly missed a spot on my list, and it could of course be argued that Dom Cobb from Inception isn't all there. However, here is where he's done his best work to date, playing a US Marshall who over the course of his investigation into the mysterious Shutter Island mental hospital for the criminally insane learns that nothing is what it appears to be—and by that, I mean nothing. Martin Scorsese and DiCaprio are brilliant in the way that they portray Teddy's slow descent into—or more specifically, arising from—insanity. From the vivid and well-put together dream sequences to the double meaning behind everything that goes on, the whole point of this film is to construct a certain perspective on the story and then turn it upside down and inside out. That the film holds up completely under both premises is astounding, and half the fun in this film is watching it a second time to see how well it does hold up. It is because of DiCaprio that we believe what we're seeing for as long as we do, which allows Scorsese to present the story in the way he does. These two are always golden together, but this was one of their best collaborations yet.




2. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) – The Shining (1980)

It would be nearly impossible to list off the great performances of insanity without putting Jack Nicholson's turn as Jack Torrance on the list, and I'm sure as hell not going to try for the sake of contrariness. I've said before that I don't love The Shining perhaps quite as much as most people do, but that takes nothing away from Nicholson's work in depicting a man eaten apart and driven past the edge by isolation, personal demons and of course the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel. Much like DiCaprio, Nicholson is skilled at playing the mentally unbalanced and he puts those skills to great use here. His assault on his wife and son at the end of the film is one of the great maniac moments of film history, etching this portrayal in solidly near the top of my list.




1. Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) – American Beauty (1999)

Mental breakdowns are not always a bad thing. Check out Lester Burnham, for example. He's been living as long as he can remember in a state of emotional deadness. His wife Carolyn is an ambitious real estate broker who is emotionally distant and obsessed with material gain over true happiness, his daughter Jane hates them both and has low self-esteem and he hates his job to boot. However, his world is shaken when two events take place within close succession. The first is the appearance of Ricky Fitts, his new teenage neighbor who sells pot under his military father's nose. The second is his infatuation with Jane's cheerleader friend Angela. Now, it's not exactly fair to say that Lester's breakdown is the same level of psychosis that other people on these lists hit. But let's face it…he clearly cracks and his mind goes around the bend a bit as he starts having vivid fantasies about Angela and rose petals, starts smoking pot, quits his job and basically completely changes his life. That's a breakdown to me…just one that lead to more fulfillment in his life than ever before. Spacey's performance is one of his best in a resume full of fantastic roles, and the scene where he blackmails his boss into getting a year's severance pay is flat-out awesome. Not every breakdown has to end in padded rooms and straightjackets.

Agree with our choices? Disagree? Feel free to share your thoughts and your own Top 5's below. We'll be back next week with a brand new topic. Until then, have a great week, everybody.