The Movie ' What 's Eating Gilbert Grape ``

The Black Balloon directed by Elissa Down is an Australian film about Thomas Mollison and his family who just moved to a new suburb, his dad who is in the army, his mom is pregnant and his older autistic brother, Charlie, while Thomas has his own adolescent problems. What’s eating Gilbert Grape directed by Lasse Hallstrom is a film about Gilbert Grape who has to take care of his entire family, including Arnie, his developmentally disabled little brother and his obese mother Bonnie. Both films explore the difficult subject of autism and the ways it affects family lifestyles, emotions, responsibilities, and development. The film techniques Down and Hallstrom use are camera shots and symbolisms.

In the film, the participants completed seven tasks, which were designed to highlight characteristics or symptomology of one or more mental illnesses. While observing each task, I sympathized with

In this paper, there will be a diagnosis of a character named Arnie from the movie “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” (Hallström, 1993). Clear clinical descriptions of the said diagnosis will be given, followed by a describing how the movie character fits the diagnosis. Then, empirically supported treatments for the diagnosis will be provided, otherwise known as evidence-based practices, which are given to the specific disorder that Arnie has in the movie. Lastly, two treatments to relieve the character’s distress will also be given.

Becky becomes involved with the Grape family and helps Gilbert to realize that he is entitled to his own life, wants and needs. Gilbert Grape will be the focus of this paper and what can be done to implement changes in his life. These changes will benefit Gilbert and the entire Grape family, by focusing on a strengths prospective.

His oldest sister, Amy, is a very caring woman that tries to take on many responsibilities herself and the youngest sister Ellen, who is only fifteen, has many issues with her family that she is trying to overcome, as well. Becky, a young girl that traveled into town with her grandmother and their caravan found romance with Gilbert and a certain connection with Arnie accordingly. Arnie is not your average boy; he is mentally challenged and was not expected to live to see his tenth birthday, let alone, his eighteenth, which he surpasses in the movie. Arnie is associated with many heights in the movie as he is regularly seen dangling from the roof, climbing trees, and of course, his ritual of scaling the water tower. Although Arnie loves the heights, he can not seem to conquer the depths as he will not venture to the basement of the house. “I don’t want to go down there, Gilbert; Dad’s down there,” thus voicing the repressed fear that no one in the family will, or can put into words.

Arnie Grape was referred to this agency by Sheriff Jerry Farrell of the Endora Police Department. He was concerned about Arnie's continued lack of supervision. Sheriff Farrell stated that

In the movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape directed by Lasse Hallstrom, the idea of adversity is clearly shown. The Grapes aren’t your typical family, after the mother spirals down the staircase of depression, the five children are forced to grow up and mature as they now have the responsibility of looking after their mother. Endora is the town in which the story is set and the children are trapped inside as their mother hasn’t left the house in seven years. Gilbert Grape is faced with a number of adversities, he has to live with an obese mother that demands him to always do better and take responsibility for his family, he has to protect and care for his little brother Arnie who is mentally slow and Gilbert is trapped in Endora due to all

In Lasse Hallström’s film, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, the struggles of living with a mental illness is displayed through Arnie Grape, the protagonist’s younger brother. Grape’s disability is never discussed in the movie, as the movie focuses on Gilbert Grape, the principal character, and his struggles with life and family responsibilities. With the use of various resources, such as a psychology textbook (Lilienfeld 2014), credible health associations’ websites, and The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DMS-5), one is capable of analyzing the nature of Arnie’s disorder and make a valid assumption that he is dealing with a mental illness: autism. Autism is a spectrum disorder characterized by “various degrees in difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors” ("Learning About Autism," n.d.). It becomes clear, through Arnie Grape’s social and cognitive impairment, that he has Autism, despite the fact that the film does not clearly state that he has a mental illness.

When a family is put in tough situations, it is natural to want to escape from it all. As a man surrounded by things that seem beyond his control, the main character of the film, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, shows the psychological emotional detachment that can occur when the realization of such an escape is impossible. Gilbert Grape is a man often thinking carefully about his situation and making an effort to filter his feelings. His family life is depressing, and his emotional response to his living arrangement is an overall rejection of everything around him. Gilbert often shows contempt for his family by having cynical thoughts of them whenever he speaks inwardly about them in his mind. Gilbert appears to be on autopilot through life, only speaking enough to keep things peaceful with friends and the people of Endora. Gilbert has a general lack of interest in most relationships outside of his family, and often turns a blind eye towards the town of Endora as a whole. His severance extends even to himself, as he is not emotionally honest with himself. As the film progresses, Gilbert's emotional state begins to readjust as he comes back into contact with his feelings. The emotional detachment is extreme for Gilbert, and Johnny Depp does an excellent job at depicting the psychological effects of a broken home and the difficulty one faces in overcoming it.

In the film "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" directed by Lasse Hallstrom in 1993, one of the main ideas is that of struggle and hardship. This idea is significant to the film because it relates to each character in a different way, making the storyline more interesting. Three different techniques used by Lasse Hallstrom to illustrate the idea of struggle and hardship include Gilberts voice over, the extra close-ups of Bonnie as she climbs the stairs and the double up of dialogue, where Mrs Carver is talking to Gilbert, and Mr Carver is heard tying to entertain their children in background.

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a motion picture drama that follows the life of the Grape family in the small, lackluster town of Endora (Hallstrom, 1993). Gilbert Grape, played by a young Johnny Depp, is the film’s predominant character and apparent man of the family after his father’s death. Throughout the movie, Gilbert narrates his thoughts as he attempts to navigate his familial responsibilities, his work, and his personal life. Gilbert struggles to take care of Bonnie, his morbidly obese mother, his new love interest, Becky, and his autistic brother, Arnie. Arnie is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and for the purpose of this assignment, will be the focus of this analysis.

Society’s ideological constructs and attitudes towards minority groups are created and reinforced through media imagery. Although negative associations that maintain inequities with regard to race, gender and homophobia (Conner & Bejoian, 2006) have been somewhat relieved, disability is still immersed in harmful connotations that restrict and inhibit the life of people with disabilities in our society.

It is well known that children are very easily influenced by what they see in the world, especially in the media. Disney has undoubtedly monopolized the hearts and brains of children all around tihe world, so they have an extreme amount of power in the way they portray things. Whether it be the way they portray gender, families, or mental illness, these portrayals affect their audience on a deep psychological level. The way that mental illness is portrayed is a lot harder to detect than some other topics like gender and families, but they are just as damaging. Disney needs to strive to portray mental illness as something that is genuinely human rather than something that is evil.

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is an incredible movie that was released in 1993 with two amazing actors, Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. Gilbert Grape, acted by Johnny Depp, lives in a small town with his five siblings and his mother. Gilbert has several responsibilities considering that his mother, acted by Darlene Cates, is very overweight and is not able to leave her home. He also has a younger brother Arnie, acted by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is mentally impaired. As the story begins, you learn about Gilbert’s father who committed suicide in the basement of the house when Gilbert was very young. This left his mother hopeless and depressed spending most of her time sitting on the couch watching TV and eating. Being unable to properly care for her family due to her obesity forces Gilbert to take on the responsibilities of repairing the house and taking care of Arnie while his sisters help as much as they can. Keep in mind that Arnie who has a mental illness has a tendency of getting into things he should not be in, as well as having a habit of climbing the water tower in town. Gilbert works at a small Grocery store in town where he often

Understanding mental illness for the average person can be challenge or even unattainable. Unknown aspects from each individual illness grasps differing urges that are unrelated to the majority of people. The film industry, however, is used as a productive machine of creating empathetic relationships between its audience and the people being portray in the film. A combination of the film industry and the implementation of characters struggling with mental illness delivers a provoking message to an audience of people willing to learn the situations of all people. The movie A Beautiful Mind manages to fulfill the dramatic effects of a film and the realities within an individual suffering through mental illness.