Raintree County Movie Analysis

During the mid-1900`s, mental illnesses were rarely discussed in mainstream media due to negative stigma surrounding mental illnesses. As a result, characters in film rarely had mental disorders because of the directors` worries of audiences` reactions to how the illnesses were portrayed. Director, Edward Dmytryk, however, attempted to diminish the stigma through his film Raintree County (1957) with Susanna Drake Shawnessy`s mental instability. Elizabeth Taylor`s portrayal of Susanna, however, heightened the stigma surrounding mental illness as Susanna constantly acted immature and childlike.
During the film, Susanna continually behaves erratically, similar to an adolescent throwing a tantrum. When her husband, a known abolitionist, requests

that she release or pay her black slaves, Susanna immediately becomes defensive, begging her husband to stop picking on her and questioning his love for her. It becomes evident that she wants to retain her slaves because they remind her of her past when she was spoiled by her governor father. However, Susanna, quickly reverses her opinion and begins paying her former slaves to please her husband, John. This drastic change, suggests that Susanna may be bipolar. When she happily shares the news at her house party, she is ridiculed and runs to her room where she begins throwing a tantrum. In her room, Susanna smashes a mirror begging Johnny to “beat her” and “hurt her” and claiming that “Johnny is too good for me [her]”. Her erratic behavior continues, however, when she stops sobbing and begins smiling and laughing when Johnny encourages her to play with her dolls. In this scene, Johnny begins treating his wife like a child, because he too now realizes that she acts eccentrically just as a young child would. Susanna is constantly depicted as having bipolar disorder, but the movie portrays people with bipolar disorder as unable to act as adults and stuck in their childhood.
Throughout the movie, Susanna is constantly seen attempting to please Johnny, her husband, as if he was a father-figure, affirming the adolescences of Susanna.

After Susanna leaves Johnny and Raintree country, she quickly realizes that she needs Johnny in her life as a paternal figure, so she deceives him into marriage by faking a pregnancy. Due to her mental instability, Susanna believes that she finally found another father-figure in Johnny after her father died, so therefore, she will do anything to trap Johnny into a life with her. Additionally, since she craves Johnny`s attention similar to a child, Susanna does not want to disappoint Johnny and goes as far as changing her ideals on slavery by ridding herself of slaves simply to placate to Johnny`s wishes. Moreover, towards the conclusion of the film, when Neil encourages Johnny to run for public office, Johnny is unable to as he must take of his unstable wife, causing Susanna`s worst nightmare comes true: disappointing her “father”. As any child would, Susanna yearns to gain back her father`s trust, so she attempts to fix her their relationship by finding the raintree Johnny searched for in his youth. In the end, Johnny`s rejection of Susanna as a “daughter” caused her to commit suicide, since she was devastated by losing two of her fathers. As a result, the film portrays mentally unstable people as immature and unable to live independent lives.
Although the director of Raintree County attempts to create a progressive

film by including a character with a mental disorder, Edward Dmytryk inaccurately depicts people with mental instabilities as reliant on others and immature. So, rather than reducing the stigma surrounding mental disorders, Dmytryk further stereotypes a wide variety of individuals into one broad, inaccurate category.