The best PTSD-movies?

[Trenchfriend]

Fix idea came to my mind, right now.

Wouldn´t be a list of movies with PTSD-topic a nice thing?

-First Blood
You know, it´s very popular in old Germany, but the Rambo-factor isn´t anymore the biggest part of it´s popularity. We just love, how they brought a very very serious topic on the big screen. And the german synchro does again a perfect job to make the traumatic story an ass-kickin´ experience. And with Col. Trautman as best addition, of course

What other movies come to your mind?

 

[Edward]

Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood.

 

[Bushman]

Fix idea came to my mind, right now.

Wouldn´t be a list of movies with PTSD-topic a nice thing?

-First Blood
You know, it´s very popular in old Germany, but the Rambo-factor isn´t anymore the biggest part of it´s popularity. We just love, how they brought a very very serious topic on the big screen. And the german synchro does again a perfect job to make the traumatic story an ass-kickin´ experience. And with Col. Trautman as best addition, of course

What other movies come to your mind?

First Blood is one of my favorites. It shows the complete lack of respect veterans got coming home from Vietnam. The fact that Rambo travelled to some tiny PNW town to visit a friend, only to discover he's the last one of his company still alive must have been a real blow to him. At the same time, I love how Rambo never directly kills anybody in the entire movie. All the damage he does is completely structural.

 

[Worf]

"Born on the 4th of July" - There's a scene shown twice in the film. As a child the protagonist witnesses a wounded vet flinching at fire works in a 4th of July parade. Years later after he's paralyzed in Viet Nam he finds himself as the wounded vet flinching and freaking out as fire works sound around him. Two simple, scenes that speaks volumes.

Worf

 

[Trenchfriend]

 

[Lean'n'mean]

The Deer Hunter (1978)

And it could be argued, Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) in Taxi Driver suffered from PTSD

 

[Edward]

The Deer Hunter (1978)

And it could be argued, Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) in Taxi Driver suffered from PTSD

Bickle is fascinating. I'm still intrigued by the notion that he's a fantasist rather than a former army man, though either way he's definitely got some sort of shellshock going on - even if it is "only" from too long seeing the worst of humanity in the urban jungle.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

HBO series Perry Mason offers complex flawed characters whom are human beings first, foremost, and always.
Its lead cast namesake is a First World War trench veteran suffering occasional post-trauma while coping with divorce, child visitation, law practice issues, women. And paying the bills in depression-era California.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I don't know if it's PTSD but there's another scene where they hear this on the radio and it causes the Chief (Klaus Wennemann) to freak out.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Bickle is fascinating. I'm still intrigued by the notion that he's a fantasist rather than a former army man, though either way he's definitely got some sort of shellshock going on - even if it is "only" from too long seeing the worst of humanity in the urban jungle.

I always loved what I thought was the ambiguous ending of Taxi Driver. In the movie we inhabit Bickle's mind that we don't know what's real and what isn't. The very ending shows Bickle, fully recovered, who is now respected and looked up to as a hero.

I've always believed that Bickle died in the shootout but was so out touch with reality that even as he lay dying was still in his fantasy world.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@V.C. Brunswick
The Chief freaks out, because his wife lives in Köln and the radio can every time bring news about bombardements on the city, which sadly indeed happens on a later news broadcast (1985 uncut TV series).

 

[Edward]

I always loved what I thought was the ambiguous ending of Taxi Driver. In the movie we inhabit Bickle's mind that we don't know what's real and what isn't. The very ending shows Bickle, fully recovered, who is now respected and looked up to as a hero.

I've always believed that Bickle died in the shootout but was so out touch with reality that even as he lay dying was still in his fantasy world.

It's definitely one possibility. There's also a more extreme interpretation that would say the whole shoot-out itself is a fantasy, and never happens - Travis just goes on being a cabbie. It's comparable to American Psycho in that regard, if moreso the book (which preserves that uncertainty) than the film (which doesn't).

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The Choirboys (1977)

Based on the 1975 novel by Joseph Wambaugh, PTSD is a key story element. The movie starts in Vietnam with two Marines, Sam Lyles (Don Stroud) and Harold Bloomguard (James Woods) who are trapped in a cave and are being hunted down by the North Vietnamese. After a frightening encounter with a flamethrower-armed North Vietnamese soldier they manage to escape.

Now it's several years later and Lyles and Bloomguard are LAPD officers and partners assigned to the same patrol car. They belong to an informal group of fellow officers who call themselves the Choirboys. To relieve stress they gather off duty in a park for "choir practice" where they drink and have sex with two waitresses that hang out with them.
Most of the movie is about their antics both on and off duty. But one night Lyles passes out and is put in the back of a police van by one of his fellow officers. Lyles who is also claustrophobic wakes up in the van and has a flashback of being back in the cave. In his panic he shoots and kills a gay man who tries to rescue him. The rest of the movie is about the Choirboys' attempt to cover up the shooting and their firing. One of the officers, Calvin Motts (Louis Gossett, Jr), is exonerated and the oldest and the leader of the group, Herbert "Spermwhale" Whalen (Charles Durning) is pressured into testifying against his fellow Choirboys and is allowed to retire instead of being fired. Unlike the original novel the movie ends a bit more happily when Motts and Whalen fight to have the rest of the group reinstated.

The cast also included Randy Quaid, Burt Young (the Rocky movies), Charles Haid (TV's Hill Street Blues), and Jim Davis (TV's Dallas)

 

[Edward]

HBO series Perry Mason offers complex flawed characters whom are human beings first, foremost, and always.
Its lead cast namesake is a First World War trench veteran suffering occasional post-trauma while coping with divorce, child visitation, law practice issues, women. And paying the bills in depression-era California.

I'm still hoping that series will come to a streamer I use in due course, it sounded good. The theme of Great War survivors experiencing pronounced PTSD is very much woven throughout Peaky Blinders, most pronouncedly in the earlier series, particularly with the Arthur Shelby character, but also Tommy as well.

I always loved what I thought was the ambiguous ending of Taxi Driver. In the movie we inhabit Bickle's mind that we don't know what's real and what isn't. The very ending shows Bickle, fully recovered, who is now respected and looked up to as a hero.

I've always believed that Bickle died in the shootout but was so out touch with reality that even as he lay dying was still in his fantasy world.

The Escapist with Brian Cox in the lead is worth seeing. He has certain similarities to Bickle.

 

[EngProf]

WWI PTSD:
"The Public Enemy" (1931), with James Cagney (Tom Powers).
Cagney's brother, Mike Powers, enlists in the Army during WWI with patriotism and enthusiasm.
When he comes back, he is completely changed: depressed, listless, and irritable.
They called it "shell shock" then, today it's PTSD.

 

[Haversack]

Tunes of Glory (1960), with Alec Guinness and John Mills. Mills plays an upper class Lt. Colonel returning to his post war Highland regiment after enjoying the hospitality of the Japanese for several years. Guinness plays Major Jock Sinclair, a wartime up-from-the-ranks fighting man who is the regiment's temporary CO. Both have trouble adapting to peacetime and each other. It doesn't end well...

 

[Zombie_61]

Not a movie, but the late George Carlin had a comedy routine in which he ran through the various terms (largely in American English) used to describe PTSD since WWI. During that war, it was called "shell shock". Two syllables. Then a whole generation went by, the second World War came along, and the exact same combat condition was called "battle fatigue". Four syllables, takes a little longer to say. But "fatigue" is a nicer word than "shock". Then we had the war in Korea, 1950, and the very same combat condition was called "operational exhaustion". Eight syllables now. Sounds like something that might happen to your car. Then came the war in Viet Nam, and the very same condition was called "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder." Still eight syllables, but a "disorder" sounds a bit less harmful than "exhaustion", "fatigue", and/or "shock". Mr. Carlin, not having been the type of person to shy away from "uncomfortable" subject matter, continued his examination of these terms, other commonly used terms, and their progression from one form to another over time, but it's far better to hear them described by Mr. Carlin than to sit and read the words on an electronic screen, so seek those routines out if you can.

 

[Al 916]

(Personally, c-ptsd) getting 24/7 'The Butterfly Effect' on most of my sins

but a "disorder" sounds a bit less harmful than "exhaustion", "fatigue", and/or "shock"

yes

 

[DogFacePonySoldier]

1985 Come and See is a PTSD recipe of a movie. It’s a war movie without any tones of heroism just onslaught.

 

[Auld Edwardian]

I have one for your consideration that you might have not heard of. "Tunes of Glory" is a 1960 film staring Alec Guinness and John Mills. You can find it on youtube, and I think it is one of Alec Guinness's best performances.