CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND
US, 2002, 113 minutes, Colour.
Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer.
Directed by George Clooney.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is an intriguing film. It has excellent credentials.
The screenplay was written by Charlie Kaufman who wrote Being John Malkovich as well as Adaptation. He also wrote Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Kaufman has a skill in writing offbeat fantasies. However, this film is allegedly based on fact. Television compere, Chuck Barris, was host of such programs as The Gong Show and The Dating Game (which are shown in something of their humour in inanity during this film). He claims that he was recruited by the CIA and was an assassin by night while being a television personality in his other life. There is no evidence, one way or the other, whether this was actually true.
Sam Rockwell (Welcome to Collinwood, Lawn Dogs) is very effective as Barris himself. Drew Barrymore is in support as his cheerful girlfriend. George Clooney, who also directed the film, appears as the CIA recruiting agent. (This aspect of the plot is reminiscent of the hallucinations of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind.)
The film shows the world of the media, of television, of espionage. Included are some humorous cameos from Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts (Clooney’s friends from the Ocean’s 11 films).
Clooney went on to direct Good Night and Good Luck for which he was Oscar-nominated.
1. Audience knowledge of Chuck Barris, television personality and programs, well known in the US, his influence on trash television? His reality, his fantasy life?
2. Memories of A Beautiful Mind and John Nash imaging the CIA enlisting him for secret agent work? American delusions, the CIA, violent heroism, secrecy, the government and loyalties, macho image? Chuck Barris's imagination?
3. The title and expectations? Which was his dangerous mind - as Barris himself, as the agent?
4. Charlie Kaufmann and his inventive scriptwriting? The narrative and the devices for showing Chuck Barris's life, influences, imagination? The flashbacks, imaginative, real and unreal? The wacky humour? Barris and his own humour? Enabling us to see a portrait of a strange person, with the American ethos, showbiz ethos, the time of the Cold War?
5. The introduction to Barris, seeing his eyes, his mind, the naked and unkempt Barris, looking in the mirror? His breakdown? His voice-over and his own commentary on himself and his life? Talking to himself, talking to others? Penny's arrival, looking at her through the eyehole, refusing to come out? The end and the transformation, his bright idea of writing his own life, at the typewriter, changing his clothes, a new life?
6. Psychology and schizophrenia, was Byrn real or a figment of his imagination? Patricia as real and as imagined? Both of them omniscient? Both aspects of his inner self? The different roles, the dialogue with them, the sexual relationship with Patricia, killing Patricia? Using his ingenuity to change the cups, pretend to die, watching her die?
7. Barris as a child, in Philadelphia, his 11-year-old proposition to the young girl, the later visit to her and her rejection of him? The taunts about the strawberry taste? His saying he was Jewish? His parents - and the glimpse of them in the staid photo talking about the new icebox? The alleged influence of his parents? His preoccupation with girls, at the movies, kissing (and the faded colour to suggest the period)? Awkward, self-conscious?
8. His going to New York, television in 1955, watching the windows and the TV sets, bright idea? Watching the guide, applying for the job, giving tours of NBC, enthusiastic, the relationship with the girl, her pregnancy (and false pregnancy) and his imagination and violence towards her? His wanting to be a manager, sacked? The influence of these TV years?
9. 1960s, the need for ideas for television shows, vacancies and cancellations? The encounter with Byrn, the audience seeing Byrn watching him? The fight and his being thrown out, the discussions? The Cold War, espionage? His being recruited, disbelief, discussions, enthusiasm? Motivations? Training - and the humorous jokes about death and explosions? (Fast Charlie Kaufmann style?) The graduation? His being given a job in Mexico, the presentation of Mexico, the heat and the brightness, the young woman and her recurring presence watching him? The victim, the brutality, Byrn helping him? The effect and his ability to go on to more killings?
10. Writing the song, its being performed, their discussion with Debbie, the relationship with her? Penny's arrival, finding him naked at the refrigerator, the immediate ease, chat, her own attitudes towards freedom, sex? Their ability to talk, to listen? Her bright personality, response to Chuck, going to San Francisco to be a hippie, her continued support - though the scene with her finding Patricia and her being hurt?
11. The bright idea for The Dating Game, the pilot, the crass language, the executives refusing to allow it on air? Sense of failure? Time passing, more ideas, with Penny? The offer to have the show on air? The moral pep-talk to the contestants so that they behave? The collage of the shows (and the joke with Brad Pitt and Matt Damon)?
12. Byrn and his continuing to get work for Chuck, the cover of his being the chaperone with the Dating Game couple? The Helsinki episode, the contestant and the girl spurning him? Meeting Patricia, in the dark, exotic, conspiracies? Her names, the quoting of Shakespeare, Carlyle, Nietzsche? The assassination? His achieving his goal? The further jobs, going to West Berlin, meeting Keeler, their discussions, his being captured, the spies, the exchange release, the Berlin tunnels?
13. The shows and their success, the taste of the shows, popular enjoyment?
14. His life as a TV set, the variety of international backgrounds, seeing the stagehands remove them, people moving in and out of the reality and his fantasies?
15. The terrible auditions, "If I Had a Hammer"? The idea for the Gong Show, its success, the various performances? The criticism that he was humiliating people, what right had he to do this? Audiences joining in and wanting the gongs?
16. Patricia, seeing her in exotic places, her being in the United States? Keeler's arrival, real or figment of his imagination? Their discussions about their work, Keeler and his character, his memories of the war, the ability to kill? His suicide? Penny's sympathetic response?
17. The build-up on Barris, his mental collapse, the weird performance on the show, his imagination, the destruction of the show? His not wanting to go on?
18. Patricia, the meeting, Boston, the discussion about a future with her, the poison and her death after his pretence?
19. 1981, his collapse, the typewriter, the new life, the wedding, telling Penny about the killings and her laughing?
20. Interspersing the witnesses throughout the film? Real characters, their own contacts with Chuck Barris, Dick Clark and his perspective, the people who worked on the show? The real Barris coming in to make the final comment? The film as a piece of Americana, a reflection on popular culture in the 20th century?
