Movie Review: Instinct

Inspired by Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael", which had a powerful effect on me when i first read it as well,

This movie is very good. Moving. Riveting. Fascinating. Mysterious.

All of these things, and more, even. Funny, but I had not even heard of it, prior to stumbling on it on Youtube. The whole movie was there to watch, for free, and I took a chance that it would be halfway decent. After all, Anthony Hopkins is one of my favorite actors, if not outright the favorite. Plus, it looked interesting, in terms of scenery.

Indeed, I was glad that I went ahead and took the opportunity to watch this film. It is good and, as already mentioned, has a lot to offer. All of those things that I mentioned earlier are true.

Yet, it has more to offer, particularly on an intellectual level, even much more, if you simply watch it after having read Quinn's "Ishmael". It is such an important book and, if you take it seriously and read it as a true alternative to the history that amounts to mythology that we have always taken for granted, than the book could change your life. If you allow it to, of course.

Reading Ishmael (or other works from Quinn, particularly "The Story of B" or "My Ishmael"), and understanding the underlying message will allow you to understand this movie much more clearly, and to probably get in the mind of Anthony Hopkins character much more.

Don't get me wrong: this is a pretty entertaining movie, most likely, even if you are unfamiliar with Daniel Quinn's work. But if you are familiar with Ishmael, then this movie, which already is good and stands on it's own, become more layered, if you will. You understand what is going on a hell of a lot better. Trust me on this one, because right at the very beginning of the movie, it is outright stated that the movie is inspired by this book (although an entirely different story from it).

Hopkins is a phenomenal actor, one of the very best of all time, surely. And he brings life and lends credibility to his character, noted Professor Ethan Powell, who went to Africa to watch gorillas, and was never the same afterwards.

He attacked and killed soldiers while in Africa, and was imprisoned, before being extradited to the United States. While being processed at the airport, the loudness of his surroundings once again makes Dr. Ethan Powell snap, and he attacks and seriously injures the guards around him. He only really calms down when he catches sight of his daughter, Lynn Powell, played by Maura Tierney.

Back under restraint, Professor Powell now refuses to speak, and he is considered dangerously unstable. He is taken to a maximum security prison under harsh conditions, left there, essentially, to rot.

Enter a brilliant young, up and coming psychiatrist, Theo Caulder, played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.. Having convinced his superiors to give him this shot, despite their reservations about his lack of experience, Caulder finally gets his shot with the professor. There is one catch, though: he will be the psych for the entire prison. Still, despite this, he is excited, and wants to do what he does best: to appear friendly enough to essentially befriend patients, and gain their trust. Yet, as a learned man, the professor could prove to be a bigger challenge, and Caulder himself is the only one who really thinks that he can break through.

After some rough patches in the first couple of sessions, Caulder does indeed break through. Convincing him to use his words in order to spread his message this one last time, Caulder finally manages to get Professor Powell to talk, much to the astonishment of everyone, including Lynn Powell, the professor's daughter.

Caulder thinks that this breakthrough is going to go far in advancing his career, and that is clearly his main interest initially. But Professor Powell proves not just to be a much more involved and challenging case than he expected, but also to hold a certain knowledge, or perhaps a certain way of looking at the world, that gets Caulder's attention. This does not happen all at once. But after Powell physically attacks Caulder, and forces him to realize that he is not in control of the situation as he automatically assumes that he is, Caulder becomes more receptive to what Powell is actually telling him.

And Caulder is fascinated, and completely taken in by what the professor has to say. It is more, much more, than mere intellectual curiosity, for that matter. Caulder is surprised to find himself completely taken by Powell's description of his experiences in Africa, and what he has learned about the world. he talks about a "Taker" culture (this is where familiarity with Daniel Quinn's work really comes in handy).

Before long, Caulder begins to see the world differently. He begins to feel uncomfortable with his own intense focus on advancing his career, and instead of seeing the prison as a place that he, like the inmates, has to serve time in, he begins to really see the prison system, and just how unfair it is. He had assumed that he was free prior to meeting Powell, but Powell convinces him that Caulder himself is every bit as imprisoned in his own way as any of the inmates are. He is not "free", like he always assumed he was.

With seemingly each session, Caulder meets with Lynn Powell, and they become friends, almost bordering on a romance. Something just keeps bringing Caulder back to her, and clearly, after a while, it is clearly not just because she happens to be the professor's daughter.

Ethan Powell, a distinguished professor earlier in his life, and now seen merely as a dangerous, lunatic convict, is adapting to prison life in his own way. He understands better than most how might makes right within the prison walls, and how the guards, ultimately, hold the most power in that sense. But he challenges it more and more, until there are outright conflicts. When Caulder gets involved, things really begin to get tense.

Eventually, after an episode with the head guard, Powell returns to his vow of silence. By that point, Caulder's time with the professor is pretty much up. He is really struggling with it, and has come to view the professor in a very different light than the rest of the world has. Suddenly, he can not only sympathize with Powell, but urges him to seek a trial, because he thinks that if Powell explains himself to a judge the way that he did to Caulder, he can outright be released from prison. Yet, he is surprised to see that Powell just isn't interested.

Ultimately, this movie is about Powell, and what he learned while in Africa. His studies of the gorillas were, in some ways, very similar to Caulder's study of him in the beginning. he was detached, and his interest was purely academic. He had his preconceptions about the gorillas, much like Caulder did about him. he assumed that they were violent, that they could easily threaten him. But when he actually studied them, he slowly but surely was accepted within their community, as improbable as that may have seemed. As he learned more about them, he came to understand that they were, in fact, more peaceful than the "Taker" culture that he had been a part of. Like Caulder, what he learns from this community that he had at first kept at arm's length comes to change his life, and he cannot go back. He cannot simply go back into society and view things in the same way. And if he is to truly be free, he knows that, ultimately, he has to separate himself from it.

As for Caulder, he is very different by the end of the movie than he had been in the beginning. There is a transformation, and he is a changed man. He credits Ethan Powell for opening his eyes to this new outlook on life, and his place in it.

This movie was surprisingly good. I thought that maybe they relied too much on the violence of the professor, for a movie where the message is supposed to be about a rejection of the societal violence that the professor was supposed to have rejected in the first place. Perhaps, it is a case of fighting fire with fire. Who knows?

In any case, this is a thought-provoking movie. It does not have the explosions and special effects that seems to be the only thing that some young guys look for in movies. This is not Transfromers 2, in other words - a terrible movie with incredible special effects, and hardly any storyline whatsoever.

This movie tells a story. It has action, and that is where it differentiates from "Ishmael", where the ideas expressed are the source of the fascination. The ideas count in this one, but so does the story - a tale of two men transforming, one through the telling of the other's transformation. This is an emotional, as well as a cerebral, movie, and you should enter it with patience to allow the complete picture to unroll and reveal itself. It also requires an open mind. But, in the end, this movie is much more rewarding than the vast majority of movies that are out there.

Highly recommended!