Jeremy F Kreuz
Dagobah Resident
I recently saw the movie O and found it interesting as it depicts the behavior of a young psychopath.
The story is set in an elite American high school for rich kids somewhere in the Carolinas. The dynamics revolve around a few players of the basketball team of the school: the Hawks. The main character opens the movie with a voice over where he admits he always want to fly like a hawk, above other people. He is the son of the coach of the basketball team. We then get introduced to the other main characters: an African American, an poor oddity in the school but kept there for his star talents on the basketball court. He is deeply in love with the daughter of the dean and it turns out they have a true love relation going on. There is the second best player and also best friend of the daughter. There is the roommate of the daughter of the dean and the richest kid of the school who wants the daughter of the dean and cannot accept she is in love with an African American. All those characters are around 17 – 18. A minor role is by played by the coach: a shouting impulsive and aggressive man who admires his star player and treats his son as piece of trash for not playing the perfect basketball.
The psychopath (main character) gets to work by promising the rich but weak guy that he will arrange that the daughter of the dean will become his. What follows is a plot where the psychopath uses each of the characters weaknesses to manipulate them against each other. In this way he creates increasing conflict, distrust and hatred. It is ponerization in action. He advices all of them what to do, what to say, what to do not and pretends to each to be their best friend, intimate adviser and emotional counselor. He sneaks around and pushes the buttons. He uses the weak guys privilege of the rich, uses the sexual desires of the roommate, seeds doubt and jealousy in the head of the star player around the love of his girlfriend, uses the desire for honesty and respect of the daughter the dean, manipulates the racial hatred of the second best player to drive a spike between him and the star player and uses the admiration of his father for his star player to play him like a mouse. All the characters around him are used as pieces on a chessboard, with no remorse or empathy whatsoever. Move after move he makes everybody suspicious, jealous, hateful and spiteful. Until it all ends in bloody murder. When he is about to be unmasked, cornered, he kills the one that could testify against him.
The viewer is left guessing why this guy is doing this. As the champion title is within the grasp of the team I started suspecting that he might want to ruin the team dynamics and making sure his father misses the title: a sort of passive aggressive revenge for the way his father treats him. It turns out that this is not the motive and drive at all of the psychopath. It turns out that there is not really a motive, which makes this movie so much stronger and accurate. The young psychopath does what he does because he can do so and because he likes to play games and dreams of being a hawk, flying above all others, with no justification or accountability for his acts. It is his desire, so it is his right. In the end four people are dead because he claimed the right to manipulate people and do what he wanted to do. Only in few short shots there is glimpse of recognition for what his actions provoke (it is Hollywood after all). At the end he is lead away by the police for questioning and the viewer might suspect he might be held responsible for the whole drama. Knowing his character he will probably talk his way out.
The movie never mentions the word psychopath and I wonder how much the makers were aware how accurate they were depicting a psychopath. There is a reference to Shakespeare so I think they wanted to make a Shakespearian drama set in modern day America. There is no gore nor horror, it is all very simple and serene, based on the strength of the characters and the actors who play them. In this way the makers succeeded in presenting for those with knowledge about psychopathy a very good example of how a young psychopath operates. For this the movie is worth viewing.
The story is set in an elite American high school for rich kids somewhere in the Carolinas. The dynamics revolve around a few players of the basketball team of the school: the Hawks. The main character opens the movie with a voice over where he admits he always want to fly like a hawk, above other people. He is the son of the coach of the basketball team. We then get introduced to the other main characters: an African American, an poor oddity in the school but kept there for his star talents on the basketball court. He is deeply in love with the daughter of the dean and it turns out they have a true love relation going on. There is the second best player and also best friend of the daughter. There is the roommate of the daughter of the dean and the richest kid of the school who wants the daughter of the dean and cannot accept she is in love with an African American. All those characters are around 17 – 18. A minor role is by played by the coach: a shouting impulsive and aggressive man who admires his star player and treats his son as piece of trash for not playing the perfect basketball.
The psychopath (main character) gets to work by promising the rich but weak guy that he will arrange that the daughter of the dean will become his. What follows is a plot where the psychopath uses each of the characters weaknesses to manipulate them against each other. In this way he creates increasing conflict, distrust and hatred. It is ponerization in action. He advices all of them what to do, what to say, what to do not and pretends to each to be their best friend, intimate adviser and emotional counselor. He sneaks around and pushes the buttons. He uses the weak guys privilege of the rich, uses the sexual desires of the roommate, seeds doubt and jealousy in the head of the star player around the love of his girlfriend, uses the desire for honesty and respect of the daughter the dean, manipulates the racial hatred of the second best player to drive a spike between him and the star player and uses the admiration of his father for his star player to play him like a mouse. All the characters around him are used as pieces on a chessboard, with no remorse or empathy whatsoever. Move after move he makes everybody suspicious, jealous, hateful and spiteful. Until it all ends in bloody murder. When he is about to be unmasked, cornered, he kills the one that could testify against him.
The viewer is left guessing why this guy is doing this. As the champion title is within the grasp of the team I started suspecting that he might want to ruin the team dynamics and making sure his father misses the title: a sort of passive aggressive revenge for the way his father treats him. It turns out that this is not the motive and drive at all of the psychopath. It turns out that there is not really a motive, which makes this movie so much stronger and accurate. The young psychopath does what he does because he can do so and because he likes to play games and dreams of being a hawk, flying above all others, with no justification or accountability for his acts. It is his desire, so it is his right. In the end four people are dead because he claimed the right to manipulate people and do what he wanted to do. Only in few short shots there is glimpse of recognition for what his actions provoke (it is Hollywood after all). At the end he is lead away by the police for questioning and the viewer might suspect he might be held responsible for the whole drama. Knowing his character he will probably talk his way out.
The movie never mentions the word psychopath and I wonder how much the makers were aware how accurate they were depicting a psychopath. There is a reference to Shakespeare so I think they wanted to make a Shakespearian drama set in modern day America. There is no gore nor horror, it is all very simple and serene, based on the strength of the characters and the actors who play them. In this way the makers succeeded in presenting for those with knowledge about psychopathy a very good example of how a young psychopath operates. For this the movie is worth viewing.
