Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Adapted Screenplay 1977

The Contenders:

Equus
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Julia (winner)
Oh, God!
That Obscure Object of Desire

Schizophrenia Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

Film: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Format: Internet video on The Nook.

Yesterday I watched a movie about alcoholism. Today, it’s all about schizophrenia. I’ve watched plenty of movies about mental illness before. Shock Corridor, The Snake Pit, Heavenly Creatures, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest spring to mind as films with this as a central idea, and plenty of others certainly touch on it, and that’s really just the mainstream movies. Watch enough horror movies and you’ll see plenty of movies taking place inside institutions as well. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is the sort of film that seems to want to capitalize on the success of Cuckoo’s Nest. The difference is that this time, our main patient is suicidal, teetering on the edge of a face-first dive into schizophrenia, and is a 16-year-old girl named Deborah Blake (Kathleen Quinlan).

The film starts with Debbie’s being committed to what looks to be very much the standard movie version of an institution. We also get an early glimpse into the fantasy world Yr where Debbie spends a great deal of her waking life. Life in the institution is difficult. It’s loud and raucous and none of the patients are firmly attached to anything like reality. Debbie discovers that she is more or less unable to feel anything in the real world because all of her emotions are tied up in the savage world of Yr. Another suicide attempt and scenes of her burning her arm with a cigarette highlight the fact that Debbie is physically, mentally, and emotionally detached from the world the rest of us live in.