MovieChat Forums > Bad Timing (1980) Discussion > Is Alex a psychopath? Or just been pushe...

Is Alex a psychopath? Or just been pushed too far? (spoilers)

posted 17 years ago by sub_mish
22 replies | jump to latest

I've watched this film two and a half times now. And what gets to me is this -in the first half of the film, Alex is a good natured submissive geek - being horribly victimized by his bitch girlfriend Milena.

Then at the end when she tries to off herself, he goes and rapes her instead of calling for an ambulance as soon as possible.

Now, I've known people like Milena who treat everyone like *beep* and endured my fair share of bitch girlfriends - but RAPE?!? Rather than, like, call a *beep* ambulance RIGHT NOW?! I thought he loved her, but at the end he loses it so much you come to the conclusion that he's a complete sociopath.

I suppose that's what makes BT such a brilliant film, at first it immerses you in emo goodness, then it brings you crashing back down to the horrible sterile world of the hospital, the policeman's office, and in your imagination, the jail cell that Alex is going to spend a lot of the rest of his life in.

And did anyone notice how predatory the three lead characters are? Alex and Milena prey on each other, and Inspector Netusil preys on Alex. *beep* up *beep*

[–] jmitchell1532 17 years ago

I agree. Alex's shift occurs rather quickly, albeit, kind of expectedly. I have seen many graphic films and i would like to ask if anyone noticed how unbelievably real the rape scene looked? Garfunkel was pretty close and it either it was real or the cameraman is amazing.

"Who dares mention Donald's Pizza Heaven...without mentioning their delicious curly fries!"

[–] unk-6 17 years ago

Yeah, I thought it was pretty close. But I read somewhere on here about "genital patches" or something like it, that actors wear in scenes that require this sort of intimacy.

"The music industry is a cruel and shallow money trench"
Hunter S. Thompson

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] dukeofauge 17 years ago

I think that 'necrophilia' (not 100% literally) is closer to the shocking end than 'Rape', even though Neutsil accuses him of Ravishment. You see, Neutsil knows that Alex didn't call the ambulance because he wwanted her dead, but does not have a case for murder without confession. Because Neutsil knows they were lovers, even though Alex does not admit it. So Neutsil tries to shake Alex up and make him feel guilty (the pouning heart/stomach shot) by accusing him of ravagement. His plan may be something like getting Alex to say: How can it be rape, we were lovers, and then Neutsil would say: then how come you said you were friends, you lied, and I know you are lying about the timing of the call.

[–] ReMa81 17 years ago

I saw this long ago, but I had the impression that in the end Roeg suggested that the Garfunkel character had opted for a homosexual lifestyle.

[–] sub_mish 17 years ago

That wasn't my impression, but for the longest time, for some reason I thought that there was something about Neutsil that suggests he's gay... but on repeated viewings I'm pretty sure I was wrong.

Whatever gives you that idea, anyway?

Sits in corner counting inconsistencies and Spoiling It For Everyone

[–] sanniti 14 years ago

Why are you so sure he wanted her dead? I know he's a doctor but just suppose he thought she was just drunk (as he implies had happened many times before). Albeit at a certain point he finally does realize it's more than a drunken stupor. I think he was just enjoying finally being the able to feel in control of the situation. So it DID take him a few hours to realize what was happening but that does not a murderer make.

[–] sanniti 14 years ago

[–] Lynxolita 17 years ago

I think to call Milena a bitch is just an easy way out of proper analysis.

Milena doesn't hide the fact that she has her own problems however shes young and is trying to find herself and was always upfront with him and what their relationship meant to her. The deeper into the film the more in love she becomes with her, and he as well. Yet when I watch this film I see how Alex continually pushes and pushes her because of his own insecurities. He takes out all his *beep* on her and she slowly breaksdown. When she finally cracks Alex is so calm about it because thats how he had always wanted her.

They are polar opposites in life. Her a free spirit and him guided by order and always trying to fit everything into proper analysis. from the beginning he was testing her, playing mind games, trying to get the upperhand on her mentally.

In the finaly scene when she has overdosed and he won't let her call for help its because its the first time in their relationship that he had complete control over her, which is what he was fighting for since they met. I think he got off holding her life in his hands like that knowing after all that time she was now complete under his thumb.

That's what I got out of it.

this is such a perfect movie for analysis since there is just soo much to it. I love everything about this film.

[–] annisarsha-597-66500 14 years ago

I'm sorry, but your fingers must have slipped when you typed "brilliant" film. You are being facetious, right? The worst acting, horrible horrible directing and script and you call it "brilliant"?

Wow.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] annisarsha-597-66500 14 years ago

Whoa, some of us think rather highly of ourselves, don't we? Don't try to throw your elitist crap at me--I know art, at least what I like, and that movie was most assuredly not art, anymore than filming someone taking a dump set to classical music is. The Man Who Fell to Earth was brilliant. Bad Timing was pretentious and just plain awful.

I read some old reviews by some "non-dolts" and 99% of them agreed with me. There was no chemistry whatsoever between Garfunkel and Russell. Garfunkel wandered through the whole movie looking like he'd just had a lobotomy and Russell was unconvincing.

"Film Noir"? You want to see film noir? Try "The Killer Inside me", "LA Confidential", "Chinatown", or anything by the Cohen brothers.

Oh, and I am not a dolt.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] cjstevens1975 14 years ago

This is one the most honest films about male/female relationships ever made. The OP maintained that Milena was a bitch and Alex was a submissive dork, but watch it again and you see a woman who lives her life the way she wants and can't conform to his ideals. He uses every trick in the book to make her feel insecure (calling her stupid, making her feel guilty for who she is etc.)so she can't be completely honest cause he's not man enough to accept her for who she is. All he wants is control and ownership of her sexuality and she wants to be accepted and loved for who she is.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] cjstevens1975 14 years ago

I agree. Although I haven't seen Blume in Love or Loving so I appreciate the recommendtions. I also need to rewatch Carnal Knowledge (at 14 I was just to young to understand). Eyes Wide Shut (unfairly maligned) and Straw Dogs belong in that class as well. As I get older I've noticed that most relationships are built on lies from both sides. Men tend to lie to make themselves seem better than what they are while women lie so people won't think less of them. If you can accept why you may lie to youself and allow your partner the same moral complexity that we apply to ourselves then you have a better chance of finding the "truth" in a relationship. Considering the complex nature of relationships between the sexes it's amazing that the most facile views are the ones promoted as ideal (yeah, I'm talkin' to you Nora Ephron and Nicholas Sparks). We try and fail to live up to and create ideals only to find out too late that those ideals are all a fabrication.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] napoleon339 14 years ago

Which is why Im so sad at the state of american cinema nowadays.I just cannot find any film that truly resonates in my heart and mind as much as the works of past, visonary, sui generis masters did.Hell, even the failures of Ken Russell have more purity of intention -The Women, The Devils, Altered States; etc.- (however flawed they were), than the formulaic, recycled, audience-tested garbage that fill the multiplexes as of now.It actually worries me...

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] www.wedd 14 years ago

There are too few films these days that have style as well as genuine substance. Fewer still where the style and substance are fused as one. Bad Timing is a film such as this. Thought I disagree with it, I love the Time Out review: "[...]this film seems a case-example of how more could have been achieved with less editing, less ingenuity, less even of the bravura intelligence with which Roeg at one point matches Freud with Stalin as guilt-ridden spymasters [...]"

[–] PoppyTransfusion 8 years ago

Not sure if psychopath would be the right term but he is, by the end, an odious man. Consumed by a jealous he will never recognise because Milena, promiscuous and desperate for love, is a perfect screen for him to project and disavow his feelings. It is not a coincidence that he is a psychoanalytic scholar.

And did anyone notice how predatory the three lead characters are? Alex and Milena prey on each other, and Inspector Netusil preys on Alex.

I don't see it as predation but desperation by each to feel normal.

He kicked me right in the middle of my daily routine