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Mental Major 
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TITLE |
Chattahoochee (1990) |
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DISABILITY |
Mental
Combat stress |
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NOTES |
Combat
stress (after war in Korea) leads to a mental |
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breakdown
(and recovery) for Oldman who later campaigns to reform awful
conditions in hospital. |
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Oldman plays
a war veteran who loses control and in a bid to |
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attract
attention and what is now called "suicide by police" |
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starts
firing at his neighbourhood (at houses not people). The |
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police are
too incompetent to hit him even though he stands in an open
window. In despair he tries to shoot himself and fails, at least
fatally. He is committed to a mental hospital. |
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There the
action really begins. Because at Chattahoochee |
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State Mental
Hospital neglect and abuse run riot. The sense |
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of 'madness'
is laid on with a trowel. |
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The first
person to speak to him is speaking impaired. And |
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some of the
'inmates' appear to have physical as well as |
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mental
disabilities. What we see is no treatment just prison |
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His wife
gets pregnant after he's been inside for 3 years. He |
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grows a
beard and studiously makes a record of every |
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brutality.
He studies law and finds a legal 'fix' by which if they |
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don't treat
us they can't hold us . But the prison board rejects |
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his case.
His sister does everything she can to help him and |
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his wife
drops out of the scene. |
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In an
attempt to silence him he's given electric shock |
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treatment
but when we feel he's reached the bottom of |
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despair he
comes back fighting and becomes a crusader for |
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There are
some very good actors in this film but it fails despite them to get
inside the characters and the story meanders. |
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This is also
another story of abuse which happened over 30 |
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years ago.
Nevertheless this is a film well worth watching. |
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Notes
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