Movie Matinee

This week for our movie matinee we watched 'The Changeling'. We had seen it before but couldn't really remember it. It's a Malpaso production directed by Clint Eastwood. Without going into the plot, I say that this "true story" shows that indeed truth is stranger than fiction. It's set in Los Angeles, starting in 1928, ending 1935, so it's fairly recent history, as I said to Lib, in the lifespan of our parents.

At one point well into the movie I said to Gord next to me, "I think the overriding theme of this movie is that you should never trust police, the government, or the medical profession." The police in the story were corrupted by their power and motivated only to project a favourable public image. To hell with the truth, or well being of citizens. This hand in hand with the local government. Aided by doctors, medical and psychiatric, happy to serve their masters.

Of course this is not good advice from father to son, especially to one such as Gordon who will remember my words long after I'm gone, so I tempered it with comment that you can't generalize and put them all in the bad basket. There's good and bad present in everything.

As they were about to forcibly put the lead female character, who had been thrown illegally into a psychiatric ward because she was making the police look bad, into electric shock treatment because she refused to comply, I had a flashback to my youth. I remembered my friend Ricky Ralph, who had some sort of adolescent disturbance or mental health issue, was put in a St. John of God hospital for electric shock treatment.

I would not normally mention something like this about someone, I only do because Ralphie told me once that I could write anything I liked about the past concerning him, he enjoyed what I wrote. To quote him, "Don't hold anything back. It's all part of life."

He escaped from the hospital. I was home at Mt Waverley when the phone rang and it was Ralphie. He was calling from a public phone box, dressed in his pyjamas. He wanted me to somehow pick him up. He had no money or shoes. He said the phone box was just around the corner from the hospital, I think in Brighton. I don't think I was yet at driving age. I was aware he'd be out of circulation for a while while this treatment was on, and I was asked by his father not to say anything to anyone about it.

 

I told him to stay there I think, I'd try to arrange something. I can't remember all the detail, I don't think he wanted me to contact his father, but not knowing what to do, I did. His father thanked me. The end of the story was that Ralphie somehow hitch hiked home, pyjamas and all and I think that was the end of the treatment. Ralphie's turbulent adolescence passed and he's had a successful life and is live and well in happy senior years.

The same could be said of me. I was referred to a psychiatrist in my youth, courtesy of the headmaster of Camberwell Grammar, due to indiscretions . He once dressed me down in front of a group saying I was on the lunatic fringe. The incident in this case was a movie at a public theatre in the evening we had to compulsorily attend as part of English subject. We were required to wear a suit. I didn't own one, and defied the instruction to hire one if necessary. Of course I was never really given the opportunity of a rational discussion with him, just the power ranting of a distressed overworked man whose main concern was to project a favourable public image. He picked on me because during the lecture to the group he noticed me not looking at him but artwork on the walls of his office. In this rant he raised other issues such as me having used bad language on the football field. It was quite an ordeal for me to make my way into the city after school to see the shrink and answer a load of personal questions. Fortunately the shrink didn't think I needed any treatment. 

Another friend of mine around the same time also suffered turbulence in adolescence and for a time was sent to Larundel Psychiatric Hospital. I recall driving out to see him there as he was allowed visitors. I don't know the extent of his treatment, but he was on medication ongoing and did have issues, in holding employment and with some unacceptable social behaviour. I lost track of him and didn't see him for decades. He died in his early fifties, cause unknown, he lived alone and was not found for some time. I went to his funeral, his brother told me he was misdiagnosed as a youth and given wrong medication.

As far as the government goes, I have no trust or faith. Before I was 21 years old I was a conscript in the military. At the federal election in 1972, whilst a conscript, I was unable to vote (the voting age had not yet been lowered to 18). How nutty is that? And now, politics in this country seems a shamble. Pork barreling, water theft, anonymous donations, scandal after scandal. Lack of integrity, accountability.

As for the police, in my lifetime there has been almost unbelievable, well documented corruption in Queensland, NSW, and Victoria. My sister was married to a policeman for 10 years during which time I witnessed some appalling actions and attitude.

I try not to be negative or cynical, to remain positive. Maybe we'll have comedy next week for our matinee.