Moral Deliberations in Modern Cinema
Vaknin, Sam, 1961-
English
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Below is a summary of Moral Deliberations in Modern Cinema
Created by: LIDIJA RANGELOVSKA
REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
C O N T E N T S
I. The Talented Mr. Ripley
II. The Truman Show
III. The Matrix
IV. Shattered
V. Titanic
VI. Being John Malkovich
VII. Dreamcatcher - The Myth of Destructibility
VIII. The Author
IX. About "After the Rain"
The Talented Mr. Ripley
By: Sam Vaknin
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" is an Hitchcockian and blood-curdling study
of the psychopath and his victims. At the centre of this masterpiece,
set in the exquisitely decadent scapes of Italy, is a titanic
encounter between Ripley, the aforementioned psychopath protagonist
and young Greenleaf, a consummate narcissist.
Ripley is a cartoonishly poor young adult whose overriding desire is
to belong to a higher - or at least, richer - social class. While he
waits upon the subjects of his not so hidden desires, he receives an
offer he cannot refuse: to travel to Italy to retrieve the spoiled and
hedonistic son of a shipbuilding magnate, Greenleaf Senior. He embarks
upon a study of Junior's biography, personality, likes and hobbies. In
a chillingly detailed process, he actually assumes Greenleaf's
identity. Disembarking from a luxurious Cunard liner in his
destination, Italy, he "confesses" to a gullible textile-heiress that
he is the young Greenleaf, travelling incognito.
Thus, we are subtly introduced to the two over-riding themes of the
antisocial personality disorder (still labelled by many professional
authorities "psychopathy" and "sociopathy"): an overwhelming dysphoria
and an even more overweening drive to assuage this angst by belonging.
The psychopath is an unhappy person. He is besieged by recurrent
depression bouts, hypochondria and an overpowering sense of alienation
and drift. He is bored with his own life and is permeated by a
seething and explosive envy of the lucky, the mighty, the clever, the
have it alls, the know it alls, the handsome, the happy - in short:
his opposites. He feels discriminated against and dealt a poor hand in
the great poker game called life. He is driven obsessively to right
these perceived wrongs and feels entirely justified in adopting
whatever means he deems necessary in pursuing this goal.
Ripley's reality test is maintained throughout the film. In other
words - while he gradually merges with the object of his admiring
emulation, the young Greenleaf - Ripley can always tell the
difference. After he kills Greenleaf in self-defense, he assumes his
name, wears his clothes, cashes his checks and makes phone calls from
his rooms. But he also murders - or tries to murder - those who
suspect the truth. These acts of lethal self-preservation prove
conclusively that he knows who he is and that he fully realizes that
his acts are parlously illegal.
Young Greenleaf is young, captivatingly energetic, infinitely
charming, breathtakingly handsome and deceivingly emotional. He lacks
real talents - he know how to play only six jazz tunes, can't make up
his musical mind between his faithful sax and a newly alluring drum
kit and, an aspiring writer, can't even spell. These shortcomings and
discrepancies are tucked under a glittering facade of non-chalance,
refreshing spontaneity, an experimental spirit, unrepressed sexuality
and unrestrained adventurism. But Greenleaf Jr. is a garden variety
narcissist. He cheats on his lovely and loving girlfriend, Marge. He
refuses to lend money - of which he seems to have an unlimited supply,
courtesy his ever more disenchanted father - to a girl he impregnated.
She commits suicide and he blames the primitiveness of the emergency
services, sulks and kicks his precious record player. In the midst of
this infantile temper tantrum the rudiments of a conscience are
visible. He evidently feels guilty. At least for a while.
Greenleaf Jr. falls in and out of love and friendship in a predictable
pendulous rhythm. He idealizes his beaus and then devalues them. He
finds them to be the quiddity of fascination one moment - and the
distilled essence of boredom the next. And he is not shy about
expressing his distaste and disenchantment. He is savagely cruel as he
calls Ripley a leach who has taken over his life and his possessions
(having previously invited him to do so in no uncertain terms). He
says that he is relieved to see him go and he cancels off-handedly
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