The Ending

Though catatonia is found in cases of both bipolar and schizophrenia, most cases of bipolar do not typically involve catatonia. There's nothing to indicate that this character has bipolar--in fact, though he spends a lot of the film clowning around, he's much more at an even keel than Gene Hackman's Max character. His clowning is not mania. He's not reckless or impulsive. Hackman's character would be the more likely candidate, but the rest of his behavior is uncharacteristic of bipolar.

There are two types of mania found in people with bipolar disorder: hypomania and mania. Hypomania is a milder form of mania, and involves a heightenned energy level, talkativeness, and sometimes a sense of invulnerability or grandiosity--full mania can involve paranoia, more extreme dellusional thinking, and hallucinations. Someone with bipolar disorder may experience manias or hypomanias with a varying degree of severity, and frequency. Episodes could last days or hours. These are usually followed by deep depressions.

The onset of catatonia is seldom sudden. The illness that someone mentions here, that Oliver Sacks wrote about in Awakenings is actually a sleeping sickness called Encephalitis lethargica. There was a worldwide epidemic of the disease in the 20s. Sleeping sickness is not the same as catatonia. Catatonia can also involve erratic, manic behavior. This is not the same as a typical manic episode that someone with bipolar might experience. Catatonic manias involve random and eratic movements or behavior without direction or purpose.

Lyon's catatonia in the film is sudden, and a cheat. Up to that point I felt the story was very believable, but having Lyon go catatonic seems to me like very manipulative, lazy writing. There wasn't enough transition--if it had been a process, it would've made more sense. As it was, it was abrupt, and rung a false note. It was clear that Lyon was setting himself up for a blow, that although he felt compelled to confront his wife, he unconsciously knew that it wasn't going to go well. He also demonstrated himself to be a pretty resilient guy. I can see how this resilience would abandon him when, after all that anticipation, his wife rejects him and tells him his child is dead. But catatonia seems a little extreme and unnecessary. I would've liked to have seen a more complex and believable resolution.

I think it was because Lion finally came to the realisation that his way of life (the idea that he could get through everything by turning it into a joke) ultimately failed him. You get that sense when we see him watching Max striptease at the bar, like he feels ashamed at how Max is degrading himself to avoid the fight. It's basically what Lion's been doing his whole life and this is when he realises it's humiliating, it's just wrong. He starts doing the same thing at the fountain, playing with all the kids, etc, but then it just hits him that it doesn't work, he can't fool himself anymore. And I think that's the main point of the movie; these two guys can only function when they're together. The deficiency they each have is the other person's strength; only when they put their trust into each other and cooperate is the only time they can function. It's an incredibly sad story but an amazing message. When I first saw it, I always thought they should've ended it with the fountain scene; it's completely distressing and the culmination of where the characters have been heading to, and also I just think it would've been a great dramatic way to end the film, to just have the audience walk out at this point of total desperation and piece the movie/themes/ideas from there. But now, I'm glad that Schatzberg/White added that final touch of humour at the end, and Max buying a round trip ticket. It's a nice final uplifting scene, that he's come to the realisation that he needs this person to function (further highlighted by the fact he almost doesn't get out at all 'cause of the bumbling moments with the lost money in his shoe). So even though the hospital scene is way too dramatic and almost turns the movie into this terrible manipulative soap opera-ish melodrama, the final scene saves it all and is essential/crucial just to show that your journey with these characters hasn't been a total waste of time; ie: not just them realising their way of life to date has been a sham (a totally fatalistic/cynical ending), but rather having them reach the understanding of what they are missing and what they need to resolve/fix it.

I was confused at the end of the movie. On the back of the dvd case shows Lion with his son. It never showed that in the movie, and there wasn't any special features to that.

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