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The Snake Pit (1948)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 7/12

SnPi
7/12: "Oh look, Ashley...Melanie is trapped in the snake pit with other fiddle-dee-dees," exclaims Scarlett O'Hara.

Although I'm sure The Snake Pit was a fine film back then, it's now boring to watch. Mental illness is a topic that I neither care about nor consider fascinating. No matter what the cause is, it's meaningless. Today's society is most concerned about two things: benefit and production. When a person is stricken with a debilitating mental illness, he has become useless to society forever.

That's how I feel about Virginia Cunningham, and there's nothing I can do. However, it's nice to have support in the face of a losing battle. Having found the film tedious, all I'm able to ask is: what can I do, and why do I care?

Don't be confused between Olivia de Havilland and her character, okay? That's how she was nominated for an Oscar although anyone else could've done it and still deliver the same performance just like how others had by playing a drunkard, a gambler, a prostitute, a boxer, or a lunatic. Think of the nominees and winners, and you'll find many of them fitting in these categories quite neatly.

The ending is both realistic and unrealistic. Virginia is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off after being granted a pardon from the state mental hospital. Then again, it's Olivia de Havilland, and her picture must have a typical Hollywood ending where we have to hold hands, cry, and wave in a rainbow fashion.

All in all, The Snake Pit is a dull viewing experience.