Our Movie Gods and Psychiatrists: Needing Hannibal Lecters
“They shall know I am the Lord when I take my vengeance upon them.” – Ezekiel 25: 17
[Verse best known for being quoted (inaccurately) by Samuel Jackson in Pulp Fiction.]
Considering how frequently we refer to God, He is unquestionably the Being most underrepresented on film. [The character most depicted on screen (> 250X) is Sherlock Holmes, the real-life individual, Napoleon (<200X).]
The reason is obvious. In addition to Judaism and Islam prohibiting His depiction, how can the infinite Almighty be portrayed in two dimensions?
Best-known examples are comedic films. [Oh God! George Burns 1977/1980/1984, Bruce/Evan Almighty! Morgan Freeman 2003/2007, Dogma, Alanis Morissette 1999.]
In serious, self-important films, director John Huston voiced God himself in The Bible (1966). Charlton Heston voiced God in The Ten Commandments (1956) in addition to playing Moses. (Heston portrayed God, appearing identical to Moses, in Almost an Angel 1990.)
Satirical films deliberately portray God by the most incongruous facsimiles (e.g., Steve Buscemi, Whoopi Goldberg, Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf.) In their last two films, God was the final role for both Rodney Dangerfield and Groucho Marx. (Groucho judged the film “God-awful!”)
Considering how few exist in real life, (other than serial-killers), the profession most over-represented in reel-life is psychiatry.
The reason is also obvious. (As I wrote in The Wall Street Journal), “We are guilty of giving off a certain arrogance, an attitude that we know at all.”
Audience savor humbling our elitist profession that presumes to transcend human emotions.
The problem is, unlike lawmen (the profession most depicted on screen), shrinks are not cinematic.
We sit; we talk; that’s it. No fisticuffs, car-chases, gun-play.
(As I wrote in The American Journal of Psychiatry and Movieline), screenwriters are forced to hyperbolize us into eight categories:
I- DR. HUGS-HERO: Warm good guy whose love is therapeutic.
[1957- Lee J. Cobb, The Three Faces of Eve. 1957- Richard Boone, Lizzie. 1980- Judd Hirsch, Ordinary People. 1997- Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting.] (Inconsistently, Robin, in his Oscar-winning performance, at times, is intensely personal, at others, distantly psychoanalytic, reflecting the film’s writers, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s respective psychiatrists’ contrasting styles.)
II- DR. ACTION-HERO: Fearless knight places himself in harm’s way, saving day, damsel, patient, via fisticuffs, car-chases, gunplay.
[1977- Mel Brooks, High Anxiety. 1982 Roy Scheider, Still of the Night. 1992- Richard Gere, Final Analysis. 1999, 2002 Billy Crystal, Analyze This / That.]
III- DR. KILLER: Prominent clinician who, secretly, is homicidal psychopath.
[1945-Leo G. Carroll, Spellbound. 1949- Robert Newton, Obsession. 1980- Michael Caine, Dressed To Kill. 1992- Alan Alda, Whispers in the Dark. 2005-2012- Cillian Murphy, Dark Knight trilogy.]
IV- DR. JERK: Greedy, lecherous scoundrel taking advantage of patient.
[1991-Richard Dreyfuss, What About Bob? 1996- Marcia Gay Harden, First Wives’ Club. 1997-Kirstie Alley, Deconstructing Harry. 1991 Anthony Heald, Silence of the Lambs.] (The book clarifies he’s actually a psychologist masquerading as a psychiatrist, another reason Lecter “has” him for dinner.)
V- DR. IDIOT: Arrogant ignoramus frustratingly worsening the situation.
[1947- Tic-ridden Macy’s shrink declares Santa Claus insane, Miracle on 34th Street. 1984-2003- Dr. Silverman declares heroes insane, Terminator 1-3. 1988- Charles Grodin, Couch Trip.]
VI- DR. FOOL: Neurotic comic figure crazier than patients.
[1938- Fritz Feld, Bringing Up Baby. 1965- Peter Sellers, What’s New Pussycat? 1987- Glenda Jackson, Beyond Therapy. 1997- Alan Arkin, Grosse Pointe Blank. 1998- Anthony Sher, Shakespeare in Love.]
VII- DR. EMPTY: Sympathetic, but pathetic, competent physician whose personal life is so passionless, envies, falls in love with uninhibited patient.
[1945- Ingrid Bergman, Spellbound. 1971- Joanne Woodward, They Might Be Giants. 1977- Richard Burton, Equus. 1983- Dudley Moore, Lovesick. 1991- Barbra Streisand, The Prince of Tides. 1995- Marlon Brando, Don Juan DeMarco.]
VIII- DR. KNOW-IT-ALL: Omniscient authority, final scene, explains everything.
[1950- Simon Oakland, 1998- Robert Forster, Psycho. 1997- Howard Morris, High Anxiety. 1997- Lawrence Kasdan, As Good As It Gets. 1983- Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Lovesick. 2001- Christopher Plummer (Captain Von Trapp) A Beautiful Mind. 1976- Sigmund Freud himself (Alan Arkin), The 7% Solution.]
Into which category does the most famous film-psychiatrist of all, Hannibal Lecter, belong?
Obviously, DR. KILLER, according to the American Film Institute, the greatest cinematic villain ever.
Not so simple. What makes him iconic is that he is also DR. ACTION-HERO and DR.KNOW-IT-ALL, whom even the FBI consults. Audiences root for him, laugh and applaud him “having” his nemesis for dinner.
Indeed, his omnipotence, omniscience, manners, uniquely ethical standards and the fact that he usually murders evil-doers, creates a ninth category, DR. GOD (definitely Old Testament version.)
In reality, most psychiatrists who practice long enough, myself included, will eventually be placed into every category (excepting DRS. ACTION-HERO and KILLER) by adoring or disappointed patients, often, by the same ones sequentially.
Why?
Voltaire observed, 1769: “If God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
Dostoyevsky wrote in The Brothers Karamazov: “if God doesn’t exist, everything is permitted.”
We hyperbolize psychiatrists, root for Lecters, (similarly for omnipotent leaders), for the same reason we worship God
The world is a better, safer, more secure place if there is someone watching over us, protecting us from and punishing evil-doers as, hopefully, we felt in childhood.
Even if, in reality, there isn’t, and it isn’t, if we believe in God, it feels that way, which enhances our journey here.
And that, is divine.
