Spoiler alert.
Di Capprio's character faked his final madness in order to have a lobomoty and so 'die a good man', rather than 'live like a monster', as he said, knowing his past. It's a very good and subtle ending.
This alludes also perhaps to how many schizophrenic patients commit suicide (around 10%), they cant live with either themselves, or their madness, in many cases.
I agree with what you're saying but the thing is that Teddy was not schizophrenic. According to Leo, he did research with a psychiatrist for the role and they narrowed it down to Teddy having Dissociative Identity Disorder (or Multiple Personality Disorder). DID is a condition where people who have normally suffered a great tragedy in their lives tends to have one or more personalities that takes over without the person's permission as a way of escaping the pain. Hallucinations and Migraine's are all symptoms of this condition which Teddy had as well as not remember any of the events that happened because they are a different person in the same body.
shareI wasn't aware migraines are a symptom of DID. The book seems to imply his migraines were being brought on by withdrawal from the antipsychotic drugs he was taking.
Also, my understanding is that DID originates in childhood--it's commonly a reaction to child abuse--though it can be reawakened by adult trauma.
In any case, there's no question that he suffers from suicidal depression; Dr. Cawley actually mentions it in the book.
I wasn't aware migraines are a symptom of DID. The book seems to imply his migraines were being brought on by withdrawal from the antipsychotic drugs he was taking.
fair enough
shareHe reverted into another personality because he couldn't live with the fact he had killed his wife after she intentionally drown their kids
shareNo, IMHO the OP is correct. He didn't revert. He pretended to revert so that he would have a labotomy. He couldn't stand living with the memory of what he'd done, so he decided to act like he had reverted.
SpiltPersonality
I agree that he didn't revert.
It's possible he faked it out of guilt, as you say. Also possible it was out of fear he would revert, so he wanted to take control of his fate as a "good man" would do.
Regardless, it was a poignant ending.
I can see your view there, but I like to think of him being repentant.
SpiltPersonality
Why would he say that last sentence about being a monster and dying a good man then?
shareBecause he still considers himself a ‘monster’ for his past deeds. In order to be repentant he must take accountability.
He holds himself accountable but the guilt is so extreme he cannot live with it, so he chooses lobotomy.
Just watched it tonight and that's whatI got: like a pennance.
shareNo, you apparently didn't understand. He reverted into another personality and that's why he was in the hospital. In the end he finally remembered, but pretended he didn't.
shareI thought this was pretty obvious. He wanted to have the lobotomy at the end. I can't imagine that many people actually missed this, at least not those that actually enjoyed the film and were actually paying attention.
Still Shooting With Film!
Lobotomy does not remove memory, it mess up your personality. There were many more successful lobotomies than unseccessful ones and the patient did not lose memory
shareI don't think anyone could have unless they weren't paying attention to the movie up until that point. It's a really powerful line.
shareIt doesn't matter what we, in the real life know (or don't know) about lobotomy, present day. The doctor explicitly says in the movie that lobotomy does free the patient from their memories. They even argue about that with Teddy.
shareThe doctor explicitly says in the movie that lobotomy does free the patient from their memories. They even argue about that with Teddy.
Sorry, it's only the imaginary doctor in the cave. Nevertheless, it means that Andrew's knowledge about lobotomy is that it erases memories (even though he argues it).
Here's the quote from 1:25:
- You ever heard of a transorbital lobotomy? They zap the patient with electroshock, then go through the eye with an ice pick, pull out some nerve fibers. Makes the patients much more obedient. Tractable. It's barbaric, unconscionable. Do you know how pain enters the body, Marshal? Do you?share
- Depends on where you're hurt?
- No, it has nothing to do with the flesh. The brain controls pain. The brain controls fear, empathy, sleep, hunger, anger. Everything. What if you could control it?
- You mean the brain?
- Recreate a man so he doesn't feel pain or love or sympathy. A man who can't be interrogated, because he has no memories to confess.
- You can never take away all a man's memories. Never.
- Marshal, the North Koreans used American POWs during their brainwashing experiments. They turned soldiers into traitors. That's what they're doing here. They're creating ghosts to go out in the world and do things sane men... Sane men never would.
Right, but you left off the preceding dialogue about her concern over the use of psychotropic drugs. So Andrew, through his hallucination of Cave Rachel, was attributing all of the procedures the docs were legitimately using -- drugs, lobotomies, etc - into methods of brainwashing that he delusionally thought "they're doing here."
But I see your point that is where Andrew foreshadows his decision to erase his memories of being a monster.
There are no lobotomies...that's just part of his fantasy. Ben Kingsley's character tells him he has to accept what he did and remember his true self or Max Von Sydow's character and the warden will give him "a more permanent solution", which I assumed was death. And in the end, I believe he fakes reverting back to Teddy so he can die a "good man" instead of spending the rest of his life there, on drugs, as a "monster".
shareThere are no lobotomies...that's just part of his fantasy.
... and the warden will give him "a more permanent solution", which I assumed was death.
That last line is so interesting, as it immediately provokes thought and doubt, as it did to Dr. Sheehan sitting next to him.
On second thought though, there is no reason for him to fake it. The only way for him to "die a good man" is to fully believe he is not Andrew Laeddis. This means he could not tell Dr. Sheehan a lucid thought while also truly believing his alternate reality.
A very strange scene because he does appear very lucid with the look he gives both Sheehan and Cowley. If he is indeed lucid then he knows what he's done and will not die believing he's a good man. Unless he can somehow throw a switch in his mind between realities, then this is simply a movie trick for the audience.
I imagine the book offers a more stable ending, but either way I'm happy :)
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"You just stroke it all day. You're a hero!"
He is cured but he pretends not to be so that he will ‘die a good man’ (i.e. get lobotomised)
shareIt was merely suicide-by-doc on Andrew's part; [and, it was murder/manslaughter/medical malpractice on Sheehan and Crowley's part.]
share