Film Medical Theme: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A Tale of Two Sisters

Language : English

Year : 2003

Medical Theme : Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Actors : Im Soo Jung, Moon Geun Young,Yeom Jeong-ah, Kim Kap-su

Storyline : Su-mi (Su-jeong Lim) and Su-yeon (Geun-yeong Mun), very close young sisters, return from an unexplained absence to their father’s new house. The girls are very different — Su-mi is confident and aggressive, whilst Su-yeon is passive and rarely speaks. After their mother’s death, their father (Kap-su Kim, “KT”) has remarried, and their rather odd new stepmother treats them coldly, making it quite clear that they are not welcome.After the sisters return to the house, a series of strange things begin to happen.

Doctor Zhivago

Language: English

Year: 1965

Medical Theme : Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Actors : Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guinness, Siobhan Mckenna

Storyline: A Russian Epic- set in the background of Bolshevik Revolution, the movie traces the life of surgeon-poet Yuri Zhivago. Married to an upper- class girl, who is devoted to him, yet in love with an unfortunate lady who becomes his muse, Zhivago is torn between fidelity and passion.

Gangs of New York

Language: English

Year : 2002

Medical Theme : Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Actors : Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz

Storyline: “Bill the Butcher” is the local leader of the native Americans and he hates the Irish Catholic immigrants who are flooding New York in huge numbers. This conflict reaches its peak on 1846, in Paradise Square. There, the natives under the leadership of Bill, fights the immigrants who are led by Priest Vallon. In the end, the immigrants are defeated and Bill kills Vallon in the fight. Vallon’s only little son Amsterdam witnesses his father being killed by Bill and till he grows up, he has only one mission and it is to take revenge. So after Amsterdam grows up into a man he decides to take on Bill, by uniting the immigrants against the natives and their leader, Bill.

Hollow Man

Language: English

Year : 2000

Medical Theme : Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Actors : Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, Josh Brolin

Storyline: Dr. Sebastian Caine is a very talented young doctor and he is doing research for the U.S military, which is very confidential. One day he succeeds in his research and manages to make a female gorilla invisible. After the success, Dr. Sebastian tests the drug on himself and this time too it works perfectly. But when he tries to reverse the effects on him, he realizes to his surprise that he is not becoming visible again. This failed experiment forces the management to keep Dr. Sebastian under constant observation and he is strictly prohibited to leave the laboratory. In the laboratory, Sebastian becomes depressed and slowly starts to misuse his invisible condition, by spying on people and hurting them.

J. Edgar

Language: English

Year : 2011

Medical Theme : Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Actors : Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts

Storyline: The film J. Edgar is a drama that revolves around the life of J. Edgar Hoover, a former FBI director who was known for his tough stands on the communists and also for his contributions in America’s fight against many infamous outlaws during the great depression era. There was even a time in Edgar’s life when he rose up to become one of the most powerful men in America, having the power to influence even a few American presidents. The film helps the audience to get a glimpse of Edgar Hoover’s political as well as his troubled personal life, covering almost a forty year time duration with the help of flash backs and the usual linear narration.

The film covers a bit of Edgar’s childhood days and shows how great an influence his mother had on him and the trauma she had put him through when he was a child. All this had a great impact on Edgar’s future political career. The film also talks about Edgar’s sexuality a bit, which has over the years become a subject of great speculation through many rumors that have been floated around, mainly because of his close association with his second hand man, Clyde Tolson. In the film, Edgar Hoover can also be seen as a man suffering from many insecurities and obsessions. His public life during his final days was marred by controversies to a large extent; because of the methods he used to penalize both good as well as a bad men. In all, the film draws a decent picture of Edgar Hoover’s complex personality, who in his time was considered to be both iconic and at the same time a very controversial figure in America.

Kingdom Of Heaven

Language: English

Year : 2005

Medical Theme : Leprosy and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Actors : Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons

Storyline: Balian lives in a small French village and he undergoes serious mental torture after his wife’s sudden suicide. So he decides to go to Jerusalem in order to find peace and also to find for his wife her forgiveness. In Jerusalem Balian starts to understand the political situation there and he decides to serve the king and to help the poor. When Saladin attacks Jerusalem, the city is in a precarious situation, because the king has only recently died of leprosy and after a few wrong strategic moves Jerusalem has become weak and is in no position to face Saladin’s huge army. It is under these circumstances Balian takes full command of the army and prepares to face Saladin, not in an effort to achieve glory, but to save the lives of innocent people living in the city.

Sleepers

Language: English

Year : 1996

Medical Theme : Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Actors : Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman

Storyline: Four friends, mostly in their teens, live a carefree life in a poor neighborhood in New York. One day when they try to escape without paying for a hot dog, they accidentally end up almost killing a person walking in the subway. In the court the boys are sentenced to long time imprisonment and there they are constantly abused and tortured by the guards. In the end, after fourteen years, the boys after they are free decide to kill the guards for revenge.

Saving Private Ryan

Language: English

Year : 1998

Medical Theme : Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Actors : Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon

Storyline: Private Ryan is the only surviving member in his family after all three of his brothers lost their lives fighting for their country during World War 2. The US government therefore decides to bring back Ryan safely, because his mother has already received the news of her son’s death, all on the same day. So to search for Ryan, who is now fighting in Germany, a team of six soldiers under the leadership of officer Miller is sent on a mission. Miller at first faces resistance from his own men because lives of seven soldiers are at risk to save the life of just one soldier. Miller being a dedicated officer who is committed to his duties leads his team well and in the end finds Ryan and sends him back home safely. But in the process of saving Ryan, Miller and most of his men are killed in combats and Ryan after many years, when he is old and with his grandchildren, remembers the traumatic incidents of his past life and is grateful to Miller and his men for their sacrifices.

The Kite Runner

Language: English

Year : 2007

Medical Theme : Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Actors : Khalid Abdalla, Zekeria Ebrahimi, Ahmad Khan

Storyline: The Kite Runner is a film set in Afghanistan and it portrays the story of two friends and how their lives take a dramatic turn when the Soviet army invades Afghanistan. Amir is the son of a rich Afghan businessman and his friend Hassan is the only son of his father’s servant. One day Amir witnesses the traumatic incident of his friend being molested by a group of boys and pretends he has not seen it. Amir leaves Afghanistan during the war and settles in America, but after many years Amir comes back to Afghanistan again, to do his duty and to undo the mistakes he had left behind in the past.

The Pianist

Language: English

Year : 2003

Medical Theme : Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Actors : Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschman, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox

Storyline: Wladyslaw Szpilman is a Polish pianist and he is a Jew. During the World War 2, when the German army invades Poland, Wladyslaw’s life sees dramatic changes and is forced to face hardships like millions of other Jews. He lives in hiding and in continuous starvation and as the war intensifies, his standard of living drastically deteriorates that he almost transforms into a savage. The rest of the story is about how Wladyslaw manages to survive the whole war and how he becomes a famous pianist after the tragic war finally ends.

The Outsiders

Language: English

Year : 1983

Medical Theme : Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Actors : C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio

Storyline: The Outsiders is a film based on author S.E. Hinton’s most successful novel by the same name. The film is about a gang of teens from a low income American neighborhood. Ponyboy Curtis is a young member of this team and one day when he and his friend are attacked by a group of rich kids, his friend Johnny Cade kills one of the assailant’s unintentionally. The boys then leave the town with the help of their friends and lives in hiding for a few months. There they feel terrible loneliness and the story ends when one day his friend Johnny dies in a fire accident, trying to save a child.