Film Paper
Students will be required to watch a film of their choice, from the following listed options:
Memento ? Memory impairments
A Beautiful Mind ? Schizophrenia
The Aviator ? Obsessive compulsive disorder
watch the film with a critical eye to some of the psychological issues being portrayed, so do look in the syllabus and read the text for coverage of
issues in the film.
Then, for the Paper, answer the following questions with two to three paragraphs for each point:
1) Using material from the text (or internet resources), describe your understanding of the disorder portrayed in the film. [This asks you to describe what someone
with this disorder might really look like.]
2) How is this person?s disorder portrayed in the film? How accurate is the portrayal? Are there specific parts that were just ?too Hollywood? for your tastes? Did the
film-makers do an especially good job on anything in particular?
3) Does the film come to some resolution of the disorder? [Does the character with the disorder seem more functional by the end of the film? Do they have support and
what difference does that make?]
4) Finally, state your opinion as to how successfully the film presented and addressed the psychological issues.
