Sincere adulation and pretentious charm

In the 1969 film Rosemary’s Baby, actor Ruth Gordon won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The character she played, Minnie is a ruthless charmer who has no remorse for manipulating the protagonist against her best interests. She pretends to be her “mother” persuading the main character to trust her over her own instincts with cajoling remarks and an insatiable dynamism. It’s all a set up though; a trap. Unfortunately, Rosemary’s baby is the result of it.

Similarly Alien and Lovely Bones plays on the same themes realistically or of a profound imagination. In Alien, the robot symbolizes the American sociopath. It’s fair to write since there are no real robots in modern civilization which resemble a human being that Ridley Scott is suggesting the personality that acts with little, if not any remorse. In Lovely Bones, the protagonist is fatally attacked by a realistic portrayal of a sociopath. All the symptoms of a sociopath are there: isolation, inability to empathize, and lack of remorse for starters. In the 2009 cinematic success Precious, the heroine’s mother is also a sociopath with major symptoms raging all over the place. Like Little Red Riding Hood, if children are taught to be nice to others and respect authority than there is a degree of danger that they are set up to fall into like an ambush.

What is so touching about Midnight Cowboy is that the main character, Joe Buck has a tremendous amount of goodness in him although he is extremely green. When he gets involved with Ratso, played by Dustin Hoffman, the audience can witness Joe’s ability to bring out the goodness in Ratso balancing out the energies of wisdom and friendship.