Madness in TV and Film

[ed]

I don't mean the random nut thrown into a plot just because they are funny or whatever. I like really good portrayals of lunacy. Here are a few.

Tommy Udo.
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The Sainted Peter O'Toole as the 14 Earl of Gurney
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Sir Anthony ... I am not sure if Hannibal Lector is mad or just touchy
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Mickey and Mallory ...
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I always thought Juliette Lewis had some madness around the eyes


A bit of the old ultra violence
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John Malkovich as Tom Ripley in the sadly under appreciated Ripley's Game. If you haven't seen this, do.
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And the new love of my life, Helena from Orphan Black, mad as a hatter


n.b. if Helena had more polish, she'd be Tom Ripley.
No, no Heath Ledger because that was an actor playing a lunatic. Too "commercial".

[Abdul Alhazred]

I disagree that the Clockwork droogs are supposed to be insane.

[Nyarlathotep]

Essie Davis in The Babadook

A really good example of severe depression. Arguably, you can watch the movie with the thought in mind that there is no Babadook, really, its all in her head because of her mental illness and it makes perfect sense and loses none of its impact

[sparks]

Is Perkins in Psycho too passe? How about Bette Davis in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? Hell, I'd whip up a rat sandwich for Mommy Dearest just to see the look on her face...

[Doctor X]

地獄少女--"Hell Girl"

The eponymous is 閻魔あい--Enma Ai. She has her moments, particularly when setting fire to an entire village of people after they murder her as a sacrifice:


She got better.

未来日記--Mirai Nikki/Future Diary--Gasai Yuno


The veritable avatar and type for madness and definition of yandere:


ひぐらしのなく頃に--Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni/When They Cry

With "they" being the "higurashi" or cicada that causes Anax to prowl around his mansion with an axe. . . . Many of the characters go insane:



However, the best known include Ryūgū Rena:




and, of course, Sonozaki Shion:



School Days: is infamous for a very, very, slow burn insanity in one character who serves as the yandere you did not know was one until, as the rival no longer looking up at her realized:

too late.

--J.D.

[Anaxagoras]

I disagree that the Clockwork droogs are supposed to be insane.

I disagree too. More like just amoral hoodlums. They might be what you call "sociopaths" (which I think is not actually a real medical term; it's "psychopath").

[Anaxagoras]

Elliot Alderson from Mr. Robot is pretty insane. Good show, btw. (OK, maybe it involves a trope that's been done before.)

[Doctor X]

Burgess would have agreed as well. He hated Alex. Alex was not a hero in any manner. Alex and his Droogs were not crazy; they were, in Burgess' novel as well as the movie, the product of the society.

The writer character, however, certainly went over the edge in the movie:



--J. "What's it Going to be Then, Hey?" D.