We've recently watched a film and TV drama with an odd similarity: both had instances of characters seeing or experiencing the presence of person or persons who were not actually present....or were they?
In a short, 6 episode, British TV series titled River (available via Netflix) a detective, whose female detective partner had been recently killed in action, experiences visions of her constantly. She chats to him, advises and teases him. He talks back and reacts to her, throughout the series, much to the consternation of observers.
In a DVD I picked up in a thrift store, of the 2009 movie In the Electric Mist, a sheriff detective (Tommy Lee Jones) is investigating murders in the New Orleans area, and happens across visions of Civil War soldiers in the mists of swampy surroundings. One of the figures, a General Hood, talks to him, advises him on several occasions.
This vision or hallucination theme is a fairly common trope used in TV and film drama, but it struck me as a bit weird watching the two stories in succession. There are countless movies featuring ghosts, but this is a different type of vision - a vision with purpose, a vision conjured up, we have to suspect, by one's own mind and for a specific reason.
The first film I always think of in the vision/hallucination category is in lighter vein: that old 1950 movie Harvey with James Stewart chatting to a giant bunny rabbit. That then reminds me of an episode of British comedy series Doc Martin, The Portwenn Effect (available on PBS) The doc visits a PTSD suffering park ranger, out in the middle of nowhere, who has a giant squirrel called Antony as vision pal.
Another enjoyable, rather more serious, movie with visions involved was Field of Dreams - visions of old baseball players were part of the storyline.
Anyone recall other films or TV shows in a similar vision/hallucination category ?
In a short, 6 episode, British TV series titled River (available via Netflix) a detective, whose female detective partner had been recently killed in action, experiences visions of her constantly. She chats to him, advises and teases him. He talks back and reacts to her, throughout the series, much to the consternation of observers.
In a DVD I picked up in a thrift store, of the 2009 movie In the Electric Mist, a sheriff detective (Tommy Lee Jones) is investigating murders in the New Orleans area, and happens across visions of Civil War soldiers in the mists of swampy surroundings. One of the figures, a General Hood, talks to him, advises him on several occasions.
This vision or hallucination theme is a fairly common trope used in TV and film drama, but it struck me as a bit weird watching the two stories in succession. There are countless movies featuring ghosts, but this is a different type of vision - a vision with purpose, a vision conjured up, we have to suspect, by one's own mind and for a specific reason.
The first film I always think of in the vision/hallucination category is in lighter vein: that old 1950 movie Harvey with James Stewart chatting to a giant bunny rabbit. That then reminds me of an episode of British comedy series Doc Martin, The Portwenn Effect (available on PBS) The doc visits a PTSD suffering park ranger, out in the middle of nowhere, who has a giant squirrel called Antony as vision pal.
Another enjoyable, rather more serious, movie with visions involved was Field of Dreams - visions of old baseball players were part of the storyline.
Anyone recall other films or TV shows in a similar vision/hallucination category ?
