Comparing The Portrayal Of The Truth In Hollywood Films

Portrayal of the Truth in Hollywood Films

Most people are likely to relate Hollywood with money. If a person lives in the Hollywood area, people assume she or he is probably rich. If she or he is a Hollywood movie star, the person probably makes a lot of money. Therefore, to follow that line of thought, when Hollywood producers make a movie, they make it just for money. And some filmmakers do seem to make films only for the money the movies will earn.
The action movie "Die Hard", the fantasy movie "Star Wars", and the adventure movie "Jurassic Park" are examples of exciting movies that were made just for the money by satisfying the audiences' appetite for escapism. However, these thoughts are not always true all the time.
Sometimes Hollywood makes films to show the audience the truth contained in the movie. In the movie “Girl, Interrupted,” the filmmakers have balanced the grim realism of the book with audience-pleasing elements of entertainment in order to make the film more comfortable. The graphic representation of mental illness makes audiences feel its realities, while the use of attractive actresses captures the attention of the audiences and makes it easier to relate to the story. The book Girl Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, portrays the behaviors and treatment of the mentally ill with total realism. The film brings these to life somewhat in scenes that make audiences aware of how time is really spent in the mental institution and of the way society stereotypes people who are mentally ill. The movie captures the life of the hospital based on the memoir of Kaysen: the routine checks, the weekly therapy, the treatment with medicines, the seclusion, the unnerving sounds of screaming, etc. It also depicts her reaction to that life. For example, in the book, Susanna feels disturbed with the routine 15 minutes check. There is not enough time to do anything, even to drink a cup of coffee or to take a shower (54). That is true because it does take more than fifteen minutes to take a good shower or sip a cup of hot coffee. In the movie, when Tobby and Susanna are making out on the bed furiously, Margie opens the door "Check- Sorry" and closes the door. The audiences can see this routine check as a sense of intrusion through the way Toby acts after being checked by the nurse. He pulls away from Susanna, red- faced and stand up and tend to leave. Although it is uncomfortable for Toby, it is done for the sake of Susanna’s well being. Even if this routine check seems to bother Tobby and Susanna, Susanna acknowledges this as part of her life inside the hospital. She starts undoing his belt buckle and says "No, No. We have ten minutes until they come back." For us ten minutes are not enough to spend with a boy friend or girl friend whom we have not seen in a while. In reality, if a person has an unstable mind, those who are close by also have a certain routine in which they check on that person or give him or her medicine to make sure he or she is doing okay.
In the mental institution, the hospital has to look after psychologically disturbed patients. Through the routine check, the hospital knows the daily condition of patients and makes sure they are not a danger to themselves. The screaming, routine handling of medicines and the seclusion for those who scream are part of a mental institution’s atmosphere. Routine treatments with medicine not only help patients calm down during the day, but also help them rest during the night. The "seclusion" is a room for those who scream or want to scream so they do not bother the others. Therapy and medicine treatments in addition to living condition within the hospital will determine the success of the
treatment. Through Susanna’s journal, the movie captures how families can be in denial of the fact that one of their members is mentally compromised, and how often society stereotypes mental ill persons. In the sixties, people were unwilling to accept mental illness as part of their society; therefore, families did not want to admit that one of their members was mentally ill. “Some families had to prove that nobody was crazy” (95). To hide the truth from people around them, families either secretly took care of the crazy person or sent that member away from home, considering that the family did not have that person anymore. In this case, Susanna’s parents send her to the mental institution but do not want their friends or relatives to know about it. Her parents want her to be home on Christmas because they do not want their friends to find out about Susanna’s condition. The film depicts this through her parents’ conversation with Dr. Melvin about her presence on Christmas Day. When Dr. Melvin says that the length of Susanna's stay isn't fixed- It depends on her response to treatment, first Carl (Susanna's father) seem upset and disagree with Dr. Melvin "I was a teacher. I taught people her age. And can tell you, they all depressed." Then he changes to worry "It's almost Christmas. What are we supposed to tell the people who care about her?" His concerns are not because of loving Susanna but for himself. He worries about what are going to happen at the party without Susanna's present but not about Susanna's condition ("they all depressed"). He yells at her "Susanna!" when she expresses to Melvin their truth concern about her absence at home on that day: "What you don't understand is that my parents are having a holiday cocktail crisis." We can easily see from the movie how society has effects on the family’s life. The audience sympathizes with those who lived in the sixties; they seemed to have no choice but to put out of sight the life of one person for the benefit of the rest of the family. Otherwise, society would isolate the whole family because it had one member who did not conform to the society’s values. Today, people are more accepting of those who struggle with mental illness, including them as part of society by considering them as handicapped. More families take care of mentally ill members at home with the neighborhood’s acknowledgement. Still, some people look at them differently, as when someone marries a person who has a mentally ill sibling. To make the film -- which has strong language and content relating to mental illness, a real issue of society -- pleasurable, the director must have a considerable extent of knowledge. The director’s goal is to make the audiences understand and agree with what he wants to show. There are several ways in which he achieves his goal. First, he tones down these girls’ situation and uses attractive actresses to address this complicated issue to audiences, which allows them more easily relate to it. In the movie, the director James Mangold decreases these girls’ conditions by showing them as less severely ill. For example, the movie shows that Susanna sometimes scratches her hand. It does not show that she chomped her hand to find out if she had any bones. Then, he also uses people whom audiences will find attractive. The director has Angelina Jolie, a beautiful, sexy actress, playing the role of Lisa, a girl who was thin and yellow, rarely ate and never slept, according to the book. Many other well-known actresses, such as Winona Ryder and Whoopi Goldberg, are in this movie to get audiences' attention and to bring them into the theater. Without their attractiveness and big names, the truth of the story might reach only much smaller audiences. The entertainment of the film not only comes from pretty and well-known actresses but also comes from a series of enjoyable scenes, such as bowling, dancing and a romantic love between the orderly and Susanna.
These scenes are added to please the audiences and to make the story more easy to relate to nowadays. For example, in scene at the ice cream store, Lisa acts provocative through the ways she licks the red cherry when she is ordering the ice cream and flirting with the sale guy. Her gestures and postures make audiences forget about her being mentally ill. All they think is "wow, she is so sexy." The film is also a dramatic expression in musical terms. The music in the movie gives audiences a relief from the stressful content. Petula Clark sings the song of being seventeen at the beginning and end of the movie "Girl,
Interrupted":
"When you're alone and life is making you lonely you can always go – downtown."
The song not only offers a solution for those who feel lonely but also creates harmony in the film and helps to establish a sense of tranquility and peace, removing audiences’ emotional discords. The film ends up giving a heart-warming feeling and reminds us to sympathize with the life of girls who could not conform to the society of the sixties. The film “Girl, Interrupted” not only entertains ably but also surprise the audience with the reality of how society treated the mentally ill in the sixties. The film has succeeded in pleasing audiences with the truth contained in it. The truth in the movie, regardless of its sixties setting, can still help girls get through their own struggles at 16, 17 or 18. In any age, "crazy" is measured by our adherence to what society expects us to do, how we are supposed to dress, to interact, or to answer questions, by what is considered appropriate. A person's insanity is determined by his or her commitment and ability to play by the rules, which are set by society. Both this film and the book it comes from reflect brilliantly, in our time, what happens when that mold is broken. And Hollywood, in this movie, proves beyond argument that it can, when it chooses, deliver powerful truth, entertain, AND make money.