Raving lunatic

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There's no such thing as entirely "normal" behavior these days. The world of 2006 is ten times loonier than, say the world of 1956. Egoistic oddballs, twitchy eccentrics, depressives, Courtney Love, people with hair-trigger tempers and substance-abuse problems. I can honestly claim to know at least two women who would stand a good chance of being rounded up and thrown into Bedlam if they were suddenly time-tripped back to Charles Dickens' London.

In such an environment, an escapee from a local mental hospital wouldn't seem all that curious, much less threatening. Unless he was homidical and foaming at the mouth, he'd be seen as just one more nutter with ongoing issues. And so the idea of making a movie about a couple of characters trying to identify which person "among several plausible candidates" is the true escapee from a nearby mental hospital doesn't exactly light the room on fire. Not by today's standards. Even if you do the movie in "period."

comment #1

D.Z. says ...

So killing a black boy because he whistles at a white girl is not "loony" in your eyes?

comment #2

Earl Hofert says ...

Good to see that none of the men that you know fall under the classification of "egoistic odd-balls, twitchy eccentrics, depressives . . . people with hair-triggers."

Look--an overweight person praising Sofia Coppola! Attack!

comment #3

MAGGA says ...

Sounds great! In response to your concerns,

1) I think if you live outside L.A you will find more "normal" people and

2) If finding the psycho is a problem in this film, it actually proves your point. Dark comedy would be a good genre for this, I think

comment #4

nemo says ...

Leaving out the Courtney Love part:

"Egoistic odd-balls, twitchy eccentrics, depressives, . . . people with hair-trigger tempers and substance-abuse problems."

Aren't you describing our beloved President of the United States?

And if you drop the substance-abuse part, possibly his Vice-President and Secretary of Defense?

comment #5

jeffmcm says ...

Modern times are no more crazy than the past...there's just more press coverage now than ever, and fewer things are swept under our collective rug.

comment #6

Gabriel says ...

I thought the same thing as MAGGA. This film could make the exact same point as this post.

comment #7

Rich S. says ...

I'm more interested in how they're going to do "the reveal." Will they do it like What's My Line? They tell the escapee to come forward and then he eats dog crap or stabs someone or flings semen at Clarice Starling.

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