Mental illnesses have been a mainstay of entertainment since the beginning. Even in the 1940s, actors and actresses have found themselves pushing the envelope with movies that delved into mental illness. Specifically, the first movie about Dissociative Identity Disorder, previously called Multiple Personality Disorder until 1994, was filmed in 1945. People are generally fascinated by the unknown, by things that they cannot understand. The brain is one of the biggest aspects of life that will take so many more scientific discoveries to fully understand.
The most recent film to dive headfirst into mental illness and how it can become violent is "Split," a movie by M. Night Shyamalan. The movie begins by following three unsuspecting girls at a birthday party that you know is going to turn out horribly wrong. They are kidnapped by James McAvoy and taken to a room with no windows, a locked door, and a pristine bathroom. Through thoughtless attempts to get out of the room, they discover that there are a few different people working with the man. There is a woman and a young boy tag teaming the kidnapping efforts. It is soon found that James McAvoy's character, Kevin, has more than one personality living inside of him. We meet Dennis, who displays symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, Hedwig, a 9-year-old boy, and Patricia, a middle-aged woman who is stern but takes care of the girls. Through all three personalities, it is realized that a 24th personality is attempting to break free and kill those that are "impure" or have not faced hardships in their life, leaving those that have truly suffered to thrive with their renewed sense of strength.
After the beast reveals itself and kills two of the girls, Casey, the last one alive, fights off the beast and somehow gets her shirt removed in the process. While in a bar and jeans, the beast notices that Casey has scars all over her body, self-inflicted scars, as well as what appear to be cigarette burns. He lets her live, noting that she has overcome hardships and is pure of character. The credits roll right after Casey is picked up by the police and then told that she is being picked up by her uncle, the man we know as her abuser and caused her to have those scars in the first place.
Upon further googling after the movie, it is found that "Split" is meant to be seen as a companion piece to "Unbreakable," a 2000 film starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, with a sequel to arrive in the coming years to star the same actors. The main issue this causes is the predicted fact that James McAvoy's character will yet again play the villain. Though McAvoy played a fantastic role, there are many complaints from people regarding the nature of mental illness in the movie. There have been open letters written to the directors, many mental health organizations calling for its stigmatizing of mental health and other sufferers from dissociative identity disorder to speak out against the film.
Through all movies that discuss mental disorders, of course they have to overcorrect themselves and make the movies inherently hyperbolic; that is entertainment. What isn't correct is when that takes advantage of the people suffering from these mental illnesses. Could James McAvoy just as well played a bipolar character or a person suffering from schizophrenia? Yes. The response would have been the same. Those that suffer from mental illness are quickly becoming marginalized in the media because of how little is understood about those that suffer. My question: is it responsible to have movies out there that depict mental health sufferers in a violent way when every shooting in America is inherently blamed by someone's mental health?
