Steve Crook

Thanks. As I said, it makes a difference and it's good to be clear about these things. There are many cases of cannibalism in times of war or other disasters like when people are shipwrecked or in plane crashes. But apart from that they are very rare.

Steve

billy bentley

Widmark in "Kiss of Death"
MacDowell "Clockwork Orange"
Mitchum "Night Of THe Hunter" & "Cape Fear"

Would either Travis Bickle or Bill Sykes be considered psyhopaths ?
What about Oliver Redd I reckon he'd have the right ache if hewasn't included in this list ?

batman

Travis is a difficult one. I wouldn't have said he was a psychopath as he appears to genuinely care about what he sees around him. He is definitely unwell, perhaps suffering from PTSD or psychotic depression.

DB7

Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast, and Paul Bettany in Gangster #1. Two certifiable screen fruit loops you wouldn't wish to cross.

batman

This man has no fear!

Amethyst_Isle

Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct 1 and 2,not sure about 2 though has I have not seen it,anyone seen this sequel ? it was supposed to be really really bad and was filmed in UK as opposed to USA as the first one was.

There's a lot of dignity in that, isn't there? Going out like a raspberry ripple.

batman

It is really really bad ....

CaptainWaggett

But it has the lovely David Morrissey! That makes up for everything!

Where would Eric Portman in Wanted for Murder come on the scale of psychopaths? Would a good shrink have beeen able to talk him out of channelling his inner hangman into something a little less deadly than serial strangling?

Moor Larkin

That's great Bats. I can't find consistent accounts of this play on t'internet. I've been pondering buying a copy of the play just to get a proper handle on it....... but I worry that my obsessive-compulsive tendencies may overspill if I give in to them all the time.......

There is nothing like a dame..... for speaking the truth. I think you're all doing him a disservice. There was ghosties in that there hotel! Poor fellow got swallowed up by the photograph didn't he? He wasn't bad or mad - he was re-possessed!!

batman

It is a great play, and it is a good read. Give in to that OCD ... I did and am now overwhelmed by dvds et al!

PM me if you wish for further discussions about the play.

batman

Even killing Stan Collymore off at the start couldn't save this mega-turkey. Morrisey wanders around looking as if he wished he was somewhere else (or was thinking about his pay cheque). Even the pneumatic charms of Shazza couldn't raise him (or the film) from it's lengthy coma. Words can't explain how awful this film is.

Re EP .... with a good shrink and some hefty meds I reckon he was treatable.

mariocki

The first person I thought of when I saw the title of this thread. A really unnerving character and a superb performance from Bettany.

You crazy idiots - my name's McGill!

Third Man

I wanted to address this post of Scholes earlier but I had to take my medicine, only joking and if the genaral flavour of this thread was supposed to be about sounding off about one's personal favourites, sorry for interfering, I maybe missed the point. I thought the general aim of most threads was to create discussion about all or parts of the topic placed before us.

Well Lector is easily the most interesting person on the list from 'The Times' in my opinion, because I would say that he is in total charge of all of his faculties, he is very intelligent, he has a appetite for the arts no pun intended and is totally devoid of any sort of conscience when it comes to killing.

Lector is in an asylum because there is no other recognized place for a person like himself, he is definitely a different type of inmate to the rest who are placed along side him, take the inmate Migs for example who ejaculates over Starling as she walks by the cell. Lector who studied psychiatry knows what makes Migs tick, he takes an abhorrent unforgiving stance towards Migs because of his actions towards Starling and persuades him to commit suicide in revenge for his disgusting behaviour towards her.

Lector mainly reacted spontaneously to people being rude, that would maybe explain the attack on the nurse, he could not tolerate it and Barney the male nurse at the asylum said that he only eats rude people.

Getting back to the misanthropic part, Bats says Lector is narcissist, has no sense of compassion or empathy for anyone, OK I agree but given that particular profile would you say he was a psychopath or a misanthropist, I would say the latter. Of course not all misanthropist's are killers but Lector always kills for a reason based on his staying alive or to escape incarceration or against people he deems as offensive.

Lector probably thinks we are all insane and he is the sane one and his actions are justified, there's a verse from a writer called Italo Calvino that reminds me of the enigma that is Hannibal Lector...

"The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space."

Is Lector reacting to what he sees around him in the world and is he unable to accept what he sees, many of us will look around at the modern world and feel disgusted with parts of it, yes we don't go around killing people because of it but would that make Lector a psychopath if he exacted his perceived wrath upon it probably not, he's a very dangerous person with a big chip on his shoulder.

Simon

batman

That is a really interesting post Simon in which you you have explained you point of view really well. I think we perhaps are looking at Lecter from two differing perspectives. I was viewing him purely as a case study based on known symptoms and diagnoses while you have taken a more, dare I say it, 'holistic' view of him. I agree with some of what you have said and at work I would include those aspects in any assessments and reports I might have to compile. I am glad you posted that because it gives me a clearer insight into your ideas and I think we are actually more in tune than was first apparent. You, of course, may still think I was talking cobblers!

Moor Larkin

That's absolutely super. I love the picture. What's it from?

I *think* someone told me once that a copy of McGoohan's Musgrave is in the BFI and can be watched there, but I've yet to get my finger out and go-see.

Is Mediatheque around to confirm?

So far as I know none of the prisoner conventineers have ever had a private showing of it, unlike Mcg's other Fifties TV survivors: 'The Greatest Man in the World' or 'This Day in Fear' or Cock & Bull, which is a super title, I've always thought.......

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