The Screen Addict | Splintered
After binging Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan (2021) on Netflix, I decided to give the similarly-themed Richard Gere - Edward Norton classic Primal Fear (1996) another whirl.
Much like The Usual Suspects (1995) and The Sixth Sense (1999), this Legal Thriller is most effective on first viewing because of the awesome twist ending. But as I’ve stated many times in earlier posts – some films are strong enough to stand the test of time and multiple viewings.
I have claimed before that I believe The Nineties to be the best decade for film ever, and PF is testament to that statement. It is often overshadowed by fan favorites like The Matrix (1999) and Fight Club (1999), but the film that held Edward Norton’s stunning feature-debut deserves to be talked about just as much. For me, Norton’s revealing slow-clap is right up there with Verbal Kint’s disappearing limp, Malcolm Crowe’s wedding ring, and Tyler Durden’s takeover.
As it was produced during The Nineties, PF is not as frenetically shot and cut as contemporary Crime-content. The film quietly takes its time for exposition and fleshing out characters. It might therefore not immediately appeal to a generation raised on Breaking Bad and House of Cards, but man… There is so much to love here.
Gere and Norton playing off each other is like watching a beautiful dance routine – not to mention the supporting cast that is bursting at the seams with talent. Frances McDormand was having a truly stellar year with this film and Fargo (1996) releasing back-to-back, and additional pitch-perfect performances are delivered by Laura Linney, Steven Bauer and the late, great Andre Braugher, to name but a few.
Although I can’t find any mention of it, I can imagine that William Diehl – the author of the novel Primal Fear on which the film is based – was inspired by the Billy Milligan case. The central point raised in the Netflix documentary – and the twist in Primal Fear – is that the legitimacy of a multiple-personality disorder is difficult to prove. How can we ever really be sure that it is not an elaborate smokescreen created by an evil genius to deflect culpability?
In any event, Hollywood is quite fond of the subject. Norton himself for example, revisited the condition with an outrageous, sociopolitical angle in the aforementioned FC. Come to think of it, one could argue that Norton’s characters in The Score (2001) and The Incredible Hulk (2008) are also products of a splintered mind, to varying extent.
Another imaginative incarnation – and obvious Billy Milligan inspiration – can be found in M. Night Shyamalan’s Split (2016). In this particular case, there is no question about the veracity of the disorder – James McAvoy’s character is pretty much certifiably insane. Shyamalan’s approach to the condition however, is the supernatural angle. The writer-director reinvents multiple-personality disorder as the supervillain’s trump card.
The splintered mind is of course an integral part of the mythology surrounding superheroes and their nemeses. Most of them hide their other identity (or identities) until provoked, where others – like Batman villain Harvey “Two-Face” Dent – quite literally display a split personality.
Judging by the sheer number of papers written on the subject by me and my fellow students in film school, the split personality is obviously fertile ground for Hollywood’s content creators. Expect films, documentaries and series that touch on the theme for many years to come.
But then again, from a business that has many schizophrenic tendencies itself, this shouldn’t come as a complete surprise…
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Twitter (X): Robin Logjes | The Screen Addict