MORE FILMS BY THIS DIRECTOR
FREDERICK
WISEMAN
Wiseman's cinema-verite
masterpiece
about the horrid conditions at a Massachusetts asylum
for the criminally insane is
very possibly the greatest documentary film of all time.
Forget
about what youve seen in
Hollywood
films, this is the raw, hellish reality of living in a cement cell,
as indifferent and sadistic
guards taunt and abuse the inmates. Watch in horror as a
doctor
forcefeeds
a patient through a nose-tube,
while carelessly dropping cigarette ash into the mix.
Screaming, babbling maniacs
galore... the lunatic is on the grass,
indeed.
"After a showing of TITICUT FOLLIES the mind does not dwell on the
hospital's
ancient and even
laughable physical plant, or its pitiable
social atmosphere. What sticks, what really hurts is the sight
of human life made cheap and betrayed. We
see men needlessly stripped bare, insulted, herded about
callously, mocked, taunted. We see them
ignored or locked interminably in cells. We hear the craziness
in the air, the sudden outbursts, the quieter
but stronger undertow of irrational noise that any doctor who
has worked under such circumstances can only
take for so long. But much more significantly, we see the
'professionals', the doctors and workers
who hold the fort in the Bridgewaters of this nation, and they are
all over...TITICUT FOLLIES is a brilliant
work of art…" - Robert
Coles, The New Republic
"TITICUT FOLLIES is a documentary film that tells you more than you
could
possibly want to know -
but no more than you should know - about life
behind the walls of one of those institutions where we
file and forget the criminal insane...A
society's
treatment of the least of its citizens - and surely these
are the least of ours - is perhaps the best
measure of its civilization. The repulsive reality revealed in
it forces us to contemplate our capacity for
callousness." - Richard
Schickel, Life Magazine
"It is a stark film and the most realistic and honest statement that I
have seen on the mental hospital." -
Morris
S. Schwartz, Gryzmish Professor of Human Relations, Brandeis University
Frederick Wiseman made his documentary
debut
with this controversial 84-minute survey of conditions
that existed during the mid-'60s at the State
Prison for the Criminally Insane in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.
Made in 1967, the film was subjected
to a worldwide ban until 1992 because the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court ruled that it was an invasion
of inmate privacy. The film goes behind the walls to show stark and
graphic images exposing the treatment of
inmates
by guards, social workers, and psychiatrists. The title refers to a
musical revue staged by inmates and
guards.
The documentary was cited as the "Best Film Dealing with the
Human Condition" at the 1967 Festival Dei
Popoli (Florence) and also honored as the "Best Film" at the 1967
Mannheim International Filmweek.
The story behind the complicated legal issues raised by this film and
the
attempts to suppress it are detailed by
Carolyn
Anderson and Thomas W. Benson in their book,
Documentary Dilemmas: Frederick Wiseman's
"Titicut Follies" (Southern Illinois University Press, 1991).
~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
TITICUT FOLLIES: A REVIEW
"Why do I need this help? You're ruining
me!"
So begins a dialogue between a bundle of nerves prisoner
and a short, Germanic man, apparently of
letters,
who controls the prisoner's fate. Standing in the desolation
of the institution's yard, the authority
figure
attempts to convince the prisoner that if he were "sent back to
prison today, [he would] be back to Bridgeport
today or tomorrow." As if to emphasize the point and to
garnish it with an air of legitimacy, the
authority figure, who would appear to be a psychiatrist, asserts,
"If you don't believe me, you can spit in
[my] face." Pressing the matter still further, the prisoner asks,
"How do you know that I am a schizophrenic-
paranoid?" to which the doctor retorts,
"Because you had psychological testing."
And so goes the absurdity captured in the
theatrical
revue of a mental institution called "Titicut Follies."
Examining the Massachusetts Correctional
Institution
at Bridgewater, an institution for the criminally
insane, Frederick Wiseman chronicles the daily
lives of the prisoners and staff in "cinema verite" style.
\Granted access to the institution for 29
days of filming, Wiseman captures images and interactions
that are both macabre and revolting. Whether
it be guards badgering a prisoner for voiding on the floor of
his cell, a doctor telling a prisoner "to
chew" his food as he is force fed through his nose with a tube,
or an interaction between prisoner and doctor
as described above, Titicut Follies is a powerful and
disturbing examination of the world of a
mental
institution which, among other things, questions
the traditional boundaries separating the
deviant from the conformist.
More subtly, Wiseman also makes problematic
the common assumption that mental institutions are
founded on a bedrock of rationality and order.
Of course, the medical model adopted by these institutions
in the twentieth century makes an explicit
commitment to the[End page 2] logic of the scientific method--
the driving force of positivism --, yet
Wiseman
deftly and ironically presents the institution as a place of chaos
and absurdity, despite the regimentation and
extraordinary control that it exudes. Careful and clever editing
results in the presentation of disembodied
images, taken out of context, which make the functioning of the
institution seem incomprehensible. The lack
of order conveyed in the film and the inability to distinguish
readily between the guards and the guarded
leads one to question whether the institution has any
greater purpose than the systematic
degradation
of human beings-- both prisoners and guards.
Of course, painting the institution as a
place
mired in degradation and exploitation is ironic given
Wiseman's own use of the prisoners and guards
as his "subjects." In using these people as the vehicles
for his polemical attack on mental
institutions,
Wiseman has been accused of doing to the prisoners what
he condemns others for doing. In fact, it
was this point which resulted in a series of court cases, dating
from the 1967 release of the film, in which
the Massachusetts Supreme Court declared the documentary
obscene and exploitive, banning it from public
viewing. Only after 24 years has this restriction been lifted,
allowing the film to be aired on public
television
for the first time in early 1993. Nonetheless, while the
legal entanglements have apparently
dissipated,
the moral quandary still remains, and it tugs hard at those
who partake of this film.
Named after the annual talent show held at
Bridgeport in which both prisoners and staff participate,
Titicut Follies is a highly charged polemic
that, by necessity, moves its viewers both intellectually
and emotionally. The documentary would be
a useful addition to classes which deal with punishment,
deviance, treatment, ethics, and possibly
even research design because it raises basic questions concerning
the identification and control of individuals
deemed deviant by the larger society, or at least the criminal
justice and mental health systems. In
addition,
it forces viewers, albeit not intentionally, to consider the
moral and ethical boundaries which pertain
to the observation and study of human beings.
When does one cross the line from a
reasoned
and informative examination of the human condition to a
systematic exploitation of individuals aimed
at[End page 3] rattling one's own ideological saber? On what
moral basis do we and should we determine
who shall be the kept and who shall be the keeper? Are there
readily identifiable characteristics which
distinguish the two? These questions and more need to be explored,
and this film provides a useful mechanism
for making them more salient to undergraduates and professionals
alike. Given its rich theoretical content
and the power with which it speaks to the audience, this film is a
fantastic pedagogical tool. Accordingly, it
receives four gavels on the Journal of Criminal Justice and
Popular Culture's esteemed rating scale and
comes highly recommended.
Gregory J. Howard
State University of New York at Albany School
of Criminal Justice
Wiseman Comes to Western Australia
SOURCE:
The film was banned in Massachusetts for decades, and was largely
unseen
in other
than very special educational
showings at colleges, etc. Finally, in the early 90s, it was
allowed
a
one-time-only showing on PBS,
and that's where this print comes from. Great pic/sound quality!
(1:30)
(A/A)
- UR
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