The movies I decided to review are: What’s Love Got To Do With It, A Beautiful Mind and Girl, Interrupted.
These three movies dwelt with physical and verbal abuse, drug and alcohol addictions and mental illness.
First I would like to talk about What Does Love Got To Do With It. This is a movie about Tina Turner and her life with Ike Turner. Ike Turner begins using drugs and alcohol when he loses the ability to make good music and Tina begins rising to the top with her songs. Due to his jealously, he becomes a perpetrator of physical and verbal abuse towards Tina. During the 1960’s and 70’s when these movies were set, female empowerment was not a big thing. Tina decides to stop being a victim and empowers herself with spirituality, which in turn gives her the strength to fight Ike back and leave him for good. She was determined to have a lucrative career and make it in life without him, which she did. Love should never hurt.
The second movie that I watched is A Beautiful Mind. This movie is about a most brilliant math genius called John Nash. He went to
The third movie I watched was Girl, Interrupted. Here is a girl, eighteen years of age, white and living in the 1960’s. She has a drug problem and is very unhappy. She attempts suicide and agrees to be put in a mental institution. She believes she will only be there for a month or so, but has been committed for a year and a half. Susanna; who wrote this story about herself, is diagnosed as having borderline personality. She has to take medication and live almost like a prisoner at this institution. The other characters are dealing with their own diagnoses and there is lots of ugliness that goes on. Truth is that is what a mental institution deals with on a daily basis. Finally the patients at Claymoore hospital have a great impact on Susanna’s life. She wants to get better and get back on the outside to live a productive life.
In conclusion, I feel redemption is a personal and unique experience to all three major characters. Everyone with a mental illness, addiction or victim of abuse will have to develop his or her own definition of recovery. This person will have to want to reclaim their lives back. They will need hope, and lots of strength. They will need a good support system to stand by them, when in their darkest hour, or when in their happiest. If any of these three people were to stand too proud to admit there was something wrong, the person would not be able to move forward and recover from any illness. These people needed to manage their own self recovery and have some expert help to guide them. Also having spirituality was a major factor for Tina Turner. Having medications for mental illness also helps to manage the symptoms of the illness and lets you continue with your life as in Nash’s and Susanna’s case. The characters needed to accept responsibility and this improved their quality of life. Accept the experiences that they went through helped them become strong and supporters needed to treat them with dignity, compassion and respect. Recovering from any illness is a non-linear process.
By this I mean that you can take one step forward and two steps backward tomorrow. From these movies, no illness can be taken lightly. Which is why positive people around you should be a priority?
Finally I want to say that having a mental illness or addiction or being a victim of abuse will sometimes help you find a greater meaning to life. I am not saying that without it you will not find meaning, just that going through something like these characters did, helped them find who they were. They had to answer some questions like we all do; what is it that drives me? Is it hope? Is it personal responsibility? Do I need to educate myself about my illness or addiction or abuse? Knowledge is power. What are my beliefs? Is there balance in my life? What choices do I have?
I really learned a lot about different issues here. I feel that I was empowered by all these people by learning what happened to them and how they dwelt with their issues and how would I deal with some of these issues if it was me. Back in their day, these characters didn’t deal with these issues quite as openly as we would today. I believe society was not as open to acknowledge that this was happening in their staircase. Today, you can go anywhere and receive help of any kind. No one should judge and talk because life is too short and no one is perfect. Mental Illness, Addictions and victims of Abuse can be anyone. There is no gender, no age, no color, and no class. It can be me and you tomorrow.
