There have been countless depictions of sociopaths and other predatory personalities in film. Most are pretty bad, incomplete and/or inaccurate. But some have been dead-on.
And so I’ve canvassed my memory for what I regard as several notably excellent portraits of sociopaths in film. I’d be curious what you think of these performances (if you’ve seen them), and eager to discover, through you, new film/television portraits of sociopaths that ring disturbingly true.
In no special order, I’ll start with the original foreign film, The Vanishing, 1986 (not the subsequent and lame Hollywood remake). The Vanishing delivers-up one of the most sinister depictions of a sociopath I’ve ever seen. The fright derives less from graphic violence (there is none) than from the movie’s success at immersing you into the compartmentalized world of its principal character, who is seamlessly managing the presentation of a normal, well-adjusted family man, as he simultaneously and covertly pursues his secret life and morbid agenda.
Next is Unlawful Entry, 1992, a movie starring Ray Liotta as a local cop who smoothly enters the life of a young neighborhood couple (actors Kurt Russell and Anne Archer). Although somewhat formulaic plot-wise, the movie’s performances are impressive. Liotta’s sociopath—glib, charming and seductive—will make the hair on your skin rise. And both Archer and Russell vividly express the tension and alarm arising from their slow awareness that Liotta isn’t who he appeared so convincingly to be.
Richard Gere, in a somewhat unheralded role, nails-down a sociopathic cop in Internal Affairs, 1990. Gere gives a riveting presentation of the sociopathic mentality. Andy Garcia (actor), an Internal Affairs cop in Gere’s department, finds himself in the unenviable position of having to confront the slowly unfolding breadth (and horror) of Gere’s sociopathy. Garcia is also incredible. As in Unlawful Entry, the movie accurately shows how sociopaths can invade, lodge themselves in, and violate innocent, dignified lives.
One of the greatest performances of a sociopath I’ve ever seen can be found in Episode#44 of the former HBO series Six Feet Under. The episode is called, “That’s My Dog.” In it, David (actor Michael C. Hall) extends a random act of help to a road-stranded stranger, Jake (actor Michael Weston). David then finds himself overpowered by Jake, who, in the course of the episode’s hour, manages to embody virtually every relevant, sinister quality for which the sociopath is notorious. Weston’s demonic performance is astonishing. Hall’s as the traumatized victim of a sadistic sociopath is equally amazing.
Great performance, yes. Sociopath? Maybe not.
Dexter
Speaking of actor Michael C. Hall, I wonder what your take is on Dexter, the great Showtime Series in which Hall plays a sociopathic serial killer working, by day, as a Miami crime-scene forensics analyst?
I love this series, which is coming into its third season. But as disturbing a character as Dexter is, I would not characterize him as a sociopath. This is just a fun diagnostic quibble. Ostensibly, Dexter grows up a budding, violent sociopath. His father (or father-figure) recognizes the dark, evil side over which, as a boy and adolescent, Dexter seems to have little, and diminishing, control. The father sees that Dexter is compulsively, inexorably inclined to sadistic violence.
His solution is to somehow train Dexter to direct his sociopathic, homicidal proclivities towards cruel, menacing, destructive individuals. Best, if someone’s got to be snuffed-out by Dexter, it be someone the world will be better without!
And so Dexter becomes skilled, over time, at identifying individuals the world won’t miss; individuals as dangerous and creepy as he.
Why, then, is Dexter not really a sociopath—and indeed, diagnostically speaking, not even necessarily plausible? Because, despite his violent, murderous compulsions, Dexter is, first of all, a fundamentally sincere person. He is also loyal–for instance to his sister and a girlfriend. And while Dexter struggles to “feel” warm feelings, indeed anything—a struggle, incidentally, that he embraces—he knows how to have the backs of others, even where his self-interest may be at risk.
In a word, Dexter strives, against his darkest, most sordid inclinations, for growth. This is precisely what makes him and the series so fascinating, and precisely what rules him out as sociopath.
What do you think?
(This article is copyrighted (c) 2008 by Steve Becker, LCSW.)
I was reading some of the old articles here last night. I fell asleep and had a long dream that would make a great film! Any screenplay writers here? I thought this would be an appropriate thread for it. Please feel free to comment and give your interpretations! Here is the dream:
2/19/11 Dream
This is a story of a young women (20’s maybe) who cannot break free from a very evil sociopath. The man is somewhat older and a cult leader. He lives in a large multi-story house with his other followers. The woman has managed to break free several times but always comes back. The last time, he claimed she owed him money that he spent on her. She managed to get the money ”“ about $5000 ”“ perhaps by begging – and makes one last trip back to repay him so she can break ties. Every time she leaves, she sneaks out the back way down several flights of stairs and through the back yard. He almost always tries to exert some power to bring her back, though he is never around when she makes her exit down the stairs, luckily. She ends up in the yard of the neighbors. They have watched her “land” in their yard many times, almost as if she has toppled down all the stairs. From there she makes her escape. She may possibly have been impregnated several times by this man and had many abortions. We are unsure of her past, but she is very tired and wants to be free of this man. All in all, she has returned and escaped 5 times during the course of the dream, so strong is the brainwashing.
Finally on the 5th escape, she breaks free for good and runs as far as she can until she either falls asleep or is unconscious. She is taken in by a group of people. There are two older women who cart her several miles away in a town that looks like somewhere in Southern California near the ocean. They turn right to get off the main highway, where they are safe. She is still either asleep or unconscious when the women get her close to where their people live, somewhere in the woods. They are looking at her. One woman notices a tiny scar/gash ”“ almost like a pock mark – over the young woman’s right brow. The woman says to the other one, in a frightened voice, “That is the mark of evil.” “There is no way that woman is evil,” says the other. This interchange begs the unthinkable, that perhaps the young woman is the daughter of the evil sociopath and carries some of his genetic code, which as yet is still dormant at such an early age. This is unthinkable because she has perhaps been impregnated many times by this man (we really don’t know).
Cut to some time in the future. The young woman has become a very powerful cult leader in this clan of people who have taken her in. They regard her as their spiritual leader. She has the same power as the evil man she broke away from. In a strange twist of fate, as foreshadowed many years previously, she is, in fact, evil, but only some of her cult followers are aware of this fact. The rest worship her. Some even faint at the sight of her as if she had some sort of healing power. When she is at the peak of her power, in another strange twist of fate, she goes back to the old house where her old tormentor lives, presumably to join forces with him. But she has become more powerful than he, and now it is he who is intimidated by her.
Toward the end of the story, she is being held up in the midst of her people while small knife wounds are made in the sides of her torso. She is being punished by the people of her old tormentor’s cult. The reason is unclear. It may have been revealed in the dream but I have forgotten. At the very end, she returns to her tormentor’s house where she either wants to join forces or to defeat him and take over his position ”“ it is unclear which, but the one thing that is for certain is that he is afraid of her power.
what ya been smokin Star?
haha nothing. I do have very vivid dreams on a nightly basis. But once in a while I dream an epic saga like this one. I’ve occasionally written short stories based on some of my strange dreams. I think this one would make a great horror movie/psychological thriller. I wonder if Stephen King dreams up some of his while he’s sleeping?
I am sure he does – just like willie nelson gets inspiration from weed…That was an epic dream – reminds me of that old tv show ‘dark shadows’ i bet nobody here remembers that..Star do you ever dream but dont think or remember the dream until hours after you have been awake? I did that this morning – all of my old ‘friends’ who hated each other’s guts were having a dinner party – the old friend of mine that was hosting the party – had invited me – I was thinking it was to rekindle our frienship but it was all to have a laugh at me – go figure –
will have to think on that one for a bit.
The many storied building is an organization, not a home.
The man is the creator of that organization and she was once part of it but now is trying to get out. She owes the organization money. So it is an organization that uses money to control its people.
The impregnation symbolizes that a “seed” has been planted in her through the wealthy organization. But in fact it is a seed of evil that she has tried to abort or remove from herself. Her escape are also attempts to remove evil from her life. Why 5 times? I wonder. Why $5000?
When she breaks free and is asleep or unconscious, that is because she is STILL under his spell. The two older women can see that. She has never truly woken up.
With time that evil grows and she becomes as evil as her tormentor and infects those she lives with.
At the end, I wasn’t clear if her new clan was cutting her or if the old clan was doing the cutting. But it appears that whoever was doing the cutting was severing their relationship with her. Each cut was another bond cut out of her life.
Interpretation
I think the organization sybolizes our money worshipping culture/government which keeps us in bondage by making us pay and pay and pay. If we ever do actually escape, we won’t escape the programming that has been instilled in us by the commercial media. In fact we will just infect others that we come in contact with. Then we will damage them too.
Star,
you’ve been thinking about leaving the US (a sociopathic organization) and moving to Costa Rica (a warm southern climate) where the culture is different. Values are different and people are more laid back (according to your perception). But a few thing are keeping you from leaving: money is one, is $5000 what you think you would need to start leaving? 5 times you’ve tried to leave, could that symbolize that you are approaching your 50’s?
Further, you wonder if leaving the US will make your life different or if you will just take your evil programming with you. Will you be able to remove your old way of thinking (constantly worrying about money) or will you just infect everyone you meet. You think perhaps you will have some advantage over the people in costa rica, who are perhaps less educated or sophisticated about money, but you wonder if that isn’t just as evil as the thing you are trying to leave.
Then you think, maybe you should just go back to the US and fix the root of the problem: our sociopathic society. So the woman goes back but she realizes that she has cut off all her relationships and there aren’t any left. There’s no one left to go back to.
How is that?
I don’t do drugs, smoke cigarettes, drink, or even take aspirin, and I haven’t in many years. Some people just have a very vivid dream life. Mine is so vivid that I often feel as if I have a parallel life that takes place at night while I’m sleeping. There are even places and people I visit repeatedly and have ongoing relationships with in my dreams that I have never met or seen in waking life. It’s very odd. Makes me wonder about past lives sometimes. In any event, when I have a dream like this, I think I either need to start writing screen plays OR be careful what I read before I go to sleep! lol
Hens, I’m sorry your so-called friends laughed at you. Doesn’t sound like they are real friends. I can’t imagine what there is to laugh at or why.
Because they’re bad or on the other hand envious.
Good people don’t do those low-life things.
Skylar,
Fascinating interpretation (thanks!) and something to think about. Some of the imagery came from a story I read here about a sociopath that accused this ex of owing him money he spent on her during the course of their relationship, even though he’d lied and exploited her all along. In the dream, the woman knew she didn’t really owe this guy anything, but she was hoping that by giving him the money, it would throw him off guard and remove the last thing he held over her head. She was hoping this would break the final tie, which it did not; he still tried to control her.
The fact that she was able to raise a large sum of money by begging (I think) reminds me of how I’m trying to raise money to pay for my next Costa Rica trip in May (which I already booked – it’s a herping trip!). I have recently started teaching private dance lessons and already have a few new students. It’s the easiest money I’ve ever made. Also, one of my internet reptile friends gifted me the money for 1/3 of the trip. So the money is coming easily for this trip. I think it’s meant to be.
The rest of it just reminded me of a of a fairy tale (young woman falling asleep after a long hard journey and waking up in the forest with these nice people). There seems to be some sort of archetypal element in it. The fact that the woman was able to finally break away from a sociopathic patriarchal organization and find her strength in a more female-dominated society also has some archetypal elements to it, as well.
The fact that she turned out to be evil at the end (you don’t really know till the end) is kind of like a Stephen King-esque twist in the plot. As I have 4 planets in Scorpio (though not my sun sign), I have a very sinister and dark aspect to my thinking. It’s almost as if my mind is thinking…..what could be the darkest, sickest, twist in this plot? What is the weirdest, most ironic thing that could happen now? My humor tends to be like this, too.
It’s really amazing to see this type of stuff coming out of my psyche. And thanks for not interpreting it as ME myself being an evil person.
Star Maybe you have been reading too many horror stories on LF?
Star,
We all have some narcissism, that doesn’t make us evil, it’s really ingrained in our culture.
Our culture really worships narcissists and we’ve been programmed that way by the tv PROGRAMS that we watched as kids.
(Calling them PROGRAMS is a sociopathic “tell” so they can laugh at us as we willingly submit for our nightly programming sessions)
I’ve read in your posts that you found Costa Rican women don’t worry about their looks as much as we do. So perhaps you see them as less narcissistic and less “evil” than us. (using the word “evil” very loosely here)