Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 31-October-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium

The Snake Pit (1948)

The title of this drama (and the book upon which it was based) refers not to an ophidian chamber of horrors but a human one. In the remarkable central scene, the protagonist Virginia Cunningham (Olivia de Havilland) has an out-of-body experience in which she views herself in the highest-security ward of a mental hospital as if from a great height, likening her presence among the inmates there to being trapped in a pit of snakes. This powerful image epitomizes the movie as a whole, expressing the dread of a person engulfed by darkness, sympathy for her desire to escape, and the importance of self-perception in bringing this desire to life.

The Snake Pit begins with Virginia battling confusion in a mid-level ward of the hospital, but the events that brought her there are shown through a series of flashbacks. First, her loving husband (Mark Stevens) recounts how she was strangely reticent during their courtship and succumbed to paranoia immediately following their marriage. Later, after several harrowing rounds of shock therapy, Virginia starts to open up to a psychiatrist known as Dr. Kick (Leo Genn), who emerges as the hero of the tale through a rare combination of learning and humanity. She makes progress under his care by revealing experiences that contributed to her disassociation from reality, but she suffers setbacks when handled by other nurses and doctors whose intentions aren't always so good. As the months go by, Virginia cycles through various wards like circles in Dante's hell, never quite certain where she is, how she got there, or how closely she resembles the other disturbed people around her.

Judging from the original trailer, the subject matter and frankness of The Snake Pit were considered rather startling when the movie debuted in 1948. (Naturally, de Havilland and the other filmmakers received numerous awards and nominations for their boldness.) Although I doubt it could generate the same degree of fascination today, much of the story remains fresh. For example, the script makes a concerted effort to argue that mental illness is a real disease that cannot be cured with common sense, fresh air, and good food on a farm in Iowa (as Virginia's mother-in-law suggests), which argument is still met with disbelief in some quarters. Also, and more distressingly, the movie points out how things like overcrowded facilities and lack of funding can influence decisions about the treatment of mental health, with generally unfavorable results. Since the mental institution drama has become a genre of its own, modern audiences approaching the film for the first time might deem it too tame compared with, say, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, which shares the same setting, same motley cast of crazies, and even a similar creepy nurse. But The Snake Pit will always have its strengths (particularly for people interested in the topic): excellent performances, a compassionate depiction of human struggle, and the ever-present, driving hope that the heroine and everyone she represents can escape the internal and external confines of a darkened mind.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.