Hyperlink Cinema

The term sounds very “internet” but actually hyperlink movies do not have any real hyperlinks in them. ‘Hyperlink cinema’ was coined by Alissa Quart in her review of the movie Happy Endings and also used by Roger Ebert in his review of the movie Syriana. Although it isn’t strictly defined, one of the common elements of hyperlink movies are the presence of multiple storylines within one movie that either intertwine with each other, or have a common theme. The presence of multiple stories and plots evokes a feel of multi-tasking for the movie viewer and if done successfully, delivers the movie’s message or theme very effectively.

Wikipedia lists some movies that fall within the definition of hyperlink cinema. I have a couple of favorites myself (see below). In all of the following films, multiple storylines intertwine to tell the grand arc or theme.

A successful hyperlink film manages to evoke the central theme in much the same way critical thinking can interrelate multiple evidence (qualitative in this respect) to support a central argument. This is not to say that filmmaking or hyperlink cinema is strictly meant to be a logical argument or within the bounds of evidence per se–as standards of creativity can vary from person to person (and from viewer to viewer). What I personally find compelling about hyperlink films is that the usage of multiple character plotlines for the film’s grand exposition is akin to the critical thinking process of finding analogs or parallels between multiple concepts or abstracts.

Other than that, I also enjoy watching movies in general anyway.

Magnolia (1999) - Paul Thomas Anderson, Director

Traffic (2000) - Steven Soderbergh, Director

Pulp Fiction (1994) - Quentin Tarantino, Director

Crash (2004) -- Paul Haggis, Director

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Alfred Hitchcock — Critical Filmmaker

Cultural icon, film director, film producer, and master of the suspense genre, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, and his thoughts on:

Acting

When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?, ‘ I say, ‘Your salary.’

I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle.

Disney has the best casting. If he doesn’t like an actor he just tears him up.

Murder

In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.

Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, performed with tenderness in simple, homey places like the kitchen table.

Someone once told me that every minute a murder occurs, so I don’t want to waste your time, I know you want to go back to work.

Antagonists

The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.

Time

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

Bagpipes

These are bagpipes. I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.

Winning

There is nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever.

Television

Television has brought back murder into the home – where it belongs.

Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.

Television is like the American toaster, you push the button and the same thing pops up everytime.

Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing. It didn’t change people’s habits. It just kept them inside the house.

Seeing a murder on television can help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.

Managing Fear

The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them.

Books

The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book – it makes a very poor doorstop.

Suspense

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.

Victims

Blondes make the best victims. They’re like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.

Fears

I am scared easily, here is a list of my adrenaline – production: 1: small children, 2: policemen, 3: high places, 4: that my next movie will not be as good as the last one.

Fortune

Luck is everything… My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I’m fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn’t make a good suspense film.

Film Direction

In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director.

Film Sound

Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.

If it’s a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.

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Watchmen And Personality Disorders

Following a similar pop-psych analysis of Batman and his foes, here are Alan Moore’s Watchmen, and their personality disorders. Check it out and pitch in your differential diagnoses:

Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias

Adrian draws inspiration from Alexander the Great and the Egyptian Pharoah Ozymandias. Referred to as the “smartest man in the world,” Adrian generally looks down at humanity, and sees them as expendable in light of his plans. Under the DSM IV, his behaviour qualifies him under Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy.”

Dan, I’m not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I’d explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.

Daniel Dreiberg/Nite Owl II

Daniel is disillusioned by the life of a superhero, and considers himself helpless and impotent against the changes in history. Dan can be considered as suffering from Avoidant or Anxious Personality Disorder, characterized as “a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation and avoidance of social interaction”.

Y’know, this must be how ordinary people feel. This must be how ordinary people feel around us.

Edward Blake/The Comedian

Edward Blake is described as a ruthless, cynical, and nihilistic person, but capable of deeper insights into the role of a costumed super-hero. In 1940, he even attempted to rape his co-hero Silk Spectre in a fit of lust. The Comedian could be suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorder, or a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. Those with this disorder are referred to as sociopaths and psychopaths.

Once you realize what a joke everything is, being the Comedian is the only thing that makes sense.

Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan

When Jon Osterman was caught in a freak accident, he was transformed into a godly being who slowly lost interest in human emotions and affairs. He views the universe from a quantum level, and time as simultaneous possibilities rather than linear events–all of which alienates him from people around him. If Jon was still human, he would be considered as a candidate for Schizoid Personality Disorder or a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, and emotional coldness.

A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles. Structurally, there’s no discernible difference. Life and death are unquantifiable abstracts. Why should I be concerned?

Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre II

Laurie is the daughter of the original Silk Spectre, and estranged lover to Dr. Manhattan. After being alienated from Jon Osterman, she starts a romance with Dan Dreiberg to catch the attention she craves for. Although her case is not as extreme as the other Watchmen, she could be suffering from Histrionic Personality tendencies, or an excessive pattern of emotionality and attention-seeking behavior. These individuals are lively, dramatic, enthusiastic, and flirtatious. They may be inappropriately sexually provocative, express strong emotions with an impressionistic style, and be easily influenced by others.

What else have you got in there? Chocolate rations? Boy Scout knife? Army-issue contraceptives?

Walter Kovacs/Rorschach

Walter Kovacs sees existence as random and the world as immoral. He takes it upon himself to impose his idea of good on the world around him and pursues this mission with relentless passion. Due to extreme traumas in childhood, Kovacs might have developed Paranoid Personality Disorder. Those with paranoid personality disorder are hypersensitive, are easily slighted, and habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of the environment for clues or suggestions to validate their prejudicial ideas or biases. They tend to be guarded and suspicious and have quite constricted emotional lives. Their incapacity for meaningful emotional involvement and the general pattern of isolated withdrawal often lend a quality of schizoid isolation to their life experience.

Why does one death matter against so many? Because there is good and there is evil, and evil must be punished. Even in the face of Armageddon I shall not compromise in this.

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Not A 9-11 Inside Story

Just a dose of morbid humor from the opening sequence from the movie: Postal. Two Islamic terrorists on their way to fulfill their martyrdom suddenly get a dose of empiricism.

Critical thinking gets them in the end.

Thanks to Unreasonable Faith for sharing this.

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Batman and Personality Disorders

For me, the fictional comic-book, cartoon, and movie character Batman and his enemies are not just entertaining fantasy trips for the kid inside all of us, but are practically the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in comic book form.

I’ve featured the list of personality disorders on the blog before and I thought it might be a fun idea to categorize some of the prominent members of the Batman cast in terms of the personality disorders they exhibit. What follows isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list, and readers are free to pitch in their own ideas (you can refer to the previous link on this paragraph or the DSM link above for help).

Let’s start with the lead character: Batman and his day alter-ego: Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne has a notoriety in Gotham of the inability to hold a long relationship–primarily due to his very unique occupation and odd lifestyle. This solitary but double life and its implications suggests that Bruce Wayne has Schizoid Personality tendencies, even Schizotypal tendencies.

Batman’s greatest foe: The Joker, if not outright psychotic, definitely has Antisocial Personality Disorder.  Heath Ledger’s recent portrayal of the villain puts emphasizes ‘anarchy’ as his guiding philosophy. In an earlier potrayal, Jack Nicholson brings this out with dramatic flair. The Joker’s instability of behaviour has kept him ahead of Batman’s attempts to predict his patterns.

Catwoman, especially in the Tim Burton movie, is a woman of many moods and traumas. She is a dead ringer for Borderline Personality Disorder. Her alter-ego: Selina Kyle is typical of the impulsivity characterized by borderline personalities, and like Bruce Wayne, is unable to hold stable relationships.

Harvey Dent Two-Face is obviously a candidate for Multiple Personality Disorder or Dissociative Personality Disorder. His preoccupation with coin-flipping is also indicative of Obsessive Compulsive Personality. 

The Scarecrow, who is a psychiatrist himself, is a student of fear and phobia techniques. Highly intellectual and generally condescending, he has trademarks of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. 

Mr. Freeze, who is in a long-time search for a cure for his wife’s malady, is an emotionless machine. Like Batman he exhibits Schizoid Personality tendencies and also Obsessive Compulsive tendencies especially regarding his wife’s treatment.

Mr. Edward Nygma: The Riddler, and his constant insistence on clues, makes him a candidate for both Obsessive Compulsive and Dependent Personality Disorder. 

The Penguin constantly compensates for his short stance and horrible appearance with an active sense of panache. He is constantly seeking attention to his small self, exhibiting Histrionic Personality tendencies  as well as Narcissistic tendencies. 

Poison Ivy’s fanatical obsession with plant life and murderous impulses speak of Paranoid Personality tendencies. 

Do you agree with these assessments? Pitch in your differential diagnosis on these and more Batman characters.

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The Women Of James Bond

The Bond Girl is a quintessential and idealized picture of femininity, and this picture has changed over the years with every new 007 movie.

Bond Girls Are Forever is an interesting documentary about the various leading ladies, both damsels and villainesses that have joined our favorite secret agent, and the changing image of women they have portrayed over time.

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