"Abracadabra, I sit on his knee. Presto, change-o, and now he's me! Hocus Pocus, we take her to bed. Magic is fun...we're dead." --The tagline to "Magic"
Schizophrenia is still a very controversial mental-illness, and many psychiatrists have argued that it doesn't even exist. But what we do know is that the mind can fragment into quasi-independent parts that can behave like personalities, or aspects of personalities. In many-cases, the neuropathology of schizophrenia is unknown, and has only been studied for some 100 years! Right-now, the science tends toward heredity being a primary-cause, but not everyone agrees. Enter the movies: While psychological-horror is nothing-new to cinema, this 1978 film by Sir Richard Attenborough (A Bridge Too Far, Gandhi) is very-very special, and offers some interesting speculations.Originally a best-selling novel by William Goldman (who also wrote the screenplay), this is also the "big-break" of Anthony Hopkins. It was the moment the public really took-note of this 40-year-old actor. Other than "The Bounty" (1984) this has to be his best film-performance, where he even had to learn to articulate a ventriloquist's-dummy and throw-his-voice.
Hopkins plays Corky, an amateur magician who is too shy to charm an audience, and he bombs at his first-performance. In the opening-prologue with his dying mentor Merlin, we find-out Corky had become-enraged and cursed-out the bored-crowd. Cut to two-years-later, and Corky is selling-out the same nightclub with a residency and lines around-the-block. He's a hit! Something happened over those two-years, and Corky's addition of a foul-mouthed ventriloquist's-dummy named "Fats" has made his act wildly-popular--he's funny and profane, spouting dirty-jokes and insults. Fats acts and looks like a distorted-version of Corky, maybe even his shadow-self. But, was it "Fats" who chewed-out the audience two-years-ago? Goldman and Attenborough let us decide, and it's this enigmatic-style that makes "Magic" so interesting and chilling. Jerry Goldsmith's eerie-score doesn't hurt either, it's reminiscent of Bernard Hermann.
Sure, we know that Fats isn't really alive, but an extension of Corky, but there are a few moments where he moves without help! It is as if the disease has externalized-itself, taking-over the protagonist. There is a light-touch of ambivalence as to whether Fats is more-than just a part of Corky's psychosis, but this is soon upended by too-many objective-views of his behaviors without Fats. Fats only moves a few-times without Corky, and sometimes Corky sounds like Fats when he gets angry. One almost gets a disembodied-sense watching this, a little taste of madness. And so, with his fame comes a fear of exposure of his illness. His show-business agent wants him to take a physical for a network television-appearance, and Corky refuses, escaping to his hometown in the Catskills. He seems to know instinctively that he is mentally-ill, and Fats the dummy even reminds him that ..."we're special". A schizophrenic fear of persecution becomes obvious. Fats wants to return to Manhattan to fame-and-fortune, but Corky doesn't. The pressure builds as the two-personalities fight, and Fats becomes jealous of a childhood love named Peggy. Peggy runs the cabin Corky and Fats are hiding-out in.
There is something so creepy about Fats, and it isn't hard-to-believe that he comes from somewhere deep and unknown within the human-mind. He is a force, rather than a personality, and he is rage and vengeance. Corky repeats his fears of failure to the character Peggy (played by super-hot Ann Margaret) in a mind-reading session with playing-cards, and it is here that it seems Corky isn't playing with a full-deck (had to write it). Is it also MPD (multiple-personality disorder)? Is it a primal-darkness within Corky, brought-on by his illness? It seems to be a complex combination of many things, and the descent-into-madness of such a likable-character is very unsettling. Though it's best to remember this is a movie version of mental-illness, it works. Corky is basically a paranoid-schizophrenic, with some writing-touches.
The best-scene is when Corky's agent (played with-class by Burgess Meridith) finds him at his hideaway, and challenges him about his sanity: "Corky, can you make Fats shut up for five-minutes?" Corky can't do it, and the scene is hilarious, heart-breaking and horrific. Eventually, Corky kills a couple people to hide his illness, and it just snowballs. Exposure is inevitable, and I leave the ending for you to watch yourselves. It is a film that is both funny and sadly-poetic, the dying of a beautiful, prismatic-mind that had so much to give. This makes Corky the classic "monster", and this a horror-film. He simply cannot help-himself. Mental-illness in the universe of "Magic" is tragedy, and our connection with Corky is almost that of an accomplice, like with Norman Bates in "Psycho". We want him to keep-hidden. It is a wild-ride that is humanizing and sad, but also very entertaining--even a criticism of entertainment-itself. After-all, once Corky is sick, the crowd loves him. Fats is just an externalization of his illness, and it all seems like a diseased-version of the American Dream.
While the majority of schizophrenics are not violent, this could certainly happen, and that's why I find it so horrifying. People lose their minds, and they lose control to impulses we and they do not understand entirely. Hopkins did the eerie voice of Fats, even throwing-his-voice, and he gave the dummy an old-vaudeville/freak show barker quality. He sounds like a street-hood from 1920s Manhattan, like a completely "other" personality than Corky's. He sounds-like someone who lived once in another body. The twist-ending seems to support this possibility. So, one would imagine from Anthony Hopkins' performance that he was at least nominated for a major-award. But, this was and independent film by Attenborough and Joseph E. Levine, so an Academy-Award was out. It's ironic that so many films that win Academy-Awards any-given-year are often forgotten, but ones like "Magic" are remembered-fondly.
Schizophrenia is still a very controversial mental-illness, and many psychiatrists have argued that it doesn't even exist. But what we do know is that the mind can fragment into quasi-independent parts that can behave like personalities, or aspects of personalities. In many-cases, the neuropathology of schizophrenia is unknown, and has only been studied for some 100 years! Right-now, the science tends toward heredity being a primary-cause, but not everyone agrees. Enter the movies: While psychological-horror is nothing-new to cinema, this 1978 film by Sir Richard Attenborough (A Bridge Too Far, Gandhi) is very-very special, and offers some interesting speculations.Originally a best-selling novel by William Goldman (who also wrote the screenplay), this is also the "big-break" of Anthony Hopkins. It was the moment the public really took-note of this 40-year-old actor. Other than "The Bounty" (1984) this has to be his best film-performance, where he even had to learn to articulate a ventriloquist's-dummy and throw-his-voice.
Hopkins plays Corky, an amateur magician who is too shy to charm an audience, and he bombs at his first-performance. In the opening-prologue with his dying mentor Merlin, we find-out Corky had become-enraged and cursed-out the bored-crowd. Cut to two-years-later, and Corky is selling-out the same nightclub with a residency and lines around-the-block. He's a hit! Something happened over those two-years, and Corky's addition of a foul-mouthed ventriloquist's-dummy named "Fats" has made his act wildly-popular--he's funny and profane, spouting dirty-jokes and insults. Fats acts and looks like a distorted-version of Corky, maybe even his shadow-self. But, was it "Fats" who chewed-out the audience two-years-ago? Goldman and Attenborough let us decide, and it's this enigmatic-style that makes "Magic" so interesting and chilling. Jerry Goldsmith's eerie-score doesn't hurt either, it's reminiscent of Bernard Hermann.
Sure, we know that Fats isn't really alive, but an extension of Corky, but there are a few moments where he moves without help! It is as if the disease has externalized-itself, taking-over the protagonist. There is a light-touch of ambivalence as to whether Fats is more-than just a part of Corky's psychosis, but this is soon upended by too-many objective-views of his behaviors without Fats. Fats only moves a few-times without Corky, and sometimes Corky sounds like Fats when he gets angry. One almost gets a disembodied-sense watching this, a little taste of madness. And so, with his fame comes a fear of exposure of his illness. His show-business agent wants him to take a physical for a network television-appearance, and Corky refuses, escaping to his hometown in the Catskills. He seems to know instinctively that he is mentally-ill, and Fats the dummy even reminds him that ..."we're special". A schizophrenic fear of persecution becomes obvious. Fats wants to return to Manhattan to fame-and-fortune, but Corky doesn't. The pressure builds as the two-personalities fight, and Fats becomes jealous of a childhood love named Peggy. Peggy runs the cabin Corky and Fats are hiding-out in.
There is something so creepy about Fats, and it isn't hard-to-believe that he comes from somewhere deep and unknown within the human-mind. He is a force, rather than a personality, and he is rage and vengeance. Corky repeats his fears of failure to the character Peggy (played by super-hot Ann Margaret) in a mind-reading session with playing-cards, and it is here that it seems Corky isn't playing with a full-deck (had to write it). Is it also MPD (multiple-personality disorder)? Is it a primal-darkness within Corky, brought-on by his illness? It seems to be a complex combination of many things, and the descent-into-madness of such a likable-character is very unsettling. Though it's best to remember this is a movie version of mental-illness, it works. Corky is basically a paranoid-schizophrenic, with some writing-touches.
The best-scene is when Corky's agent (played with-class by Burgess Meridith) finds him at his hideaway, and challenges him about his sanity: "Corky, can you make Fats shut up for five-minutes?" Corky can't do it, and the scene is hilarious, heart-breaking and horrific. Eventually, Corky kills a couple people to hide his illness, and it just snowballs. Exposure is inevitable, and I leave the ending for you to watch yourselves. It is a film that is both funny and sadly-poetic, the dying of a beautiful, prismatic-mind that had so much to give. This makes Corky the classic "monster", and this a horror-film. He simply cannot help-himself. Mental-illness in the universe of "Magic" is tragedy, and our connection with Corky is almost that of an accomplice, like with Norman Bates in "Psycho". We want him to keep-hidden. It is a wild-ride that is humanizing and sad, but also very entertaining--even a criticism of entertainment-itself. After-all, once Corky is sick, the crowd loves him. Fats is just an externalization of his illness, and it all seems like a diseased-version of the American Dream.
While the majority of schizophrenics are not violent, this could certainly happen, and that's why I find it so horrifying. People lose their minds, and they lose control to impulses we and they do not understand entirely. Hopkins did the eerie voice of Fats, even throwing-his-voice, and he gave the dummy an old-vaudeville/freak show barker quality. He sounds like a street-hood from 1920s Manhattan, like a completely "other" personality than Corky's. He sounds-like someone who lived once in another body. The twist-ending seems to support this possibility. So, one would imagine from Anthony Hopkins' performance that he was at least nominated for a major-award. But, this was and independent film by Attenborough and Joseph E. Levine, so an Academy-Award was out. It's ironic that so many films that win Academy-Awards any-given-year are often forgotten, but ones like "Magic" are remembered-fondly.