Anyone reading this is probably aware that Hollywood movies are a bad place to find accurate representations of mental illness. Oh sure, certain films may look into the actual psychology of sociopaths and criminals with rigor and research, but most screenwriters would rather write scenes of murder and mayhem than actually bother interrogating the minds of their killers. If you ever see a movie psychopath laughing wildly at their own mayhem, they’re doing a movie thing, not a psychopath thing. Even films that purport to know about psychology aren’t always accurate, often communicating bits and pieces of psychological realism without doing the heavy lifting. Think of “Psycho” or any other film about dissociative identity disorder.
According to a 2014 report from Science News, however, one movie murderer can be described as wholly psychologically accurate: Anton Chigurh from the Coen Brothers’ 2007 Best Picture winner “No Country from Old Men.” Anton Chigurh, played by the Oscar-winning Javier Bardem, is an assassin who murders his victims using a device called a captive bullet pistol (a widget that fires a bolt into a victim’s brain via air pressure, then retracts it back again). They’re typically used to slaughter cattle. Anton isn’t just an assassin, though; he’s a soft-spoken, intense monster who seemed wholly detached from the world around him. And he never laughs wildly. Indeed, when he smiles, it seems false and manipulative. Anton doesn’t really know what human emotions are. That’s a more accurate portrayal of a psychopath.
This was the conclusion reached by forensic psychologist Samuel Leistedt and his colleague Paul Linkowski at the end of a fun, three-year project. The pair watched 400 movies, each one with a purported psychopath, to see which films best represent psychopathy as an illness. Anton Chigurh was, by their study, the most accurate portrayal.
Read more: American Psycho Explained: Breaking Down The Ending
Anton Chigurh is cinema’s most accurate psychopath
Anton Chugurh in the desert in No Country for Old Men – Miramax Films
As part of his work, Leistedt has talked to and psychologically analyzed real-life hit men, and he observed that Chigurh has the same cold, anxiety-free demeanor as his patients. “[Anton] does his job, and he can sleep without any problems. In my practice, I have met a few people like this. They were like this. Cold, smart, no guilt, no anxiety, no depression,” Leistedt explained, diagnosing Anton as a “primary, classic/idiopathic psychopath.” If you meet someone who reminds you of Anton, perhaps be a little wary.
Also near the top of the list was Hans Beckert, the child murderer played by Peter Lorre in Fritz Lang’s 1931 classic “M.” In that film, Hans stalks and kills kids in Berlin, causing a city-wide crime crackdown. Naturally, the local petty criminals hate Hans for singlehanded increasing the city’s police presence, so they decide to go after Hans themselves. At the end of the film, Hans wails in terror, declaring that his murderous impulses are something he’s never been able to fight. Leistedt diagnosed Hans as a “Secondary, pseudopsychopath, additional diagnosis of psychosis.” He also noted that Henry (Michael Rooker) in John McNaughton’s 1986 horror film “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” is disturbingly realistic. He doesn’t plan ahead, has no empathy, and lives in poverty and chaos.
Continuing, Leistedt explained that as scary as many famous movie villains are, they’re not accurate portrayals of psychopathy. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in “Psycho” is a prime example. As Leistedt observed, Norman might be afflicted with psychosis (read: hallucinations/delusions), but that’s different from straight-up emotionless psychopathy. Ditto Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs.” The character’s unsettling calmness, Leistedt remarked, is not a feature of real psychopaths, as entertaining as he is.
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