VALERIE. What would you have said to her?
SUSANNA. That I was sorry. That I'll never know what it was like to be here. But I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in when you can't. How you hurt yourself on the outside to kill the thing on the inside.
One of the things I like about this movie is its unwillingness to create an easy villain in it. Erin mentioned how this reminded her of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, which makes absolute sense: mental institution, crazy but endearing patients, a protagonist we root for. But unlike that classic film and book, there is no Nurse Ratchet, no Big Combine that acts as the antagonist to the hero. Valerie is not the enemy. Doctor Wick is not the enemy. Nor is Melvin, who is visibly shaken by Daisy's death and who allows Susanna to keep Ruby the cat. Claymoor is not an evil institution. And the friends Susanna makes in the hospital are not, as a whole, cute and cuddly. Not when we see the large woman carried off in a straight-jacket toward the end. Not when Polly is carried off, screaming about how ugly she is. Not when Daisy hangs herself. Not when Lisa almost plunges a hypodermic needle into her arm to kill herself. And though at the end Susanna is "cured," the world itself isn't: "I've wasted a year of my life. And maybe everyone out there is a liar. And maybe the whole world is stupid and ignorant. But I would rather be fucking in it than down here with you." And as she says as she drives away from her "home" and "family" at the end:
Final diagnosis, recovered borderline. What that means I still don't know. Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is. Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you and me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever. They were not perfect, but they were my friends. And by the 70's most of them were out living lives Some I've seen, some never again. But there isn't a day my heart doesn't find them.
Who got out and lived lives we never know.
So:
1. Your reaction to the movie? Like? Dislike? And what scene from today's viewing stuck with you particularly?
2. Someone in another class asks you what this movie was "about"? What would you say? Don't just write a sentence or two, but give a solid, complete answer.
3. This is clearly and deliberately a story about young women. Why is that? And could this be a story about young men—could one simply replace these young women with young men? Why or why not?
That's more than enough for now. See you all tomorrow and we'll talk about this.
1. Overall, I liked the movie. I was, however, a little disappointed with the heartwarming tidiness of the ending. Susanna completes her journey of self-discovery and rides away happily in the same cab that brought her to Claymoore. Despite the fact that her secret (and insulting, even if that wasn’t the intention) thoughts were revealed, she left on good terms with everyone. She tells us that almost everyone got out of Claymoore eventually. They never really show what exactly was going on with her, or what made her get better in the end. She attended therapy sessions three times a week. What happened in those sessions? Her conclusion at the end of the film seems to signify that she didn’t really discover anything. She just accepts that she’s kind of sad and has a harder time than some dealing with her problems. It’s clear that we were meant to understand that she had some sort of problem. Maybe in an effort to make her more main characterish they kept the finer details of her condition out. All that did was make me question whether she really should’ve been committed or not. I didn’t feel as sympathetic to Susanna at the end as I think I was meant to. Those are only the negatives though. I did like the movie. Daisy’s suicide stuck out to me the most. As unpleasant as it is, I think Lisa was right in saying that it was predictable. Daisy should not have been let out of Claymoore. It was Lisa’s fault in that she pushed her over the edge when help was still a possibility.
ReplyDelete2. I think that this movie is about a young woman who can’ quite cope with her surroundings and is unsure of her role in the world. She checks in to an institution where her relationships with other, far more disturbed women help her to understand herself a bit better. I honestly would not be able to describe her transformation to anyone in greater detail as I finished the movie not quite understanding it myself. Perhaps it’s just that some forced interaction with some people who were more approachable and relatable gave her a reason not to be disgusted, bored, or otherwise turned off by everything.
3. I suppose similar stories about men could be found or plausibly told. Men can have psychological problems just as women can. However, the fact that story is set in the 60s may change that a bit. I really don’t know what mental health care was like back then for men or women. I don’t really even know what it’s like now. There are stigmas that I’m certain were worse back in the 60s. Maybe a men’s ward would have been a harsher environment. Men might have not been quite as understanding about a man self conscious off facial scars. Maybe a male version of Susanna would never have been recommended for commitment just because of a borderline personality disorder. Maybe he would’ve been advised to suck it up. I really don’t know enough about psychology or history to accurately answer the question, but my immediate reaction would be that an identical story with all men would not be plausible.
1. As I’ve said before, I really like this movie. It’s a favorite of mine, just because the acting in it is incredible and it is such a gripping plot. For me, something about how messed up the entire movie seems to be and how “fucked up” the characters are really just pulls me and makes me want to watch this movie over and over. What stuck most with me is everything Susanna said during her scene with Valerie: “I don't know. That I was sorry. That I will never know what it was like to be her. But I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't. You hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside…How the hell am I supposed to recover when I don't even understand my disease? When you don't want to feel, death can seem like a dream. But seeing death, really seeing it, makes dreaming about it fucking ridiculous. Maybe, there's a moment growing up when something peels back... Maybe, maybe, we look for secrets because we can't believe our minds...” For me, all of this is at the core of the movie and also is what makes it the most relatable to me. My favorite quote from this movie is everything Susanna says in that one scene, because it describes a feeling of despair and loneliness better than I have ever heard someone describe it. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they really don’t like this movie and they think it’s weird and sad and disturbing, but just because something makes you uncomfortable doesn’t make it bad. This movie blatantly covers a lot of uncomfortable subjects and sort of puts them in your face, which is what I like best about it. It’s blunt, straightforward and a bit crazy.
ReplyDelete2. The short answer is different from the long answer, mostly as to not spoil the movie. I would say this movie is about a girl, (because truly, Susanna is still a girl) who tries to kill herself, which obviously says something about her mental state, and then is checked into a psych ward. She is very resistant to the way things are run at the hospital and falls under the wing of Lisa, a sociopath who loves being honest, and pushing people’s buttons. They go on adventures together and neither of them wants to respond to treatment because they’re both happy living this uncharted life. Something changes with Lisa, and Susanna realizes the harsh reality. I think the real reason this story is about young women is because this is a story based on Susanna Kaysen’s real life experience in a mental hospital. She wrote an amazingly well-written book on her experience there and it was made into a movie. For me, it’s hard to look past that to find another reason as to why this story is female-centered.
3. I definitely agree with Sohail about what would happen if this was a male-centered story as well. The first thing I think of is Daisy. Would a character like that ever exist in a male-centered story? I feel like there would be no male Daisy in that version of this story, same goes for Janet, the recovering anorexic that really is making no recovery. She sees Daisy leaving, becomes distraught, but still does nothing to attempt to get rid of her demons inside, which might not be possible. I think that the more superficiality related characters, such as Polly, Daisy and Janet, wouldn’t be as prevalent in a male version of this movie, but maybe there would be more sociopaths like Lisa. I’m not quite sure of how it would work out, but I think it would be maybe more relatable to men if it was male centered. I’ve noticed, talking to different people who have seen this movie, that the girls that have seen it tend to like and relate to this movie more than the guys, a lot of whom seem to be confused and not relate to it as well.
1. I liked the film, but I found it a bit unrealistic. Like Sohail said, the end was just too optimistic and everything seemed to be perfectly resolved. Susanna was going back to her life and her family, Lisa realized her faults, and Polly got to keep the cat. Everyone was happy and content at the end of the film, and it felt very contrived and false. Especially when a few scenes earlier, we watched as every main character had some sort of emotional breakdown. The scene in the basement when Lisa was reading Susanna’s journal and what she really thought about Lisa, Georgina, and Polly was an emotionally intense situation and I don’t think the characters would have bounced back from it as quickly as they did. When someone calls out your flaws and weaknesses that you’ve never confronted, I don’t think your reaction is to think, “Yeah, maybe that is my problem,” like these characters do. The film had been doing a good job being realistic by not having a blatant villain or real hero, because everyone had good and bad things about their personalities, but I think any sort truth or reality was diminished by the fact that the ending was so perfect and wrapped up and led us to believe that these characters would get better soon and not have to deal with any sort of negativity in their lives anymore.
ReplyDelete2. I think this film is about what happens to individuals who don’t fit the mold or don’t want to go down the path that the world has set out for them. These women are immediately written off as mentally ill, even in situations when there seems to be no evidence of mental illness. Susanna’s main problem seemed to be not knowing who she was or how she should act, and the only reason Cynthia seemed to be in the hospital was because she was a lesbian. And during this time period, if you didn’t want to go down the path to becoming the perfect wife than you must crazy. Some of these women do have real problems, but they all did not seem to want the life that they were meant to lead; Polly didn’t want to become an adult, and Georgina was more interested in fantasy worlds than the one right in front of her. The ward lets them lead the lives they want to lead, even though it is a terrible, depressing world they didn’t choose to be a part of.
3. I think this is story about women because in our culture, especially during the time the film is set in, women are always the “misunderstood” sex and this film is showing us these interrupted women and exploring their faults but also their strengths. I think this could also be a story about men, because Susanna does not want to follow the mold that society has created for her, the mold her mother has fit herself into, and if you replaced the women with men it could be about their struggle with masculinity and the idea that men have to be dominant and powerful all the time. The only reason I don’t think this story could translate is because I think the friendships in this film are very unique to women. I don’t think the bonds would be as strong as they are in this film.
1. This movie at times was a lot to handle at times and was a very harsh and cruel depiction of mental illness. But it showed the reality and truth of mental illness. I don't think I would watch this movie again, but I definitely thought it was a good movie. This movie seemed more difficult to watch than One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, maybe it was because it was women instead of men. This movie definitely hit me hard though. The scene that stuck the most with me was when Susanna was talking to Valerie. It's the first time Susanna truly discusses and accepts her illness and herself. She's accepting it by finally looking into herself and opening herself up. Susanna also gave me a better understanding of her emotions and her pain.
ReplyDelete2. Girl, Interrupted is mainly about Susanna and her mental illness and her journey as she goes through the mental institute and meets these other girls who also are mentally ill. But this movie shows the harsh reality of mental illness. It shows the cruel confinement and entrapment of society and the real world. This movie is in the perspective of the mentally ill and how they most conform to society and not be "crazy". This movie is also about Susanna and her relationships with the other girls and how they each are different and play different roles in the institute. Lisa is kind of the leader of the pack who all the other girls follow, but are also intimidated by her. Susanna is more quiet and a follower, but as the movie progresses she starts to stand up for herself and lead herself.
3. I agree with Jenny. Women are the "misunderstood" sex. During this time, women are supposed to play a certain and specific role in society. But some women can be very insecure and unstable. But like I said before, this movie and certain characters remind me of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It was very different, because they were men. But they were still insecure and unstable, and they mainly followed one leader. The relationships are different between the females and males, but the emotions and pain are similar.
1. I really agree with John; The movie was great how no one person was really the bad guy. It portrays Susanna's journey at Claymoors pretty realistically, in that the big scary mental hospital is not full of quack doctors and padded rooms. The movie was so real to me, that at times it was harsh. The image of Daisy hanging dead was not sudden and dramatic like a Hollywood style flick; I saw it coming from a ways away and I think the movie wanted that. I immediately thought of how Susanna must have felt, to see someone go through with what she attempted. It terrified and destroyed her. I think that fear of death was what convinced me she is not crazy. She wants to get better more than Lisa or Polly. That reaction struck me harder than any other point in the movie. I didn't like the moment where Susanna frantically searched for Lisa's voice; it felt a bit fake and cliche, that she would be "in the walls" or some cheap trick.
ReplyDelete2. This movie, in its own way, is a classic adventure story like any other. Susanna is faced with a major setback and issue she must overcome, and she goes through trials and tribulations to climb over that peak and return to her normal life. She is breaking her comfort zone when she travels to Claymoors and she spends her time there fighting through each day. I agree with Sohail; the ending felt too happy compared to the general development of the movie, but she ultimately overcomes her crisis and is rewarded with freedom. I would tell them that this movie really made me question what the definition of freedom was, and if Susanna was ever free in the first place. One could argue she never really achieves freedom.
3. Women, especially in the time period the movie takes place, were expected to be normal. They would go to secretariat school, work for some important "man" and live contentedly with there lives until they die. This movie revealed the true nature of women and humanized them rather than objectified them. Using a cast of women rather than men broke that barrier and stereotype that women were painted with. They had shit too, just like men, and had to deal with it rather than internalize it. I do not think men could simply fill these shoes, because many of the characters would be harder to sympathize with if they were men. The characters played as women made the movie more raw, and more real.
1. I enjoyed the movie very much. So many emotions are spilled at the end as if a dam has been building from when Susanna entered the institute. The ending really shook me. I feel the need to watch it over again and spend more time thinking on the ideas brought up. I found this to be most focused around questions Susanna brought up: "How you try to fit in when you can't. How you hurt yourself on the outside to kill the thing on the inside." These ideas struck me as something Susanna would have to struggle with her entire life. Many people such as Sohail and Jenny seem to think that the ending was a happy one with an unrealistic feel to it, but I disagree. The entire movie has been about hiding your feelings and not letting anyone see your secrets. Why would it stop now for these women that have dealt with this for much longer than their time here at the mental institute. These women will never forget the trauma of Claymoore. The women that we hear about getting released and living normal lives have just learned to deal with their problems in another way. They have hid the insane side from society. I love this ending because it is not a happy one. It continues to make you think about what life is like living with images and memories you will never forget. If I were in the basement of a mental hospital being chased by an insane woman with a deadly syringe I would have nightmares the rest of my life. Coping with problems is a wonderful topic that I though the movie did very well in highlighting. I enjoyed it very much.
ReplyDelete2. When I picture describing this movie I would first say it's crazy. Insanity is a key factor in this movie, but after I give deeper thought to it I realize a young woman is trying to find who she truly is. A young woman driven crazy trying to find a place in the world. One in which she will be accepted and loved. She finds this at a mental institute, but soon finds things aren't as they first appear. Georgina, her roommate a liar, the bold free Lisa trapped and empty inside, and constant screaming in the night drive her insane like the rest of them. Death is present in this movie like a shadow. Though sometimes death must occur for change to occur. Death and change seemed to run hand in hand in this movie.
3. Along with the others that have written before me I think the time period this movie is set in has a lot to do with the female characters in the institute. I also think that men have different way of dealing with situations such as life and death and the struggle between right and wrong sometimes. I do think that men have the same pain and can suffer from the same disorders but the outcomes and result from this would seem to me very different than what we have seen in this movie. I do not think this could have been pulled off and made to seem believable if all the characters were switched with male counter parts. The confrontations and solutions would be different. I don't think the sense of a family would be there as much either. These woman bond with each other in a way that I don't see men being able to.
1. Like I’ve said before, I’ve always liked this movie. I like how different it is and how everyone always has different opinions on the other characters. I think it’s also been interesting seeing people’s reactions to the movie as we’ve been watching it and seeing what evokes the biggest response from them which, in today’s case, was when everyone saw Daisy hanging in the bathroom. The scene that has always struck me is when Lisa comes upstairs to find Daisy in the bathroom and while Susanna is crying and freaking out and actually having a reaction, Lisa just says “Oh what an idiot”. I think it really shows just how much of a sociopath Lisa is and how she really doesn’t have any connection or compassion for people and that can be scary.
ReplyDelete2. I would say its about a girl who doesn’t belong in the world around her and because of that she shuts down to the point where she is playing with her life and she doesn’t seem to really understand the consequences that holds. After she checks herself into a mental hospital and meets some of the other women there and learns about their issues, she feels as if she belongs with them but deep down she knows that she isn’t as bad as them. After being taken under the wing of a sociopath, she begins to see that this isn’t the place for her and while she loves the girls that she has stayed with for the past year, she isn’t crazy.
3. I don’t think this movie could be replaced by men because I think women suffer from mental illness much differently than men do. In society and throughout history women have constantly been sent to institutions at the first sign of a slight abnormality and I think for men, the standards are different. I think it’s easier (or at least back then) for men to slip under the radar with a mental illness than women. I also think that some illnesses (which are associated with women like eating disorders) couldn’t be portrayed accurately by a man because the struggle and the psychological impact that these disorders have is very different between a man and a woman.
1. I love this movie. Like Molly said, it's something about how "crazy" and different from me that makes me not want to look away. It's a world that we are so rarely exposed to. We all experience ups and downs, but none of us have to go through it in an institution. Possibly what makes me like this movie so much is that I can come away from it knowing that it will never be my life. I can look at and analyze these characters and never have to be them, which I guess makes it almost a treat to get a look into this life. My favorite part today was when Susanna has been running from Lisa and all the girls in the basement. I love when Susanna finally tells Lisa what she thinks. It's the first time we see any real emotion from Lisa and I just find it to be a really powerful scene when Lisa starts to put the needle to her skin but then truly breaks down. Lisa needed to hear those things from Susanna. Lisa was living a pretend life and Susanna finally made it real for her. Susanna finally gave Lisa what she wanted.
ReplyDelete2. Yes, this movie is about mental illness, but it's also about finding yourself (as cheesy as that sounds). The movie starts with someone asking Susanna what she wants to do and she says she thinks she wants to write, as if she's not certain. In the end someone asks her what she plans to do and she says the same answer, but this time she says it with confidence. This movie is about finding the strength to stray from the norm and being able to be happy with who you are.
3. I think this story has to be about women. Women, especially during this time, had much tighter confines than men did. For a story about breaking out of the norm, it's much more powerful to see women do it. Women are able to bring the intensity of their emotions, while still being strong characters.
1. I really enjoyed the movie. It gave the viewer a lot to think about. In the end there were lots of questions that went unanswered, but it did give a concrete ending to the movie. None of the characters were one sided; each character had a lot of depth and substance. It is easy to connect to these people even though it would seem as though it would be hard to do so. The scene that stuck out to me today was the scene of the morning in Daisy's house where Susanna finds Daisy dead. With every step Susanna took towards the bathroom door the viewer understands and dreads what is behind the door. This moment is one of the moments that made Susanna commit to the Claymoore Institution. She breaks away from Lisa and understands the finality and horror of death. Susanna realizes that she doesn't want to hurt anymore and she isn't going to let the outside world bog her down.
ReplyDelete2. If somebody asked me what this movie was about I would say that it is about a girl trying to find her fit in what seems like an impossible puzzle. Susanna is a girl who doesn't mesh into the norm of the girls of the sixties. People thought something was wrong with Susanna before she became depressed. For her entire life the people around her couldn't understand her. The movie is about a girl becoming independent with the help of an institution that she thought that she did not need. Its about a girl who makes friends in the most unlikely of places with a story that binds them all together. The last line of the movie, "But there isn't a day that my heart doesn't find them," powerfully displays these strong connections. Girl, Interrupted could even be described as a coming of age story. The movie shows how different people deal with treacherous obstacles ahead of them.
3.This is a story about women because of the self esteem and depression issues that are most commonly found in young women. The time period is perfect for this story, because the sixties was a time of change and reform for women. Also it was a time of a set path for young women. These girls strayed from that path drastically. I don't think that these women could be replaced with men because of the deep emotional issues that these girls display. Self esteem and depression are not as common in men. This strong bond and experience would not work the same way with a group of men. Changing the gender would alter the story entirely. There would be many similarities but it would not be the same.
I liked this movie quite a bit. I like the influence of Lisa’s character on the rest of the girls, and how that role of inspiration is switched to Susanna by the end of the movie. The end has stuck with me; Lisa brakes down and starts crying because she has finally heard some truth about herself rather than being the one “pushing other peoples buttons.” After Susanna yells at Lisa and Lisa drops the needle, I feel like there is finally some hope for her. It seems that in all her eight years, simply because no one has ever stood up to her and said what Susanna said, Lisa has never seriously thought about why she keeps going back to the ward. Although she might seem worse than ever by the end, I feel hopeful for Lisa.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a story about a young woman, Susanna, who struggles to find a place in this strict society in which one is expected to fulfill a certain role. When she ends up in the ward she meets people who like her don’t quite fit the standard mold. However, as she stays at the ward, and develops friendships she also realizes that unless she wants to spend the rest of her life there, she has to let the institute, which she signed herself into, help her. It is a shelter where the girls can act in whatever manner they please because they are excused for doing so, but some of them become lost in this children’s world where they are taken care of and can behave however they like because the consequences don’t really affect their relationships with other people. In the end Susanna realizes that although it’s hard to live in a world full of expectations and consequences it’s worth it. It’s worth trying to make something out of your life rather than just wasting it in a ward because it’s simpler there.
I’m not sure that this could be a story about young men...there is a reference in the movie to the limited options of a woman in those times (when Susanna is told that she has more options, but she says she really doesn’t), and I feel like that is an important piece to how the story unravels. I think if it was going to be a story of young men it would end up taking on a different meaning, and like Jenny said I don’t think the friendships would be as tight.
I enjoyed the film a lot and thought it was really good to watch. It was weird but i think the weirdness of the film is what made me like it and get “into” it. I like the flashbacks in the beginning of the film were and interesting technique that I enjoyed. The film was engaging and I had my attention on it the whole time. There were certain moments in the plot were you could kind of see what was coming but then things would go differently than what one anticipated. I feel that it would have been interesting to be and hear what was going on inside Susanna's head but I like how certain moments she would read her thoughts in the journal or she would say something interesting like at the end. From today’s viewing I enjoyed how after seeing Daisy died Susana accepts she wanted to kill herself. I think that was an important step to her recovery. She states “Seeing death makes dreaming about it f**ing ridiculous”. I think she she seems more human (not that she wasn’t) because she reveals her emotions like she has not before. I also liked how she was able to stand up to Lisa at the end and got to her and made her emotional. She knocked some sense into her and I’m guessing that Lisa began her treatment and road to recovery.
ReplyDeleteI would say this film is about a lost senior girl named Susanna who attempts to kill herself but denies that she tried to and that she is mentally ill. Her parents and others feel that she is hurting people around her with her actions and “weirdness” She is then sent to an institution named Claymore against her wishes and stays there for about a year and a half. She meets other girls who are also considered. She becomes friends with them as she begins to deal and accept her condition. She does not understand what it is but works on her recovery and is eventually “declared normal and cured.”
I think this film deals with woman because like people have said during this time women had stereotypes to fill. And if they did not fill them, then they were not normal. I also think, and not to sound sexist or add on to the stereotype, women are considered more emotional.
1. I liked the movie, and more specifically I enjoyed its depiction of mental illness. When we first see the patients, they seem normal enough, just like somebody you would see walking on the street. But there are short explosions of emotion exhibited by each person, showing their true state of mind. Each patient attempts to cover up and hide their weakness, but it is only when they are confronted with their illness can they start on the path to recovery. The emotional conversation at the end makes everybody face their faults, and I liked how once the patients had what was wrong with them told to their face, they made up and started to get better. The graphic suicide of Daisy, and Susanna’s not-crazy-person response to it, is what stuck out to me the most. The scene really illustrates what Daisy could become, Lisa, and what she chooses to be.
ReplyDelete2. I would say that this movie is about a girl who is just beginning her life, but does not know where to start. Her place in the world is different from those around her, with everybody going to college or Vietnam, and she has no idea how she can fit into society, and as a consequence of that, decides to shun society and tries to live outside of it. It is only once she sees true suffering does she realize that she’s got it good, and can begin her life without self-pity.
3. The women in Susanna’s time period, the Vietnam Era, were expected to bring about change and lead the world and protest for their rights, but that just isn’t applicable to everybody. Some people just want to live out their lives and be happy, but the people who are supposed to be helping Susanna are trying to put a square piece into a circular hole. Though I think that it may be possible for this story to interchange sexes, the message of a girl trying to fit into somebody else’s world would be slightly altered, as the expectation of men has not been changed in a few thousand years, while this young woman’s struggles are distinct to her time period.
1. I loved this movie! It was so intriguing. All of these characters were so incredibly complex and left my mind spinning after each scene. It makes you ask, "Are these women crazy, or just being human?" Like Susanna pointed out, they're "you and me amplified." I was constantly searching for a villian, for something or someone to blame for the sadness and tragedy in the movie. This is adressed at the end of the movie when the girls let everything out in the basement of the hospital. The whole time I was waiting for Lisa to stab Susanna with the needle, killing her. But when she broke down sobbing, I felt a wave a sympathy for Lisa and wanted to give her a hug. It's these conflicting emotions that made this movie so incredible.
ReplyDelete2. Girl, Interrupted is about a yound woman who is sent to a mental institution after attempting suicide in the 1960's. The movie revolves around Susanna and her evolving friendships with the other patients, and how they help her embrace herself and become someone who finally fits in somewhere. There's a constant struggle of figuring out who she wants to be. Embrace her illness and stay in the hospital with the people she's connected to, or mold herself into the person society wants her to be? The movie brings up questions of what it means to be crazy, and who gets to determine that? How can you change how someone acts and thinks?
3. I don't think that this film would be the same if it were yound men featured. I completely agree with Elizabeth O. The time period this movie is set in is no mistake. The assassination of MLK and the Civil Rights Movement along with The Wizard of Oz being the first color film. The world outside is fighting for progress while these women are fighting their own battles. Their own war to become acceptable. To not stray from the norm. Self image is a huge theme in this film, and is by far more prominent in women and how they feel and act. Again, as Elizabeth has said, the dynamic between women is completely different than with men. It would be a very different movie indeed.
1. I really like the movie. Girl, Interrupted is the type of movie I do not usually see or even know about. The story intrigues me and makes me want to know what happens after that. The enigmatic part of the movie creates a suspense that almost made me go crazy over the weekend. I think that the characters are very real even if many thought the story was not. I think that the movie gave a perfect insight of what is like to be in a mental hospital. I personally loved the movie’s dynamic tones from one scene to the other. The reality in the movie makes me wonder of the extent of the mind how it can be damage.
ReplyDelete2. I would say that the movie talks about what happens to a girl who losses sense of who she is and what life is about. The movie takes Susanna and shows her life as she struggles with an illness she cannot comprehend. She slowly starts to go insane and understand what her life is about. The movie takes on the challenge of demonstrating what it means to be “crazy” and how to deal with mentally ill people. The movie touches the delicacy of the mind and what it means to “die” in both a figurative and literal sense.
3. I think that at this particular time, women were probably seen as innocent and naïve. The power to see a young lady struggle is a different concept than seeing a young man. I think that it is important that there is a war at this time where men are expected to be fighting and women are finding themselves at this time. A woman struggling with an illness is not something that many people would think about. Having woman in a mental hospital provides an entire new perspective to life.
1. I liked the movie until the end. I didn't hate the ending, but I think it was flawed. Like Sohail and Jenny said, it was too optimistic. After the gruesome, upsetting suicide scene, the much happier ending threw me off. It was just too unbelievable that Lisa realized her flaws. Lisa is neither empathetic nor self judging. She never questions her actions or motives, so at the end when she was suddenly crying because she was unloved, it seemed unrealistic. But otherwise, I enjoyed the movie, especially the middle. The part that really stuck with me today was after Lisa was brought back to the hospital, and Susanna went to talk to her through the window. I thought that Lisa was going to yell at Susanna or judge her for leaving, but she seemed fairly passive. This was an interesting, less controlling side of Lisa that we hadn't yet seen.
ReplyDelete2. I think this film is about self-destruction. I don't mean to say that the film is trying to blame people for their mental illnesses. I just noticed a very strong theme about how personal all these issues really are. Susanna used her own will to stop the rut she got herself into. I think the film is trying to say the world is crazy, but we have to learn how to accept and work with this. We have to be able to look at ourselves and understand our emotions. Susanna couldn't and she went into the mental hospital, but when she finally learned to she got out.
3. I think this is a story about young women for the same reasons it would be a story about young men; it is a good story. The female side of mental illness has just as much of a right to be told as the male perspective. I don't think the characters could be easily replaced with males, but a similar story could be told with all male characters. The film also calls into questions some traits that were/are seen in women as unstable, even though they are rarely questioned for men, such as promiscuity. Mental illness from a woman's perspective makes a compelling story, just as it would from a male's point of view. The only difference would be the specific experiences.
1. I can't say that I exactly liked this movie, but I find it to be quite intriguing. It kept me drawn to the screen the entire time, which is tough to do. I saw this movie with I was in 8th grade and seeing it now, when I am much more mature and aware of the presence of depression and mental illness, I really found new meaning in it. Lisa's character was so captivating and exciting that she made up for the general creepiness and melancholia of the film. The scene that really stuck with me was the scene where Susanna discovered Daisy's body. I remember that right when Susanna opened the door, the music playing on the record said "goodbye." The entire thing was just very eery and completely depressing. That is a moment that I have found very hard to forget since finishing the film this afternoon.
ReplyDelete2. If someone asked me what this movie was about, I would say that it is about the line between sanity and insanity, sadness and depression, anger and hatred. Susanna is a conflicted girl who is unhappy with her life and decides to take her own life. Her stay at Claymore, and most importantly the help of Valerie, changes her views of herself from someone who is depressed and insane to someone who was simply unsatisfied with her life and can now move on from that.
3. I think that this film is centered around women because of all of the stereotypes that women had to face both during the time of the movie as well as in the present. Women have always been persecuted for being crazy or insane when in reality it could simply be self-esteem issues or general sensitivity. I completely agree with what Elizabeth said in that during the 60's there was definitely a set path that young women were supposed to take and anyone who broke from that had to have something wrong with them.
1. While I can't say that I liked this movie, I also can't say I particularly disliked it. For the majority of the film, as I have expressed in class, my speculation of the film was generally restricted to, "what on earth is going on." By the end of this film, I reached, "I guess that kind of sort of makes some sense." Lisa's absolute insanity, combined with Daisy's suicide, made this movie all the more brutal and dark, and by the end I in no way expected a warm and happy ending. One scene that took me full circle was a relatively insignificant section of Susanna's farewell to Georgina in which she kisses her face. This scene only stuck out to me because it broke away from what Lisa had said earlier in the film, "no one's going to kiss that face." The act of defying Lisa's prediction somewhat symbolizes Susanna's departure from Lisa's influence.
ReplyDelete2. As has been expressed an unnecessary number of times, I don't understand this movie all that well. In my opinion this film is about a group of girls who are labeled as mentally ill, but despite this label should still be treated as human beings. It seems that the core issue with the girls in the film is that despite the therapy they were undergoing, they weren't receiving the help they truly needed. What they needed was to confront the truth about themselves, and the only people who could truly help them were the girls who they had befriended and who empathized with them.
3. In my personal opinion this story would not have worked as well were the characters to be replaced with men. This may be based on some prejudice I have towards men and their general incapability to share anything emotionally. While very few of the core elements of the movie would change as a result, in my opinion the added dynamic of making the characters all young men would throw the movie into chaos, as the scene in which Lisa brandishes the syringe at Susanna could or even would have ended with someone's death had a group of young males been involved.
I would say that I can appreciate the film, but that I didn't necessarily like the film, per say. For movies such as this one, I tend to see them more as pieces of art than movies. I may not love it, sure, but I can appreciate its beauty and the true meaning and weight that is behind it all. When one makes an influential film such as this one, or when one writes a book or a poem or paints a picture or creates any kind of artwork, the ultimate goal is to make people think, and this film did just that. It's a very interesting, opinionated view of the world that is shown through characters who are struggling with their lives, but who are not necessarily bad people. As John brought up, there is no antagonist in the movie, no one to blame for the horrors and the problems that these characters face and are facing, which makes everything all the more hard to grapple with and in many ways what makes it so real. The movie purposefully presents no easy answer to anything, even at the end, where one could argue that there is no solution or positive take away message in the entire film. It almost leaves the viewers to come up with their own conclusions; it causes them to think. And, as I said before I can appreciate this, but I would not say that I enjoyed the movie because I just don't usually enjoy dark movies such as this one. And obviously, a scene that really stuck with me from today was the scene where Daisy hangs herself. In many ways I saw this coming, not only because Lisa makes her feel awful every time she sees her but because in every scene with her she seems to be keeping everything bottled up inside her, and it seemed inevitable that it would consume her to the point of her suicide. And then besides the reasons behind it, the scene where they show her body is simply a powerful one.
ReplyDeleteI would say that this film is about the struggle of how to live life the correct way. I think it is one big question about the definition of this "right way". What is the right way, and how does one find the right way? Obviously the film begins with Susanna having trouble with this question, making many bad decisions but at the same time very confused. Everyone seems to thrust their expectations and what they perceive as the right way to live on her, with college and the dinner parties with her family, and she has a ton of trouble with that as well. And then there are the other girls at Claymoor, Lisa in particular, who know how they want to live their lives and how they choose to live their lives, but these ways are not the right way in society's eyes, hence why they are stuck there in the first place. There are many times in the film where the question of morality becomes a part of this question of how to live the correct way, where Susanna in particular has to make a choice between what she thinks is right and how that will affect other aspects of her life. And then at the end, as John posted above, Susanna says that the world is fucked up, but she would rather be a part of it. So even at the end there is still this huge, unanswered question of how to live one's life correctly, and there isn't really an explanation. So, I would argue that the movie is more about the question itself than any kind of answer to that question.
I think that the fact that the film is all women has something to do with the roles that women are expected to have almost, the set paths and expectations that society has and has had for women throughout history. It goes back to what I said earlier about the correct way to live, and society seems to have defined that more clearly for women than for men, which limits them in many ways. There seems to be more freedom there with men, and there simply has been more freedom there with men in the past. So much so that they could not replace the women with the men because the men would not be struggling so much with the correct way to live.
1. Like many of my classmates, I feel that the ending of this movie was perhaps tied up just a bit too nicely, but considering all of the stuff that happened in between the covers, I was willing to let it slide. It felt like a relief to have a relatively drama-free ending. However, I think that the movie did leave some knots untied. What about the woman that was carried out in a straitjacket? No explanation is offered for this, and Susanna's apology to Polly and Georgina is rather taciturn and a little too readily accepted, in my opinion. If Polly lit herself on fire when her parents threatened to take away her dog, it seems a little implausible that she would let Susanna's journal entries about her slide by the wayside. As a whole, however, I thought the movie was well-constructed, leaving a lot of questions for the viewer to answer for himself, as I personally enjoy. One scene from today I didn't stop thinking about was Susanna's journey into the bowels of the building and her confrontation of Lisa. At first, I thought that she was relapsing and hallucinating, but it turned out that she actually had heard what was happening. The scene was filmed in such a way as to make the viewer think that hallucinations might have been happening, but I suppose that they really weren't. Another good job of portraying mental illness.
ReplyDelete2. If asked for a synopsis of the film, I would say that it is primarily about mental illness and how several girls choose to cope with it. The characters of Susanna and Lisa represent two divergent paths that can be taken. In my opinion, Lisa would have never recovered (I suppose we still don't know for sure) if Susanna had not come to the hospital and forced her to consider her situation with a little bit more gravity. Both Lisa and Susanna project a standoffish attitude towards the world, but Lisa takes it to another place, purposefully instigating conflict wherever she goes as a sort of rude gesture to everyone around her. For this reason, I believe that Lisa represents the primary antagonist of most of the film. A good portion of the film is about this transformation that comes about in Lisa's character. I a different way, the film is also about finding an identity as a young adult. I found it interesting that after all of her time at Claymoore, Susanna had still not changed her goals for the future: "I want to write." And perhaps she will.
3. I think that the film could be set with men, but it would certainly be a different type of film. Parts of the film deal exclusively with the limitations and expectations set on girls in the time period (the 60's) and how that affects several of the characters: take Susanna's "promiscuity," for instance. I doubt that she would be accused of that in modern times, although it is still a possibility. Susanna asks "If I were a man, would that diagnosis be the same?" I suspect that it would not be.
1. I liked the movie, even though it would not be one I would have chosen. I enjoyed getting to know the characters little by little, as their collective stories and issues were pieced together throughout the film. I thought the film was very well done, but it was slightly too optimistic, as Sohail and Jessica have said previously. We never really understand the full extent of Susannah’s inner issues, and we really do not know what was going on inside of her head. The writing in her book, except for the small part when Lisa reads from it, is largely a mystery to us, as well as her appointments with Dr. Wick. After all that had happened, she still leaves on suitable terms with all of those in the ward, and the director wraps the ending up in a nice package. But I suppose without the inherent optimism, the film would convey a much different message, a message that is still difficult to define.
ReplyDelete2. I believe that this movie is about a girl, Susannah, who takes a journey to confront her inner self, which we see represented as the girls in the ward. Each girl has a distinct personality; innocence, deceit, humor, and the issue deep within herself, represented by Lisa. We see her slowly get to know these people, these embodiments of her psyche, as the movie progresses. Eventually, she recognizes them for what they are, as the viewer sees in the short passage read aloud from her journal, and confronts each of them. Finally, she confronts the darkest issue, the un-named thing that has been troubling her for so long, shown through Lisa. She confronts Lisa, calling her for what she is, recognizing her own issues. Susannah defeats this dark entity, as is shown when Lisa drops the syringe, the end to Susannah’s suicidal urges. In the end, Susannah says some she saw again, and others she did not, alluding to this symbolism, as she sees some of the resurface, and others vanish completely.
3. I feel that this movie has to be about women due to their role in society at the time. They were expected to do as they were told, go to a fancy college, and then marry a nice, young, promising man. When they did not follow this course to a tee, they became the black sheep of the family, and were subsequently hidden away due to embarrassment. More pressure was put on them to conform, and if the movie was made to be about men, I think it would lose this key element.
1. I really liked the movie. It was... I don't know. At the end, you could say I was a little confused. It seemed like Lisa and Susannah really liked each other. Or at least that Susannah liked her. But like he explained in her journals, even though she missed Lisa, it was better without her. I think that from today’s viewing, the most obvious scene to pick was Daisy’s suicide. Or at least, the discovery of her suicide. I think that everyone knew what was coming. The music replaying, the absence of replies from Daisy, and her cat meowing at the door. The happy ending also kind of threw me off. Lisa was so uncaring of other; it seems hard to imagine that even having her flaws yelled in the face at her, it is hard to imagine that she would care that much.
ReplyDelete2. This movie is a very interesting one. I would say that it is about a girl who doesn’t know her place in a world that already has expectation for her that she doesn’t meet. We can see this when she is late to the party, dressed in normal clothes, and when her old friend’s mom talks to her about college and she doesn’t care. In a mental institute, she meets other who also don’t fit the norm, but are not quite like her. She grows to be friends with these people. In the end, the movie shows how one can die (Daisy physically, Lisa emotionally/mentally) and how “crazy” people are treated. But more than that, it is about freedom, and being able to have the freedom to do what you want.
3. I feel like this movie would not be the same at all if it featured young men. Not just because of the physical differences, but because of the emotional differences. Like Elizabeth said, this movie focuses on the self esteem and depression issues that are most commonly found in young women. That is not to say that guys cannot have these issues, but it occurs in women often. Also, this was a time when many young people, particularly women, were going against traditional values and living their own lives.
Tough movie. Definitely a good movie though. Heart wrenching but good. It takes me to places I'd rather not be, but the end gave me some hope. I might not have emotionally recovered from watching this movie had it not ended okay. When Susanna walks into lisa room where she's strapped down and starts painting her nails made me smile. Thats the only real thing there is to cling onto, love and friendship. That simple act was one of those small things that matter so much.
ReplyDeleteAbove all this is an existential crisis. One that at some point most people face, but never in the same way. There is no right way. This movie is about what happens when you let yourself go off the deep end. It humanizes people that we usually don't associate with. This movie in particular follows the story of a girl who could be any girl. It her journey through an exploration of life.
Guys and girls are basically different species. I can't really speak from a guys perspective, but from what I have observed it merely a question of gender vibes. There is a very masculine energy that is associated with tackling issues head on and using brute force. Its that steady drive, rather than the feminine energy that has more of a tendency to be nurturing and gentle and dwell on problems not run straight into them. Obviously everyone has varying tendencies of each side, but i would expect a male ward to be less reflective and in tune with their emotions. To be, it would be a little scarier, simply because of the potential for the raw force unleashed when there is a moment of loss of self control.
Girl, Interrupted fits into the genre of movie that I would speak highly of, but would hesitate to say I enjoyed watching. It had deep characters and proposed dark and compelling theories of life and mental illness. This movie was very harsh. It hit hard and often. The first two days, I really liked the movie because it was very entertaining. Today's viewing struck me for very different reasons. The characters in this movie are astounding and each brings a different element to the table. This roller coaster of a plot is driven by instability. The scene that stuck with me is the scene were Susanna and Lisa discover Daisy's body. Both of their reactions say so much about them and reveal the true nature of their sanity.
ReplyDeleteGirl, Interrupted is a movie about self discovery. It follows a woman through a year of soul searching as she tries to cope with the mental illness that she has been diagnosed with. It is only by surrounding herself with people that represent the full spectrum in terms of mental stability to find herself in the real world. This movie is about finding peace through methods of all out chaos. Susanna realizes that the only way to get out of the trouble she is in is to face is straight on. Girl, Interrupted is a testament to the method of recovery through self acceptance.
This movie would very different with male main characters. Replacing compassion with anger and reflectiveness with confidence would make this story very different. Like Isabella said, men and women have very different ways of thinking and embrace issues in a very different manner. Women tend to respond to loss with sadness, while men turn to anger. Anger could have made this movie into a chaotic train wreck without any development of character. Men are much less willing to be reflective and admit their own faults as well. Towards the end of the movie, Susanna understands what she needs to do to recover. A man would very likely never come to that conclusion. The moral of this story is the importance of self-awareness, and the women in this movie provide that self awareness in a way that could never be replaced by a man.
1.Overall I came out really liking this movie. I had no idea what it was about beforehand, unlike some of the girls in the class seemed to. I think I always seem to have a thing for movies that depict mental illness. My favorite scene from today, and possibly the movie as a whole, was the chase scene between Lisa and Susanna at the end. I just thought it was really well done, where it leaves the audience wondering if this is reality or a delusion of Susanna's. That's the kind of scene that I love from movies with mental illness.
ReplyDelete2. I would say that the movie is about a girl that finishes her senior year and can't handle the prospect of figuring out her life, so she turn to suicide. From there Susanna learns to deal with her personal demons through her interactions with the other girls in the ward.
3.I agree with others that have said that women always seem to be known as the "misunderstood" sex. I think its interesting that we always assume that guys seem to have less complex emotions, or that they always show what they're feeling. I also agree that since this movie was set in the 60s, the difference between male and female were a lot greater than today, in terms of opportunities for each gender. Also, I feel like realistically guys might not have formed the same bonds that women would in the circumstances they were in.
1. I enjoyed the movie, although I do agree that it seemed to end a bit to nicely. My favorite scene from our last viewing would have to be when Susanna goes in to paint Lisa’s nails. I just think it is really nice that Susanna tries to make amends with Lisa before she leaves because she seems to be one of the few that Lisa truly cares about.
ReplyDelete2. It is a memoir about a misanthropic girl’s time in a mental institution. It follows her through a time in her life in which she is trying to discover what it is that makes her the way that she is. The friends that she meets along the way may both hinder and help her but, in the long run, they help her discover who she is and how to cope with that.
3. I don’t think you could just replace the girls with men. It is hard for me to explain why, especially since I do not understand how mental hospitals were run and if they were much different for men, but I certainly do not think the movie could have gone the same way with men. I feel like the attitude of many men towards having the problems that these girls have would be less kind. I feel like many men would be told just to get over whatever it was that was upsetting them. Especially because of the drafts, I feel like a lot of mental illness would be discredited as fear or an attempt to dodge the draft. I also feel that the balance of mental problems in a men’s mental hospital would be very different, for example, much more sociopaths, much fewer borderline patients.
1. I loved the movie. I thought that all of the actors did a fantastic job or portraying such a difficult character. I do not know how they could pretend to have these diseases so well, it was very believable. I also like that the movie was very much a coming of age story, but one we do not hear about a lot, not of a child becoming a teenager or going into high school, but of someone going into life. I loved Angelina Jolie's character, her control over everyone other patient and her ability to manipulate people into believing everything she said was an artform. She knew what to say and how to say it based on peoples reactions. She worked really hard to portray someone who was so insecure and so powerless that they had to take advantage and forcefully overpower people who are weaker. I overall really liked the movie, for one aspect I could not relate at all with living in a mental hospital and having parents who were overbearing to the point of mental illness, however another aspect I could relate because going into the world and starting your life and not knowing who you should be or if what you want to do with your life is good.
ReplyDelete2. If someone where to ask me what the movie is about I would say it s a young girl named susanna trapped in a her parents world or high expectations and unachievable goals. She does not want to go to college or become the perfect housewife or secretary. She is not comfortable in the preppy high class world that she is forced to live in. So in an attempt to escape that world she swallows an entire bottle of aspirin and follows it with a bottle of vodka. She is then sent to a mental hospital where she is supposed to get help. At first she does not understand why she is there, and is quiet and doesn't talk or get the help she needs. Throughout her stay in the hospital she meets people who have issues that are far beyond anything she can imagine, one person in particular is Lisa who who is a sociopathic women who has been in and out of this hospital for 8 years. She has complete control over everyone in the hospital, including some of the nurses. She helps the other patients have fun, but at the same time when they question her or disobey her she can get voilent. She convinces Susanna that they should escape and go to florida to be princesses in the new Disney World, LIsa also seems to be quite delusional. They go and stay with an old patient who after getting her buttons pushed by lisa kills herself. After this lisa leaves and goes t florida and Susanna goes back to the hospital to actually get help. Susanna realizes that she needs help and wants to be free, not dead like Lisa but alive. The night before she leaves she finally tells lisa that she is dead and that she needs to realize that to actually live she needs to get help. Going on susanna stay healthy the other patients get pretty healthy we think and susanna lives like she wants to, as a writer.
3. No I do not think that this movie could have been made about young men because I do not think that young men would ever try to commit suicide, I think they would rather leave. I dont think that young men would ever have stayed in the hospital, I think especially during this time would have been able to go here with support, I think they would have fought through it and "got tough". I think that young women play these parts well because at this time they were supposed to be closer to their emotions and had more opportunity to be diagnosed and get better.
1. I liked the majority of the movie, but towards the end, I felt that the movie was becoming too artificial. A lot of the scenes seemed too improbable, and were most likely only put in so that the director could keep his desired tone. The movie ended extremely happily and resolutely, but in all honesty, the struggle of person versus society never goes away. If I had written it, Lisa would have killed herslef and Susanna would have stayed in the asylum the rest of her life. The main reason why I would do this is that there is no logical reason why Susanna would go back to be part of normal society, and there is no way that Lisa would have been able to reconcile her inner demons so easily. If I were to write a happy ending, they would have all escaped and formed a colony in the woods away from all the crazy people of the world, rather than submitting themselves back into the insanity of everyday life.
ReplyDelete2. This movie is about women and how they fit into the world. It focuses on the struggle and pain that comes along with the preassure of having to fit into an artificial society that demands people to conform.
3. The issue posed in the movie, person versus society, more directly affects women than men. Women are the one who are put up to greater expectations and demands, while men are largely allowed to do whatever they please.
1) I absolutely loved this movie and it may be on one of my top now. I previously had an appeal for Winona Ryder because of Edward Scissorhands but this showed a completely different side of her. I could relate a whole lot to Susanna. Most of all I really liked how it was set in the the 60’s. I think the scene that stuck to me the most was when we see Daisy hanging from her room. I felt it coming for a few minutes but seeing it and the blood and her pale skin and face was just so disturbing. Then poor Susanna was just freaking out while Lisa was so nonchalant about it. Like most of the times when I see sad things in movies there was a part of me that got angry. It’s just annoying how fucked up the world can be to extent that people kill themselves. The world sees so many tragedies as common or reasonable or normal but suicide is such a huge deal. All these girls needed love and it was that simple.
ReplyDelete2) I think this movie was about a girl who got stuck in the middle of her fast moving life. It’s about how one insane girl relates to the next and what they can learn from each other. A girl named Susana falls into a depression but is not sure why and she does not feel motivated to go to college. She tried to kill herself so her psychologists advised her to go to Claymoor, the mental hospital. The purpose of her time at the institution was to rest a genuine rest of her body and mind. During her time at the hospital she makes girlfriends, which she lacked in the outside world. Finally she realizes while watching the Wizard of Oz that she always had the choice to go home but wanting to was not enough. She needed to believe in herself and her writing career first before caring about the expectations of the world. Finally she leaves the hospital in hopeful attempt to pursue her writing career.
3) I think this movie is deliberately about women because they are the more complex figure of the two genders. If it were a movie about men, there would not be a whole lot of exterior expression, therefore making the movie less exciting. Women are the more oppressed figure in history as well. It’s a complicated situation because even though in this time for America it is legally allowed for women to pursue any career, but there is an implicit idea that they won’t be as successful as men. There is always the underlying expectation of women to get married and serve their family or go to college and marry someone from college which would result in taking care of a family as well.