Don Juan DeMarco (starring Johnny Depp) is a story of a delusional (or so they think) 21-year-old man who thinks he is the real Don Juan. He claims to be the greatest lover in the world and has made love to over 1,500 women without ever having to seduce them. The story takes place in a New York in the present. The story begins with Don Juan standing on a billboard demanding a dual with the greatest swordfighter in the world, so he may end his life with honor. He wants to die because he has lost the love of his life, who was never actually a lover, just a supermodel who would not give him the time of day. He is talked down off the sign by a psychiatrist and suicide prevention specialist, Dr. Mickler (Marlin Brando) who claims to be the swordfighter Don Octavio de Flores.
Don Juan (protagonist) is dressed throughout the movie in a cape, hat and Zorro type mask. He claims to be from Mexico, yet his last name is Italian, he speaks with a Castillian accent and his father is from New York. He is very handsome and seductive throughout the movie, or maybe that is just my feeling, and he draws you into his life and makes you feel sorry for him in some ways.
With only ten days left until retirement, Dr. Mickler insists on taking Don Juan as his patient and temporarily institutionalizes him for evaluation. The movie continues with fantasy overlapping reality as Don Juan tells Dr. Mickler the story of his life (assisted by flashbacks which make you feel that they happened a century ago). He discusses his parents and how they met, his life in Mexico, family tragedy, duals over relationships, emotional hardships, great loves, and great conquests (women). Throughout the movie you get the feeling that Don Juan is real and he stepped out of the pages of a Mexican history book.
Dr. Mickler does not believe that Don Juan is mentally unstable and carefully watches him as he effortlessly casts his seductive spell over every nurse that comes near him. Unaware, Dr. Mickler is also affected Don Juan's spell as he begins to seduce his wife of 35 years (Faye Dunaway) rekindling their lost romance.
Dr. Mickler's boss (antagonist) is pushing him use the standard method of treatment for all patients (anti-depressants) and to commit Don Juan, but Dr. Mickler refuses to drug him and insists on more time to get to the reality of his story. This brings to mind a troubling question; is every person taken into a facility for evaluation actually drugged? I would hope that in reality there are people like Dr. Mickler who would carefully evaluate a person before forcefully medicating them.
As the story continues, Dr. Mickler finds out that Don Juan lives with his grandmother. Upon visiting her to get to the truth, he enters his bedroom which he find covered with posters of the model he obsessed over as well as a book on his nightstand, Don Juan. The grandmother informs Dr. Mickler of the facts which aides Dr. Mickler in his pursuit of the truth about the man behind the mask. It is not until the end of the movie, when Don Juan is evaluated by the psychiatric review judge, that the truth is finally told. I believe he feels support and courage through the relationship her formed with the understanding Dr. Mickler.
I would rate this movie a 3. I enjoyed it, but it was a little slow. I was impressed with the way it provoked my thoughts. Let me tell you some of them...
This movie seems to condone a persons right to believe whatever they want as long as they keep reality in the back of their mind. There is no harm in believing something that is not fact as long as it does not hurt you or others. Wouldn’t we all like to make believe a different life when life gets tough? Another deliberation that this movie brings to mind; why is it that our society has developed throughout history with a standard for each civilization? In the history of some of the different civilizations that we have studied throughout this course, we have come to see that people viewed as abnormal are often outcast from their own societies. Others are only elevated to higher socioeconomic groups if they fit within the "normal" standards. What is "normal" and who has the right to judge what is normal? Who trains psychiatrists? Don't psychiatrists have the right to seek help from other psychiatrists and still be considered normal? I have seen people throughout my life that I have thought were weird or different, they have looked really strange or acted oddly. I have somehow put myself up at a level where I have felt able to subconsciously judge them. I am sure this is human nature and we all do this without even thinking much about it. Now I wonder, what action does it take to cross the line from normal to abnormal? I am sure, remembering some of the crazier thing that I done in my younger years, that I was probably perceived by others as a little strange. But now that I am a wife and mother of two kids and one dog in a middle class house, in a middle class city, I am normal...aren't I?