1/I’m going to do a thread about the connection between Dr Sarno and the films Chinatown and Midnight Run. Further, I’ll make a connection between these stories and the import of cultural context, which shapes, and is shaped by media, as wee as how we interact with that media.
2/The other night we watched the film Chinatown with our 18-year-old daughter. One of her favorite films is Midnight Run. The two films share some similarities. Both feature an ex cop who was pushed out of service for challenging corruption. Both leads can be combative if pushed.
3/ both characters have stayed tenuously connected to policing by working as private detectives or bounty hunters. This leaves them in a kind of a purgatory of waiting. They both appear disillusioned, but still committed to justice. Yet, their work leaves them feeling incomplete
4/ Both films use some comedy, but Midnight Run is much more steeped in humor to tell it’s story. Chinatown was made in the 70s, and it’s a classic 70s film; it can be quite dark, and the ending tragically illustrates that the rich and powerful always win.
5/ This darkness, and willingness to accept, and even embrace, the truth of how deeply power can corrupt even the institutions that are meant to protect us from corruption was not only acceptable in the 70s, it’s what made Chinatown a classic.
6/ By the 80s, the culture had shifted more towards conspicuous consumption, as well as the embrace of the hero’s narratives in which the hero must win. It’s hard to imagine Chinatown being made in the 80s, or Midnight Run made in the 70s. Yet, their stories are quite similar.
7/ The main difference is that Chinatown ends with a profound tragedy. Nicholson is broken by the system once again. In Midnight Run DeNiro overcomes profound challenges and Justice prevails handsomely; crushing incompetence and corruption.
8/ My Point is - culture shapes expectation and, in turn, culture is shaped by expectation. In other words we are shaped by the intersecting, and overriding, narratives of our family, community, and larger culture. These intersecting factors guide our internal narratives.
9/ the connection to Dr Sarno, and our film All The Rage, is that Dr Sarno is a bit like the heroic characters in both films, and the effort to tell his story ran up against the kind of cultural expectations that shaped the narratives of CT and MR
10/ it took us well over a decade to make the film, because we struggled to figure out how to tell Dr. Sarno‘s heroic narrative. While DeNiro and Nicholson’s Characters were fired, Dr. Sarno was dismissed rather than cast out. Like them, he found a way to work outside the system.
11/ When we started the film, we hoped to make a more vérité dicumentary, following him as he spread his message of the import of mind-body medicine. However, he did very little to actively spread that message other than publish his books and see patients.
12/ we hoped to follow the promotional activities when he published the Divided Mind, but when we checked in with him to see when it would be published he told us it has been out for two months. Further, we had trouble finding support for our work.
13/ we didn’t give up on the project exactly, but we didn’t know how to move it forward. We were in kind of a purgatory ourselves. Thankfully, I had another attack of terrible back pain and realized that I would have to be a character in the documentary.
14/ as a doctor, still working tenuously within the system, Dr. Sarno did not have the room to rail against it, even as it dismissed his ideas and his success with patient. All story is driven by conflict, and this was not a story he wanted to tell. We understood that
15/ However, we also understood that all stories need a character. So, I played that role. It’s also a story about information, so we worked to find a balance between the ideas and the emotions. In the end All The Rage is neither a 70s film nor an 80s film. It is in between.
16/ still, offscreen, like those other characters Dr. Sarno shared a profound resistance to corruption. However, he also came to see the value of patience. He understood how powerfully our stories shape us, and how no amount of convincing we change that. So, he did not fight.
17/ in some ways, Dr. Sarno‘s greatest heroism came from resisting the urge to fight, and worked on acceptance and patience. In CT and RU the fight is essentially with City Hall. By the 80’s the cultural perception had become that good guys could win again.
18/ Dr Sarno started to develop his ideas in the 70’s and began to spread them in the 80’s through his books. He worked at the edges of the system and suffered the slings and errors of dismissal. Slowly, he proved that 50 million Sarno fans can’t be wrong.
19/ in the end, science is proving him to be largely correct in his theories. At the end of the film he is forced to retire, but he does so knowing that his work will carry on. It’s neither triumph nor tragedy, but a little bit of both.
20/ Like Dr Sarno our film has had a difficult time pushing past the cultural resistance to all things emotional. It’s a film about how shaming people for the emotions leads to negative health outcomes. Almost every review shamed me for being in it and being emotional. It’s fine
21/ I didn’t take it personally. It was pretty clarifying in regards to how much our cultural frames shape our expectations and responses; largely what the film is about. The first line of the film is “The stories we tell ourselves that ourselves shape our sense of who we are.”
22/ The last line finds Dr. Sarno saying “It all comes down to one simple idea, that the mind and the body are intimately connected. That’s it. That’s the whole story”. I would add that the film makes it clear that mind body story is also connected to our culture.
23/ It’s now been four years since we first started showing the film, and it’s quite incredible how much the culture has shifted since then. Trauma awareness is becoming an integral part of medicine. The culture is changing. We hope our film can help that change happen.
FIN - for more info about the film - alltheragedoc.com
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