It's like he's not dying. The film “The Mind Benders”, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2023, has two titles in Russian “Soul Catchers” and “Brainwashing”, and at least the second is more accurate, the first is clearly closer to the content that was noticed in the 1960s by far not everyone, considering the movie a failure. It is hoped that the perception of the film will change over time, because the more years pass since the experiment to which it is devoted, the more relevant the conversation about the frightening claims of science to transform not only the body and brains, but also the soul, all-powerful control over it, its withdrawal. Soulcatchers, based on James Kennaway's book of the same name, is preceded by documentary evidence: "This story is based on The reduction of sensation experiments in the United States." Indeed, back in the 50s, an insulating reservoir was invented, capable of providing complete sensory deprivation. The fleet cabin, or sensor cushioning tank, was a water-filled, pitch-black, viscous, opaque, soundproof environment heated to the same temperature as human skin.
The question solved by the scientists who created it is quite logical and promising: will this environment help make a person perfectly susceptible to any suggestions - brainwashing? Both the scientific problem and the ways of solving it in the film are radical, if not vicious. All the scientists involved in the search for the answer, Sharpei, Longman, Tate, being in their own obsession with scientific freedom, commit moral crimes (each his own). And one of them is not in the state of zombies, he is simply attracted by the idea, and also jealousy, envy, possibly defectiveness of the rejected “in love child”. And in his case, the central question of the film "P = Traitor or Z = Zombie?" has the answer P - Traitor, aka the Executioner. Only his guillotine is a cube that cuts off freedom, love and choice. The film gives a good reason to think about the fact that any experimental scientist, and dreamer-utopian, and pragmatic practitioner with perfectly clear and feasible goals, risks (this risk is always!) to become both a criminal and a victim of experiment in one person - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Dirk Bogard, who starred in the film, wrote: Dearden’s Brainwashing was too much ahead of its time. Back then, few people knew what brainwashing was, no one believed it was even possible, and apparently no one wanted to believe it. If they had heard anything about Gary Powers or the psychological impact on prisoners of war in Korea, if they had known what everyone knows now about the psychiatric special treatment of political dissidents, we would probably have made more money from this tape. Alas, this information was made public later, and then the general opinion about the film was summed up in one newspaper headline: "Abhorrent and meaningless Thriller of Bogarde" (Dirk Bogard, "Snakes and Stairs", 1978). A clear failure of the public, a failure in the career of a great actor and at the same time one of his favorite films. Maybe you should know why.
The content depth of “Soulcatchers” extends to ethics (first of all, the decoding of the concept of humanism – love for a person, faith in him), and philosophy (especially in the interpretation of freedom), and psychology (especially in the consideration of the problem of mental health). Mentally healthy can only be a person who has independence. Marx, Freud, Fromm... The awareness of the individual’s independent choice of opinions, occupations, books, women, ideals, ideology is the proof of his mental health. The distortion or suppression of independence, the taking away of it, any experiments with it are blatant forms of unfreedom, a perfectly appropriate synonym for which is mental ill-health.
What’s so special about this scientific experiment (how many of these experiments have we seen in the movies)? The subject is not indoctrinated with a false idea, not an alien worldview, he is indoctrinated with dislike, faith is taken away. That’s what’s valuable about the film, and that’s what its not modern idealism is.
It turns out that the core of the personality that science can encroach on is feeling! To take it away is the best way to dehumanize the most human. “You have never, ever loved. You Never Loved Her! sounds like a death sentence in this movie. It is no coincidence that after these words the hero of Bogarde will faint.
Dearden's film is ultimately not about science. This is an idealistic message that in no case, no experiment, no super-advanced scientific technology can take away the feelings of love, faith in it, and with them the soul. One of the film's central phrases, "There are some instincts in Longman that are just indestructible," is actually about faith. And the faith of the hero is Una, his wife, friend, mistress, companion, the closest person in the world. To be intimately connected with her—his indestructible “instinct,” the core of his personality, the essence of his freedom and independence—is to belong to her.
Dirk Bogard's acting task in this film went far beyond split personality. He played the whole person, not just the contrasts of good and evil, fire and ice, Jekyll and Hyde. A person who can fit both the plant (willless, soulless, amoeba creature), and the beast (instincts, cruelty, violence, malice), and the spirit (victim, faith, transformation). A person of family, a person of career, a person of social and antisocial, a person in friendship and betrayal, in love and hatred, in the ultimate emptiness and abomination and on the top of the spirit.
What was the condition of Longman's transformation? A solid foundation of mutual love that lasted 14 years. Science is advancing, but nothing has changed since antiquity. Love is to go down with someone to hell, no doubt with all the power of sacrifice and faith. And bring him out like Eurydice, as if he hadn't died.