Since before I left home and went away to college, I can always remember having quite an avid interest in anything pertaining to the way the mind works. I tended to always enjoy the “whydunit” (to coin my own new phrase) rather than the whodunit type of movie. It always came quite easy for me to quickly solve the mystery of who the killer was, or who’d committed the crime. I was more interested in why they’d done what they’d done. I always enjoyed any movie that portrayed the field of psychology, psychiatry, or the diseases of the mind.
One of my favorite movies of this type, of course, would be something like Sybil or The Three Faces of Eve. Both movies portray multiple personality disorder, be them fictional in their portrayal, or not. I simply enjoy watching the mind examined or discussed in a cinematic fashion. In oldies-but-goodies, I also enjoyed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring the ever-so-perfect actor when it comes to films such as this, Jack Nicholson. Can anyone say The Shinning? Jack Nicholson takes on that type of role quite well.
One of the films that I could watch over and over again where we pretty much know from the jump whodunit it and the defense of whydunit is the premise of the movie is Primal Fear with Richard Gere and Edward Norton. Oh, I love this movie. There is no doubt that the stuttering Aaron Stampler, played by Edward Norton, is guilty of killing the archbishop. His attorney, Richard Gere’s character, begins to figure out the whydunit when it comes out that Aaron has multiple personality disorder and his alternate is actually responsible for the murder – or is it?
Although not yet complete, my first piece will be one that also examines the whydunit. I find great importance in examining the mind for not only figuring out why crimes are committed but in an effort to figure out how to combat mental illnesses as a whole. It is super important and the root of so much distress and hardship in our country – more like the world, but we can start on a smaller scale. And I think films like the aforementioned and my writing can bring great awareness as well as an examination into a multitude of mental diseases like the multiple personality disorder.
And although using mental illness as a guideline for creating characters in this type of book, there are so many differences in building them. Each mental illness, despite the similarities, can create an absolutely unique character. I’m having a great time character building for sure. And I think examining each of their minds is helping me understand the diseases so many Americans face, as well as understand my intrigue with whydunit movies.