Melvin Udall is a successful novelist living in New York City. In the beginning of the movie he is an irritable, obsessive-compulsive man who alienates himself from those around him. To add to his alienation, he works from home and does not allow anyone in his apartment. His routine consists of going to the same restaurant, being served by the same waitress and eating at the same table every day. His mental disorder is also displayed in several different obsessive-compulsive actions such as turning the locks five times and doing the same for the lights in his home. One day, Melvin’s homosexual neighbor is assaulted and put into the hospital. Due to the misfortune, Melvin is forced to watch the neighbor’s dog while he recovers from the assault. At this point in the movie, Melvin develops an emotional attachment to the dog and his attitude begins to change for the better. Melvin decides to help the waitress from the restaurant by paying for her son’s medical bills. This gesture comes after him having a meltdown when she did not show up to work to serve him. Near the end of the movie, Melvin makes a trip to help the neighbor and invites the waitress to come along. The trip does not go as planned, but the experience helps him to learn to communicate and have better relationships with people. In the end, Melvin falls in love with the waitress and is willing to learn to overcome his obsessive-compulsive lifestyle to be with her.
Melvin is most likely to be diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, due to the fact that he meets all of the DSM-5 criteria for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. He displays obsessions, which are defined by recurrent, intrusive, persistent, uncontrollable thoughts, urges or images (Kring, Johnson, Davison & ...
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...digm, cognitive behavioral therapy would be the most effective treatment option for Melvin. During exposure and response prevention, individuals suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder are directly exposed to anxiety provoking behaviors and thoughts. Throughout therapy individuals learn to confront their anxiety and resist urges to perform compulsions caused by obsessions. Also, individuals in treatment learn to substitute negative thoughts with positive ones. Melvin’s treatment should begin with exposure to each of his obsessions and move gradually from low-anxiety to high-anxiety triggers. Melvin’s anxiety from his obsessions should significantly decrease with social support from his newly developed relationships. Lastly, research shows that 75% of people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder are drastically helped by cognitive behavioral therapy (Nichols, 2010)
IMDb describes the movie Bullitt as: “An all guts, no glory San Francisco cop becomes determined to find the underworld kingpin that killed the witness in his protection.” The Nicholas Watts painting “Bullitt In Pursuit” uses colors, lines, and sizes to convey the message: The Dodge Charger scene from the “Bullitt” car chase produced excitement.
Into the Wild, a novel written by Jon Krakauer, as well as a film directed by Sean Penn, talks about Chris McCandless, a young individual who set out on a journey throughout the Western United States, isolating himself from society, and more importantly, his family. During his travels, he meets a lot of different people, that in a way, change his ways about how he sees the world. There are many characteristics to describe McCandless, such as “naïve”, “adventurous”, and “independent”. In the book, Krakauer described McCandless as “intelligent”, using parts in his book that show McCandless being “intelligent”. While Krakauer thinks of McCandless as being “intelligent”, Penn thinks of McCandless as a more “saintly” type of person.
The racial system is composed of three basic parts that divides people into different categories: the white on top, black on bottom, and brown in between. This system came to be as a result of three different population coming together with unequal terms resulting in one population having the most power. The film Do the Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee, does an excellent job at portraying how the racial system functions by showing the advantages of being at the top of the system and the disadvantages of being at the bottom of the system. Not only does Spike Lee show the way that the racial system works but it also shows the reality of it and how it puts the races at the bottom
"Mrs. Robinson, you are trying to seduce me," says Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman). The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols in 1967 is an influential satire/comedy film about a recent East Coast college graduated who finds himself alienated and aimless in the changing, social and sexual general public of the 1960s, and questioning the values of society. The theme of the film is of an innocent and confused youth who is exploited, mis-directed, seduced (literally and figuratively) and betrayed by a corrupt, self-indulgent, and discredited older generation (that finds stability in “plastics”) that I found to be quite clear and understanding, while also capturing the real spirit of the times and allows America's youth to perceive onscreen an image of themselves which they can both identify with and emulate. The Graduate is a significant film even today due to its use of abstract camera angles, telephoto lenses, excellent cinematography, and great acting. Few visual effects were used, however, matting and numerous point of view shots were used. These characteristics and the fabulous use of mis-en-scene, great writing and the era of the film all made The Graduate what it is today, magnificent.
The first half of the film sets up Melvin’s symptoms and main characteristics associated with his obsessive-compulsive disorder. While in the remaining portion, the audience watches as Melvin’s relationships with Carol, Simon, and even Verdell begin to change his attitudes towards wanting to cure his disorder. The film provides a distinctive case of revealing a diagnosis to the audience midway through the film. There is no known onset of his treatment history, but the audience does find out midway through the movie that his therapist Dr. Green previously diagnosed Melvin with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Melvin discontinued his treatment and refused advice from his therapist, including taking the prescribed medication to aid in reducing the frequency of his obsessions and compulsions.
To identify if someone has a psychological disorder, psychologists look at behavior and see if the person shows signs of typicality, maladaptivity, emotional discomfort, socially unacceptable behavior- Melvin has many of these symptoms. He has maladaptive behavior, which is when the behavior impairs an individual’s ability to function adequately in everyday life, because he constantly does things like avoids the cracks on the sidewalk. Melvin portrays emotional discomfort when he goes to the same restaurant he goes to every day and his waitress, Carol, is not there. Melvin has expressed socially unacceptable behavior many times when he says rude things to people.
The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.
In having Coach Carter be one of the best critically acclaimed movies of 2005, it also portrayed a sense of emotion to the viewer. It transcends a type of mood in every type of scene in the movie. Coach Carter is about Ken Carter coming into the world of his old high school, Richmond High in a new role. Known for his high school basketball career, he is asked to be the new coach of a broken basketball team with troubled athletes. As Coach Carter, he holds practice after practice. For Coach Carter, sports are a commitment and with that, comes responsibility. So Coach gives the players all a contract to sign to solidify their commitment. All of us know that to participate in sports, you have to have certain grades, and with this contract comes
In the movie, As Good as it Gets, Melvin Udall shows many signs of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), that includes his germaphobia, the strict routine he follows, his aggressive thoughts on life, and his superstitions. Melvin Udall always kept his place clean, never wanted to touch another human, brought his own plastic silverware to restaurants, and wears gloves. Furthermore, his worst sign of germaphobia is his multi-step cleanse after being out of his apartment. The routine including washing his hands with burning hot water, opening a new bar of soap and starts scrubbing away, and repeats this process until he has gone through several bars of soap. However, the obsession of a routine is what highlights the problems in the movie overall.
The film that is being used for the movie analysis is “Enough”, this movie was chosen due to the fact that it is based on domestic violence towards women. The movie begins with in Los Angeles diner were a waitress named slim works with her best friend Ginny (Kazan, 2002). While working her shift slim has a customer that starts harassing her over the name she has, but the companion of the annoying customer defends slim, which in turn starts a romance, later to become a marriage between the two (Kazan, 2002). The couple is later blessed with a daughter they name Gracie, and at the beginning the marriage seems to be a fairy tale out of a story book (Kazan, 2002). The fairy tale becomes a nightmare as time moves forwards for the couple,
When American Sniper opened in theaters January 2015, the world was shocked and excited that a film about a war has finally shown the emotional and psychological pain a soldier goes through. To many this was a new concept but, what the public did not realize, was in 2014, a World War II film, Fury was released. Fury is an insightful film about a tank crew surviving through World War II through the emotional and psychological hardships. The film takes place in April 1945, five months before WWII ends (Fury, IMDb). There are many key points to which makes Fury a modern war film from the extent of backstory each character has, to the prescreening prep and training, to the research of the props. Though American Sniper and Fury differ in wars and
After school activities play a key part for young adult lives within today’s society, in America. How much it actually affects the personality and attitudes of the youths involved is something that many people are blind to. In the documentary “Undefeated” (2011), filmmakers Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin shine light on the positive effects that are school activities have on students’ lives and character. Based on kids that attend an inner-city school in Memphis, Tennessee, Lindsay and Martin allow their high society American audience to view new ways of helping kids who aren’t so fortunate. They show the positive life changing stories, and outcomes of players who are affected by football.
After watching the film "Ivory Tower," I became aware of how difficult it is to obtain a college education today. This film highlights a number of the problems relating to higher education. We are living in a time where college tuition prices continue to rise to outrageous costs, student loan debt is higher than credit card debt, exceeding over one trillion dollars and many are concerned whether or not college is worth the cost anymore. Rather than promoting quality learning, colleges seem to be promoting newly updated, fancier facilities. Receiving a college degree is becoming much harder to obtain due to the expense of college tuition. The continuous rise in college tuition prices is also making it more difficult for families to put their
If David Beckham was going through this therapy then the professionals will have to look at what are his ‘obsessions’ and what are the behaviours that follow these particular thoughts.
The person develops rituals or obsessions that they need to complete before they move on with their day. In most cases, the person does not enjoy their obsessions but relieves the anxiety that would come with not doing it. For example, a person may become obsessed with turning on and off a light switch five times before they leave the house. The person knows it is a waste of time, but they cannot stop themselves from doing it without feeling immense anxiety. By switching the lights five times, the person will be sure that they did it and it relieves the fear of leaving the light on. While symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will vary from person to person depending on their obsession, common signs are constant, unwanted thoughts and same doing the same rituals repeatedly to calm themselves down. Research believes that OCD can run in families, and is mostly detected in childhood or teenage years. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be treated the same way as most mental illnesses: therapy or medication. A common therapy technique is called Exposure and Response Prevention. In this technique, a person is exposed to their fear or obsession, and then is not allowed to complete the action they normally would with it. This successfully shows the person that nothing bad will happen if they do not give into their obsessions. People with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder may also be prescribed anti-anxiety medications or antidepressants to relieve the stress and anxiety that comes with living with