 |
| Laurence Olivier as The White Angel, hovering over hapless Dustin Hoffman, in Marathon Man (1976). |
Why would I mention a nearly forgotten 1997 film now? One would think that I would be disinclined to mention movies that star Mel Gilson. For Mel Gibson has since been reviled for his racist and anti-Semitic rants in real life, even though he was applauded for his similarly psychotic, off-the-cuff incantations when he plays an incoherent cab driver who was duped by the CIA and doped with LSD by “The Company” doctor.
The film shifts between an action-adventure motif to a romantic comedy subplot. We learn that Gibson’s paranoid character was used as a test subject in earlier CIA’s secret experiments. This time around, Dr. Jonas, a CIA psychiatrist, captures him and binds him to a wheelchair, and tapes his eyes open. Patrick Stewart, better known for Star Trek and later Professor X roles, plays Dr. Jonas.
Gibson’s misfortunes clearly began before meeting Julia Roberts, who plays an
attractive young attorney who is on a quest to learn the who’s and why’s of her
father’s mysterious death. Infatuated with Julia Roberts, Mel Gibson stalks her
in a laughable rather than predatory way. He eventually wins her heart after
his Conspiracy Theory proves true.
Again, let me ask (myself) why I would mention this
film now? The answer is obvious, for those of you who read the last post on The Bourne Legacy (2012), where I
discuss genetic experiments conducted on another covert operative, played by
Jeremy Renner. In that case, an
indifferent doctor (Rachel Weisz) administers experimental injections that
enhance performance. Weisz is not malevolent; she is simply detached and does
not know the name of her patient, even after four years have passed. In addition, Weisz is a virologist and is not
a psychiatrist, although her treatments change Renner’s behavior, enhance his
cognition (and maybe make him addicted).
Some readers may know of the CIA’s MK-ULTRA project,
where tests subjects were dosed with LSD and subjected to behavioral conditioning
studies, not by fringe elements of the profession, but by a psychiatrist who
once headed both the American Psychiatric Association and the Canadian
Psychiatric Association. Other academic centers participated in these occasionally
lethal tests, sometimes unwittingly. Andrea Tone wrote an award-winning book on
the topic.
In Conspiracy
Theory, Patrick Stewart’s hairless and smile-less psychiatrist is as
sinister as could be. He is so sinister that he reminds us of Laurence Olivier’s
rendition of the Nazi dentist known as White Angel. In that classic under-the-Brooklyn
Bridge scene in Marathon Man (1976),
Laurence Oliver drills into Dustin Hoffman’s teeth to force him to reveal his
brother’s secrets.
Like Patrick Stewart’s Dr. Jonas, Marathon Man’s evil DDS consorts with American
agents. Dr. Jonas is so sinister that he could span an entire chapter in my
recent book on Cinema’s Sinister
Psychiatrists (McFarland, 2012). He might have done just that, except for
the fact that there are many more intriguing examples of conspiracy theories
and sinister psychiatrists in the chapter.
To read more about Marathan Man's references to the McCarthy Era, and learn how those troubled times translated into paranoid themes in film, pl see Movies and the Modern Psyche (2007).
To read more about Marathan Man's references to the McCarthy Era, and learn how those troubled times translated into paranoid themes in film, pl see Movies and the Modern Psyche (2007).
McFarland Catalogue
