I loved this movie when it came out. Haven't seen it since, so I'm operating from memory, but one of the strongest impressions I got from it (and even wrote a letter to "Esquire" disputing that magazine's review) was that Morgan was not psychotic. Eccentric, sure, but crazy like a fox, a sort of McMurphy for swinging England. My impression then was that everything around him and Leonie was out of whack, and that Leonie was more inclined to submit to the dominant cultural mishigas because the life of an eccentric's wife was too hard to take, as much as she loved him.
I felt that the story challenged conventional notions of what is normal, and the "normal" that Morgan was an outsider to was insufferably stifling to the human spirit. My fellow IMDb commentator who recoiled from the "weird politics" of this movie, missed the point. Morgan wasn't a Communist. He was the son of Communists. He was a lot freer than any ideologue. The sight gag at the end of the picture is not about him being a Commie. It's about him being an outsider and a prankster to the core.
I don't think the movie makes light of real mental illness. I think it skewers overly enthusiastic diagnoses of psychosis when someone's behavior is socially inconvenient. I don't know that I'd find an assessment of Morgan Delt as a harmless flake to be any more appropriate, in that it's still an incredibly patronizing view of the guy, but at least it wouldn't land him in the rubber room. Although, I found that last scene so encouraging in showing his ability to transcend institutionalization on his own terms.
Thinking in terms of what would happen next if the movie were to continue, my biggest fear at the time was that institutionalization would eventually break his spirit. He reminded me of so many of my peers who were dumped in psych hospitals because their parents didn't know what to do with them. It was easier to call them sick than to deal with the real people they were. In that sense, this is a very '60's movie, because it seemed that the psych hospitalization rate was spiking among young people of that time.
Yeah, you had to be there. And, indeed, how can you go wrong with a movie that has a Johnny Dankworth score?
I felt that the story challenged conventional notions of what is normal, and the "normal" that Morgan was an outsider to was insufferably stifling to the human spirit. My fellow IMDb commentator who recoiled from the "weird politics" of this movie, missed the point. Morgan wasn't a Communist. He was the son of Communists. He was a lot freer than any ideologue. The sight gag at the end of the picture is not about him being a Commie. It's about him being an outsider and a prankster to the core.
I don't think the movie makes light of real mental illness. I think it skewers overly enthusiastic diagnoses of psychosis when someone's behavior is socially inconvenient. I don't know that I'd find an assessment of Morgan Delt as a harmless flake to be any more appropriate, in that it's still an incredibly patronizing view of the guy, but at least it wouldn't land him in the rubber room. Although, I found that last scene so encouraging in showing his ability to transcend institutionalization on his own terms.
Thinking in terms of what would happen next if the movie were to continue, my biggest fear at the time was that institutionalization would eventually break his spirit. He reminded me of so many of my peers who were dumped in psych hospitals because their parents didn't know what to do with them. It was easier to call them sick than to deal with the real people they were. In that sense, this is a very '60's movie, because it seemed that the psych hospitalization rate was spiking among young people of that time.
Yeah, you had to be there. And, indeed, how can you go wrong with a movie that has a Johnny Dankworth score?