Five Easy Pieces

Spoiler alert!

Concert pianist come oil rig worker Robert tells waitress and aspiring singer Rayette, his lover, he is "not a nice guy." (0:12)

Robert's sister Partita tells them that their father has suffered two strokes. (0:32)

Robert and Rayette discuss whether Robert is depressed, and if so, why. Robert tells Rayette, "You're not going to kill yourself this time..." (0:49)

After Robert acts up his siblings reactions betray aspects of their respective relationships with him. Partita seems to have enjoyed his behavior, but his brother Carl leaves the room in disgust. (1:02)

Pianist Catherine, confronting Robert, tells him he has no love or respect for himself. (1:25)

Robert addresses his unresponsive, and possibly uncomprehending, father, "If you could talk, we wouldn't be talking." apparently alluding to their historic inability to communicate and saying much about the value of listening. (1:27)

As Robert impulsively abandons Rayette (as well as his wallet and extra clothes) at a gas station to hitch a ride to Alaska he repeatedly reassures himself, "I'm fine. I'm fine." (1:35)

Others have suggested that Robert may exemplify a personality disorder with narcissistic or schizoid traits. Does he meet full criteria for either? He may be best understood by his role in the family's emotional process. Notably missing from the story is any reference to his mother, but his conversation with his father suggests strongly that he may have felt that his father was disappointed in him. At least two other conversations in the film suggest he suffers from low self-esteem. What might have happened in this family to make him want to not only escape the family itself but commitment to Rayette? What made him abandon a potential career as a professional musician?

aphasia | emotional cutoff | expressive aphasia | family systems | personality disorder

The Last of the Blonde Bombshells

The funeral for Elizabeth's husband opens the film. (0:00)

Vera displays signs of dementia or at least amnesia, probably related to Alzheimer's disease. (0:27)

Referring to Dinah, McNab describes her as "a recognized alcoholic." (0:57)

Bereavement

Mixed Blood

Young men dealing drugs through a hole in a wall. Young man smoking a joint (?) and another young man snorting cocaine. (0:04)

Array of drugs and paraphernalia on a table. Dealer counting money. (0:05)

Young man measuring and packaging white powder drugs, probably cocaine. (0:24)

Young men dealing drugs on the street. (0:25)

Dealer Juan (?) snorting cocaine. (0:52)

Young man measuring cocaine. Bottle of lactose for cutting the drug sits on the table. Kingpin Rita taste tests the drug. (0:58)

Junkie cooks heroin in a spoon, draws the mixture into a syringe, applies a tourniquet, injects drug into a vein and nods. (1:21)

Sign hanging in a room: "Drugs Kill" with a drawing of a syringe. (1:34)

cocaine | drugs | heroin

City Lights

The tramp watches while the eccentric millionaire places a noose around his neck then ties the other end of the rope to a large rock and tries to jump into the water. The tramp stops him, removes the noose from his neck and says, "Tomorrow the birds will sing." Then he says, "Be brave. Face life." But the millionaire replies, "No, I'll end it all." (0:10)

The tramp gets drunk. (0:16)

The millionaire removes a revolver from a drawer and appears ready to shoot himself, but the tramp stops him. (018)

The millionaire, having been struck in the head cannot recognize the tramp. (1:12)

Alcohol Intoxication | amnesia | concussion | suicide

Off the Black

Spoiler alert!

Umpire Ray smokes a joint. (0:35)

Ray's father demonstrates disorientation and amnesia resulting from Alzheimer's Disease. He does not recognize his son or recall what he himself said a few moments earlier. (0:58)

Ray and Dave share the experience of emotional cutoffs. Ray's wife left him, and his son refuses to contact him. Dave's mother left him and his father and sister. How might these cutoffs affect subsequent generations? What could be done to minimize the negative fallout?

Dave and Debra mourn the loss of their friend Ray.

Bereavement | cannabis | Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type | disorientation | emotional cutoff | joint

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

While bringing teen hero Sam to his first day at college (before heading off to save the world), his mom embarrasses him by, over his objections, eating a brownie laced with marijuana and, because of the resulting intoxication, behaving in a way that might fulfill the darkest fantasies of the most evil parents. (0:28)

cannabis | Cannabis Intoxication

Psycho Ward

The deserted setting, with rows of barred cells, looks more like a prison than a psychiatric hospital. (0:01)

Dr. Magellan tells Monica he specializes in "criminal psychology" but is "not a shrink." (0:10) He describe the "psychiatric wing" where "mistreatment:" constituted "malpractice" in a "program [that] made the patients neurotic... unstable." He describes one inmate as a "psychopath" (0:13) 


Dr. Magellan explains Monica's condition to Sarah: "This is a classic case of posttraumatic stress disorder." (0:48)


psychiatric hospital | psychologist

Dead Snow

Spoiler alert!

Hanna panics when Martin, tricking her, sits on top of her and holds a pillow over her face. "I get claustrophobic." (0:13) We thus understand her reaction to being buried in the snow (1:10). Pursued by a zombie to a snow cornice overhanging the edge of a cliff, she deliberately breaks it, risking death from falling. Unfortunately, the zombie survives too.

Compare Hanna's reaction to that of Martin when he sees a few drops of blood after Hanna cuts herself while chopping carrots. (0:32) Would you diagnose hemophobia? If so, might you prescribe zombie movies as treatment by flooding or exposure and response prevention?

Liv, in contrast, succeeds in killing both herself and her zombie. While he disembowels her she carefully removes a grenade from his belt and detonates it. Does this meet the definition of suicide? (1:01)

claustrophobia | suicide

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

As emergency workers wheel a stretcher into an ambulance, hostess Keiko discusses with another woman on the street that the hostess from the Bluebird Bar killed herself after the fortune teller she visited predicted misfortune. (0:06)

Deeply in debt after having left her job as a hostess to buy her own bar, Yuri tells Keiko, "I've decided to die." She explains that she plans to use sleeping pills, but she assures Keiko, "I'll just fake it to hold off creditors." (0:45)

Keiko learns that Yuri, regardless of her intentions, has in fact died from overdose of sleeping pills and brandy. (0:50)

At the wake Yuri's mother tells Keiko that although her daughter's death might have resulted from bad luck she would probably have eventually killed herself anyway. (0:52)

bereavement | suicide

Le Amiche (The Girlfriends)

Spoiler alert!

The hotel maid thinks Rosetta is dead after she "took too many pills" (0:05) in a suicide attempt. She later admits, "I don't even know myself why I did it."

In a train compartment Rosetta and her friend Clelia discuss the suicide attempt, why she might have done it and how empty her life seems. Rosetta asks, "Why go on living? So I can decide what dress to wear?" (0:35)

Rosetta tells Lorenzo "I wanted to wipe out all traces of myself." She asks him, "Do you think a woman in love could kill herself?" He asks, "When does somebody kill himself anyway?" (0:43)

Momina tells Clelia and Rosetta, "Handsome princes today snort cocaine and dance the mambo." (0:56)

After Lorenzo rejects her, emergency workers wheel away the stretcher holding Rosetta's body, apparently pulled from the water. (1:22)

suicide

The Men Who Stare At Goats

Soldier Larry gives LSD to soldier Norm, who runs naked onto the drill field, fires a few random shots from his pistol, then shoots himself in the head. (0:53)

At an Army camp, presumably in Iraq, LSD in the eggs and drinking water intoxicates the soldiers. (1:20)

Larry puts the muzzle of a pistol in his mouth as if preparing to shoot himself. (1:24)

Hallucinogen Intoxication | LSD | suicide

You Kill Me

Spoiler alert!

One might learn much about the workings and jargon of recovery
and Alcoholics Anonymous by watching this film.

Hit-man Frank's friend Stef tells him, "I've been reading about that seasonal affective disorder." (0:02)

After Frank botches a hit his boss Roman conducts what might qualify as an intervention of sorts for Frank's "substance abuse problem," "trying to facilitate your recovery" for which Frank must "get into AA." (0:06)

Frank attends the first of many meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. (0:09) The speaker says, "I'm almost glad I slipped." (0:11)

At another meeting a female speaker talks about her "eating disorder" and speaker Brenda reads a list of sponsors. (0:15)

Frank reads Tom G's book "Reflecting on Recovery" at home. (0:23)

Frank, while working at the mortuary, uses a mirror to read the words "One Day at a Time" tattooed on a corpse. (0:24)

Another AA meeting (0:26)

After Frank tells his AA sponsor Tom he is leaving the meeting early because he has a date. Tom tells him, "at the beginning there's not always room for both the program and women... or men for that matter." (0:27)

Frank and Tom discuss the AA concept of a higher power. (0:29)

Frank, attending a wake, repeatedly refuses offers of drinks, saying he's "on the wagon," but he ultimately gives in, drinks, and gets drunk with disastrous consequences (0:36)

Frank speaks for the first time at an AA meeting. (0:42)

Frank (working the eighth step?) tells Laurel about his inventory of people he has harmed and his plan to make amends. (0:49)

Prayer at an AA meeting. (0:51)

At another AA meeting Frank, attempting to comfort the last speaker, shares with her his own problems with low self-esteem. (0:54)

Laurel, Tom, and Frank paraphrase the serenity prayer with humor, but not without respect. (1:00)

Frank drinks again. (1:03)

Frank, intoxicated and despondent, almost jumps from the Golden Gate Bridge, but changes his mind. (1:12)

Frank tells Stef about taking it "one day at a time." (1:17)

Frank attends an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Buffalo. (1:18) Frank speaks. (1:22)

Frank speaks at another AA meeting, this time celebrating one year of sobriety. (1:27)

Alcoholics Anonymous | Alcohol Intoxication | alcoholism | amends | higher power | intervention | meetings | on the wagon | recovery | serenity prayer | slip | sponsor | suicide

The Last Station

Leo Tolstoy's wife Sophie threatens, "I'll throw myself under a train." (0:34)

Leo's friend Chertkov tells Sophie, "If I had a wife like you I'd have blown my brains out." (0:56)

After learning that Leo has left her Sophie runs to the pond and rolls off the pier into the water, intent on drowning herself. (1:18)

suicide

Ridicule

Bellegarde tells Ponceludon that deaf mute servant Paul is a "half-wit." (0:33)

After Vilecourt, by tossing one of de Guéret's shoes into the fire, spoils his chances to gain favor with the king and what he believes to be his only chance at solvency, de Guéret hangs himself. (0:54)

De l'Epée displays for the court a group of young "deaf mutes" whose demonstration of their considerable intelligence belies prevailing myth. (1:17)

Mental Retardation | suicide

Madame Bovary

Spoiler alert!

Emma's husband Gustave restrains her from jumping through a window after she has read a note from her lover Rodolphe and realizes that he has left for Italy without her. (1:14)

Realizing that she has ruined everything, not just for herself, Emma finds and ingests arsenic at the apothecary. (1:46)

suicide

Following

Bill is not your typical stalker (or your typical writer). Who is the victim?

Burglar Cobb tells the blonde, referring to Bill: "He's a born peeper." (1:04)

stalking