British film fans can now stream an all-time classic film for free, which contains what was labelled the ‘most clinically accurate portrayal of a psychopath ever’.
The film, recently added to ITVX, where fans can watch it for free, was given the honour by a team of psychologists.
The experts listed and analysed 126 different ‘psychopathic’ characters in films, led by Belgian psychiatrist Professor Samuel Leistedt.
With the help of 10 friends, he watched over 400 films to pull out the 126 psychopathic characters. Some major film psychopaths were judged not to be up to Leistedt’s standards of accuracy, with Freddie Kruger, Patrick Bateman, and Hannibal Lecter all being deemed poor representations.
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No Country for Old Men, however, was judged to contain the most accurate portrayal of a psychopath, with the performance of Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh.
The film stars Tommy Lee Jones as Ed Tom Bell, a hunter who comes across $2 million and is then hunted by Chigurh, a terrifying assassin.
Speaking about Bardem’s performance, which he ranked as the most accurate, Leistedt wrote in his report: “Among the most interesting recent and most realistic idiopathic psychopathic characters is Anton Chigurh in the 2007 Coen brothers’ film, No Country for Old Men.
“Anton Chigurh is a well-designed prototypical idiopathic (meaning that the cause of the condition is unknown)/primary psychopath.
“We lack information concerning his childhood, but there are sufficient arguments and detailed information about his behaviour in the film to obtain a diagnosis of active, primary, idiopathic psychopathy, incapacity for love, absence of shame or remorse, lack of psychological insight, inability to learn from past experience, cold-blooded attitude, ruthlessness, total determination, and lack of empathy.
“He seems to be effectively invulnerable and resistant to any form of emotion or humanity.”
Bardem’s Chigurh received much of the plaudits of No Country for Old Men, leading the Spanish actor to received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2007.
Per Healthline, despite common misconceptions about someone being diagnosed as a psychopath, the main symptoms are 'low empathy, manipulation tendencies, and a lack of remorse'.
This plays into Leistedt’s assessment that one of the most famous ever film psychopath isn’t actually that realistic – Norman Bates in Psycho.
In his report, the psychiatry Professor stated that Bates seems to be more delusional or psychotic than actively psychopathic.
He went on to say: “In our specific topic of interest, it appears that psychopathy in the cinema, despite a real clinical evolution remains fictional.
"Most of the psychopathic villains in popular fiction resemble international and universal boogeyman, almost as 'villain archetypes.”
If you want your psychopaths a bit more on the realistic side, however, No Country For Old Men is your best bet.
No Country for Old Men is available to stream for free on ITVX.
Topics: Film, TV and Film, ITV
Michael Slavin