MovieChat Forums > A Woman Under the Influence (1974) Discussion > A Clarification...

A Clarification...

posted 19 years ago by trekkie8
6 replies | jump to latest

Hi,

I'm not a film student, so I have nothing to offer in terms of critique, but I am a counseling graduate student and I've seen this movie as an undergraduate and now as a graduate student.

I just wanted to point out that Mabel is suffering from a mental illness (if you support the prevailing view), but it's *not* bipolar disorder. I can understand why you might think that, and that is indeed what I believed when I saw the movie for the first time.

"Under the Influence" can be taken quite literally--Mabel is an alcoholic. It's portrayed in a very subtle way, so it's hard to pick up right away, but there are indicators.

At the beginning of the film, Mabel goes to a bar and downs a drink rather quickly. Anybody else who would down a drink like that would be more than a little tipsy, but Mabel isn't. In fact, she is well known at the bar and doesn't seem to be too fazed. It's well into the evening before she stumbles into her house drunk with the guy who's to be her one night stand, suggesting she's built up quite a tolerance to alcohol.

Another telling sign concerns what she remembers the next morning. Mabel doesn't remember anything from the night before and continues to believe the man she slept with is Nick. This is a classic indicator of a blackout. The fact that her memory lapse lasts so long is an indicator that this isn't your normal hangover...

Mabel (and the camera) keeps going to the door marked "PRIVATE." The audience is led to believe this is where she keeps her alcohol (a common behavior for women with a drinking problem because there's more of a stigma for female alcoholics.)

Just before she is hospitalized, she admits to drinking and taking pills. If I remember correctly, she abuses Valium (a pretty dangerous mix with alcohol). The weird tics and the strange behavior are all alcohol induced. Just like any other drug, alcohol, if taken frequently and chronically enough, can induce anxiety like symptoms.

Just my two cents. The movie description just says Mabel has a "mental illness," but like I said, I think that's to add to the mystery. She certainly is dependent on Nick for approval and one could say "under the indluence" has a double meaning.

~Lori

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] hessian11 19 years ago

She is clearly under the influence of men and society. When she returns from the hospital and is with her father she says, "Stand up" to her father. He stands up and then she keeps saying stand up. He cant stand up because he already is. Just like when Nick says be yourself Maybel, over and over. How can she be herself when everyone else is telling her what to be. Men in particular. She is herself and people keep telling her to be herself. Her identity is stripped after she is being pulled and pushed in so many directions. Shes no alcoholic or pill popper. Shes normal, just in her own world. Everyone else keeps trying to penetrate it violate it and when its too complex for them they rearrange it. I dont like grand proclamations or over thinking things, but this might be the best film I have ever seen. Its entertaining thanks to Rowland and thought provoking thanks to Cassavetes.

[–] noelartm 19 years ago

I think Mabel drinks as a means of self-medication. Is alcohol a better treatment than a lot of the anti-depressant drugs they push on TV today? Probably. I don't think her problem stems just from drinking. I think Mabel's biggest problem is everyone thinking she has one. She really means no harm to herself or to anyone else. Only after she comes back from the hospital, where she under went shock therapy, does she attempt to slit her wrists. And with a family that doesn't know how to support her, who can really blame her? They treat her as if she has merely a behavioral problem rather than a mental illness. Mabel's family could learn a lot about Mabel's condition if they just listened to her. But they don't. They just encourage her to keep quiet and act like everything is fine. This is where the drama comes from.

Much has been learned about mental illness since the 1970's, but we still have a lot to learn. Mabel's story is typical of a lot of people living with mental illness in that era and even many living with it today. This is why the film is so important. We must never forget how people with mental illness have been mistreated and misunderstood by society.If we don't learn from it, we'll never fix the problem. The film does however leave you with a sense of hope that Mabel and Nick will be able to work things out.

[–] ammacinn 18 years ago

Hm. It's interesting -- a good friend of mine, the Canadian poet Elizabeth Bachinsky, just today on the phone offered me this intepretation of the film, that Mabel is a drinker. I took issue with it -- and in a way think its irrelevant -- but it's very interesting to see two smart people coming up with the same, apparently unorthodox intepretation. Cassavetes, of course, was a drinker himself, tho' there seems to be quite a bit of denial/disagreement about how much of an alcoholic he really was. Interesting, given that (along the lines of Ray Carney's reading) Mabel is a figure for Cassavetes, that he would discreetly include this as a possible reading of the film -- which, I agree, the bar scene at the beginning definitely does. I'll have to watch the movie again and consider this take on it.

Allan (http://alienatedinvancouver.blogspot.com)

[–] ryan7369 18 years ago

Mabel was under the influence of her stupid husband and overbearing mother in law.

She came home from the hospital composed and her family started controlling
every thing she did. It was her home, her husband and kids. She had no control over anything. She tried to ask her father for help who did nothing.

She drank to medicate/numb herself.

[–] madmaxmedia 17 years ago

She obviously drinks a lot, but I never took it as being the sole reason for her behavior (although I understand why one would draw that conclusion.)

It really doesn't matter to me, because the movie is a lot less about her specific disorder, than the effect it has on her life, and the reactions it draws from others.

Whether she drink or not, she's not nearly as crazy as most of the other people in the movie. Or perhaps to mput it more accurately, she's not nearly as crazy as the behaviors, actions, and mindsets of other people in this movie.

She at least suspects she may be crazy (and says such a couple of times in the movie.) Her husband may be more 'sane' by societal standards, but has much less self-awareness than she does.

This was an absolutely amazing movie, one that sticks to me well after watching it. The first 10-star rating I have ever given out.