Movie psychopaths.

darkdubh

Interesting couple of links here on movie portrayals of psychopaths and how realistic they are.As I've long suspected,Norman Bates is not especially grounded in reality,nor it seems is Hannibal Lector.The names that keep coming up in terms of how accurate they are include Anton Chigurgh(No Country For Old Men) ,the title character in Henry:Portrait Of A Serial Killer and Gordon Gecko In Wall Street(as an example of the "successfull psychopath").

https://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2014/01/why-psychopathic-film-villains-are-rarely-realistic-and-why-it-matters

http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/01/22/who-is-the-most-realistic-psychopath-in-movie-history/

weemcd

Eric Bana as Chopper was always one of my favorite psychopaths in film, totally over the top of course, but the complete lack of empathy was always there at the core of the character.

"Psychopathy can be broadly defined as a personality disorder characterized by diminished empathy, a lack of guilt or remorse, and a tendency to manipulate or antagonize others."

Those articles are a good read, thanks for sharing.

darkdubh

Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth is a memorable movie psychopath.Not film but Paulie from The Sopranos ticks all the psychopath boxes.Out of all the members of Tonys crew hes probably the only one who seems totally untroubled by remorse or guilt for his actions.

weemcd

darkdubh wrote: »

Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth is a memorable movie psychopath.Not film but Paulie from The Sopranos ticks all the psychopath boxes.Out of all the members of Tonys crew hes probably the only one who seems totally untroubled by remorse or guilt for his actions.

Another good example, superficial charm, delusions of grandeur, complete lack of empathy as long as he gets what he wants.

Trying to think of more.

Have you ever seen Tom Hardy in "The Take?" He plays a dangerous absolute animal in that.

darkdubh

weemcd wrote: »

Another good example, superficial charm, delusions of grandeur, complete lack of empathy as long as he gets what he wants.

Trying to think of more.

Have you ever seen Tom Hardy in "The Take?" He plays a dangerous absolute animal in that.

No havent seen that.Its been a while since I've seem it but Mike Leighs movie Naked had at least one bona fide psychopath in the rapist landlord.I'd almost pick the main character Johnny too,played by David Thewlis but theres times when he has flashes of empathy and realises what a dick hes being.

Whitewinged

darkdubh wrote: »

Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth is a memorable movie psychopath.

Frank Booth aka The more realistic darker Christian Grey :pac:

Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) in Sexy Beast.

Begbie (Robert Carlyle) in trainspotting.

brianregan09

Tom Hardy in Bronson

Satriale

Before i read the links i'm gonna throw in Gyllenhalls character in Nightcrawler. He struck me as fairly realistic.

Ipso

Little Zee (?) in City of God.

ricero

Michael douglas in falling down

bur

Begbie in Trainspotting was terrifying, and hilarious.

darkdubh

Back to tv again,The Wire has a few prime psychopaths.Snoop and Marlo are good examples.Also The Greek.Wouldn't pick Omar though as he has a moral code and a sense of honour albeit an unconventional one.Levy the lawyer is a different type of psychopath,hes just as amoral and lacking in empathy as the gangs he represents.

Sad Professor

I think it's important to distinguish between psychotics and psychopaths. One is has a mental illness, the other has a personality disorder.

Norman Bates is psychotic. He's mentally sick, suffering from delusions and hallucinations. Obviously his particular psychosis is extremely dangerous to society but mostly he's just ill and needs help. Since cinematic depictions of psychosis invariably involve getting inside the character's head and seeing what they see, I'd disagree that he's unrealistic.

Hannibal Lector on the other hand is a psychopath. He's perfectly sane and no amount of help is likely to change his behaviour except maybe a lobotomy. Lecter as portrayed by Hopkins is really a caricature of a psychopath, but I'd argue that has been key component of film psychopaths, including Chigurh, ever since.

It strikes me that that villainous depictions of psychosis are much rarer these days than in previous decades. Most modern villains tend to be highly intelligent psychopaths. The hero is more likely to show signs of psychosis, reflecting I guess a better understanding of mental illness by filmmakers.

PressRun

I'd agree that Norman Bates isn't a psychopath. He's mentally ill, which is different. Obviously his traits are exaggerated for dramatic effect, but I don't think his behaviours are based on personality disorders.

Hannibal Lecter, despite being 'unrealistic', is actually based on people who really existed.

take everything

Peter Stormare's psychopath in Fargo is a great example of psychopathy In film IMO.

dark crystal

John Doe in Se7en strikes me as a true psychopath. He's emotionless; his face a blank slate and he feels no guilt or remorse for the evil he commits. He manipulates both detectives into finishing his plan for him at the end and the journals he kept in his apartment were chilling - so matter of fact.

Gwynplaine

Patrick Bateman.

Exclamation Marc

Goeth in Schindlers List but he's based on a real person.

Some of my other favourites would be Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds. Epps in 12 Years a Slave. Glenn Close's character in Fatal Attraction was pretty crazy too. Brando in Apocalypse Now (but that could just have been Brando). Or even someone like The Joker in The Dark Knight

Keplar240B

Saoirse Ronan character In Brooklyn

darkdubh

Max Cady as originally played by Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear,hes also an early example of a movie stalker long before it became well known.Robert De Niro in the remake is fun but kind of over the top,Mitchums version is far more believable.He also played another great onscreen psychopath in Night Of The Hunter.

syklops

Surprised no-one has mentioned Sherlock, from Sherlock.

razorblunt

Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Jake Gylenhaa's character from Nightcrawler, caught me by surprise too I have to say.

darkdubh

syklops wrote: »

Surprised no-one has mentioned Sherlock, from Sherlock.

I'd thought he was the way he is because of Aspergers,I've only seen the Cumberpatch version sporadically though so can't really say for sure.I think Sherlock Holmes as originally conceived by Conan Doyle may be a psychopath but hes been played slightly differently down the years.

darkdubh

razorblunt wrote: »

Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Jake Gylenhaa's character from Nightcrawler, caught me by surprise too I have to say.

Good call,in fact in real life a lot of psychopaths work in the medical profession,and not just murderers like Harold Shipman.

(Must get around to watching Nightcrawler.)

syklops

darkdubh wrote: »

I'd thought he was the way he is because of Aspergers,I've only seen the Cumberpatch version sporadically though so can't really say for sure.I think Sherlock Holmes as originally conceived by Conan Doyle may be a psychopath but hes been played slightly differently down the years.

As the man himself says, he isn't a psychopath, he's a hih functioning sociopathe.

However if you google psychopathe and Sherlock you get rants from real doctors who say he isn't either, and their reasons why not.

greedygoblin

Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) in A View to a Kill.

syklops

greedygoblin wrote: »

Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) in A View to a Kill.

Good call!

Dr. Mantis Toboggan

Not a movie, but Billy Bob Thorntons character in the first season of Fargo.

Whitewinged

Manufactured Miracle wrote: »

Glenn Close's character in Fatal Attraction was pretty crazy too.

I remember reading somewhere that they said she probably had borderline personality disorder obviously an extreme case. She was meant to commit suicide originally in the movie but they made him kill her instead.

Tommy in goodfellas. I think he shows alot of traits.

What about Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver? I don't think he was a psychopath though. Ptsd, stalking and delusional.

sadie1502

Kathy bates Misery

ButtersSuki

Bale in American Psycho and Kingsley as a Don Logan in Sexy Beast are hard to beat for me. Kingsley's performance is genuinely chilling.

The lesser known Funny Games (both versions) make for uncomfortable viewing, as does We Need to Talk About Kevin, with good performances from the actors involved (michael Shannon and Ezra Miller amongst others).

Rjd2

On a Shane Meadows vibe at the moment, Combo from This Is England film, Richard This Is England, and Morell from Romeo Brass.

If we can throw in a few Deadwood characters, Hearst and Wolcott.

Dr. Mantis Toboggan

The couple from Sightseers.

Great gritty little movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2023690/

darkdubh

Whitewinged wrote: »

I remember reading somewhere that they said she probably had borderline personality disorder obviously an extreme case. She was meant to commit suicide originally in the movie but they made him kill her instead.

Tommy in goodfellas. I think he shows alot of traits.

What about Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver? I don't think he was a psychopath though. Ptsd, stalking and delusional.

Youre right,Travis Bickle had major issues but don't think he was a psychopath either.He seemed genuinely concerned about Jodie Fosters character though this could have been down to some paedophile infatuation.

darkdubh

Martin Sheens presidential canditate in The Dead Zone,who in retrospect is scarily Donald Trumpesque.

Ralf and Florian

Nicole Kidman,To Die For.

Denzel Washington,not usually one for playing amoral socio/psychopaths nailed it in Training Day.

K-9

darkdubh wrote: »

Youre right,Travis Bickle had major issues but don't think he was a psychopath either.He seemed genuinely concerned about Jodie Fosters character though this could have been down to some paedophile infatuation.

He also had an infatuation with the Cybil Shepherd character, hard to know.

Christopher Walken seems to specialise in these roles, a View to a Kill as mentioned, King of New York, True Romance and others.

Begbie was brilliant as mentioned, scariest character in the film and never touched drugs, just alcohol!

The Ralph Fiennes Nazi Commander in Schindlers List.

Goodfellas had a couple of memorable ones as well.

Robert Mitchum was a great shout, Orson Welles in The Third Man and Richard Attenborough in Brighton Rock were also excellent from even earlier times.

Keyser Soze deserves a mention too.

Exclamation Marc

Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers

Ralf and Florian

Richard Attenborough as already mentioned in Brighton Rock.Also in 10 Rillington Place where he played real life serial killer Reginald Christie,he was really creepy in that.

Arghus

take everything wrote: »

Peter Stormare's psychopath in Fargo is a great example of psychopathy In film IMO.

That movie, like a lot of the Coen's work, is stuffed with psychopaths!

Stormare's performance is probably the most "traditional" of all the psychos, but Steve Buscemi's character is fairly lacking in human feeling as well.

I think William H Macy is the most terrifying of all: a dull non-entity, a depressing void, who shows no real genuine empathy for anyone. Everything he does is motivated by panicky self-interest.

Whitewinged

Kalifornia with Brad Pitt playing psychopath Early Grayce.

warpdrive

Henry Evans in The Good Son

Skerries

study reveals the true film psychopaths

http://www.techinsider.io/psychopaths-in-movies-fact-vs-fiction-2016-1

jameskflynn

Edward Norton's character in American History X!

Ralf and Florian

Skerries wrote: »

study reveals the true film psychopaths

http://www.techinsider.io/psychopaths-in-movies-fact-vs-fiction-2016-1

This covers the same study though worth a look.

http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2014/01/most_realistic_movie_psychos_how_real_are_hannibal_lecter_norman_bates_and.html

Ralf and Florian

jameskflynn wrote: »

Edward Norton's character in American History X!

He goes on to see the error of his ways though which is not really something psychopaths typically do.As far as I remember anyway,its years since I've seen it.

Whitewinged

Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane

shootermacg

brad Pitt kalifornia.

darkdubh

Daniel Plainview as played by Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood has a lot of characteristics of a psychopath.Even disregarding the two murders he commits he's cunning,ruthless in getting what he wants,violent and has no empathy,not even for his adopted son whom at first he appears to care about to some degree but later on treats really badly.

Apogee

Gary Oldman in Leon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1qiDrNHjXI

K-9

The Christopher Eccleston character in Shallow Grave.