Moral Deliberations in Modern Cinema

Moral Deliberations in Modern
Cinema

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Title: Moral Deliberations in Modern Cinema
Author: Sam Vaknin
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Copyright (C) 2002 by Lidija Rangelovska. [This file was first posted
on July 9, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: Latin1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MORAL
DELIBERATIONS IN MODERN CINEMA ***

Copyright (C) 2002 by Lidija Rangelovska.

Moral Deliberations in Modern Cinema

1sst EDITION

Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

Editing and Design:
Lidija Rangelovska

Lidija Rangelovska
A Narcissus Publications Imprint, Skopje 2003
Not for Sale! Non-commercial edition.

© 2002 Copyright Lidija Rangelovska.
All rights reserved. This book, or any part thereof, may not be used or
reproduced in any manner without written permission from:
Lidija Rangelovska - write to:
[email protected] or to
[email protected]

Visit the Author Archive of Dr. Sam Vaknin in "Central Europe

Review":
http://www.ce-review.org/authorarchives/vaknin_archive/vaknin_main.
htm l
Visit Sam Vaknin's United Press International (UPI) Article Archive
-Click HERE!
Philosophical Musings and Essays
http://samvak.tripod.com/culture.html
Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited
http://samvak.tripod.com/

Created by: LIDIJA RANGELOVSKA
REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
C O N T E N T S

I. The Talented Mr. Ripley
II. The Truman Show
III. The Matrix
IV. Shattered
V. Titanic
VI. Being John Malkovich
VII. Dreamcatcher - The Myth of Destructibility
VIII. The Author
IX. About "After the Rain"
The Talented Mr. Ripley
By: Sam Vaknin
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" is an Hitchcockian and blood-curdling study
of the psychopath and his victims. At the centre of this masterpiece, set
in the exquisitely decadent scapes of Italy, is a titanic encounter
between Ripley, the aforementioned psychopath protagonist and young
Greenleaf, a consummate narcissist.
Ripley is a cartoonishly poor young adult whose overriding desire is to
belong to a higher - or at least, richer - social class. While he waits
upon the subjects of his not so hidden desires, he receives an offer he
cannot refuse: to travel to Italy to retrieve the spoiled and hedonistic
son of a shipbuilding magnate, Greenleaf Senior. He embarks upon a
study of Junior's biography, personality, likes and hobbies. In a

chillingly detailed process, he actually assumes Greenleaf's identity.
Disembarking from a luxurious Cunard liner in his destination, Italy, he
"confesses" to a gullible textile-heiress that he is the young Greenleaf,
travelling incognito.
Thus, we are subtly introduced to the two over-riding themes of the
antisocial personality disorder (still labelled by many professional
authorities "psychopathy" and "sociopathy"): an overwhelming
dysphoria and an even more overweening drive to assuage this angst by
belonging. The psychopath is an unhappy person. He is besieged by
recurrent depression bouts, hypochondria and an overpowering sense of
alienation and drift. He is bored with his own life and is permeated by a
seething and explosive envy of the lucky, the mighty, the clever, the
have it alls, the know it alls, the handsome, the happy - in short: his
opposites. He feels discriminated against and dealt a poor hand in the
great poker game called life. He is driven obsessively to right these
perceived wrongs and feels entirely justified in adopting whatever
means he deems necessary in pursuing this goal.
Ripley's reality test is maintained throughout the film. In other words -
while he gradually merges with the object of his admiring emulation,
the young Greenleaf - Ripley can always tell the difference. After he
kills Greenleaf in self-defense, he assumes his name, wears his clothes,
cashes his checks and makes phone calls from his rooms. But he also
murders - or tries to murder - those who suspect the truth. These acts of
lethal self-preservation prove conclusively that he knows who he is and
that he fully realizes that his acts are parlously illegal.