yellow-27476 I have been ashamed on being human first in "salo", then watching this movie...It is disturbing watching how they treat with mentally ill people. How they do tube feeding, how they treat them..like an animal..i was so so angry and disappointed..They are mentally ill, but they are human.. To be honest some of them are more clever than us.. More more clever i can say.. This guy- Vladimir, another 2 guys talking about war. And the arrogant doctor.. I hated him so much. It will be better for them to be in prison than here. This movie shows us how wild animal can we be sometimes. and i'm glad that i'm living not in those years.

Steve Pulaski In 1967, documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman made his first and most controversial film that uncovered the truth of what goes on behind the close doors of a seemingly typical mental asylum. The film is called Titicut Follies, and has proved itself to be one of the most controversial and enigmatic films of all time. It focuses on one of the touchiest subjects, and makes it so you can't turn away even when you feel you should.Titicut Follies documents life at the Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane. It shows graphic depictions, in black and white, of the horror and wretched tainting of humanity and the dehumanizing of innocent people that took place at the institution. The patients in the asylum are taunted by guards, forced to walk around in the nude because "it is cheaper," and are abused verbally and physically everywhere they turn.The most chilling aspect is when one man, dubbed "the paranoid schizophrenic," claims that he feels worse now than when he checked into Bridgewater State. This leads to the shocking conclusion that maybe the asylum causes mental illness rather than prevents it. There is also a very haunting scene of force-feeding a reluctant patient whose food is then contaminated with cigarette ash from the person who is forcing the tube down his nose. The scene provided me with one of the most stunning and stiffening feelings I've ever seen in a film.Shortly after it was completed, Wiseman was the target of the Massachusetts government who was threatening to ban the film completely from screenings and Television. The government stated that it was a violation of the patients' lives and profit or publicity shouldn't be made at their expense. Wiseman swears that the government was trying to protect a state run institution, and because of the graphic nature and honesty of the documentary the people simply didn't want to give one of their facilities a bad name. I truly believe him. It seems like the typical move for a state government. Hide the truth, protect the wealthy.Being that the film is so rare, how did I stumble upon a copy? Titicut Follies had one and only Television run in 1992 on PBS. The film is available on DVD, but is so rare and expensive coming across a copy is harder than it may seem. My uncle of all people had a copy of the one time it was broadcast on TV. A title card with a strict and emotionless narration about the film's content and an introduction by Charlie Rose preceded the film itself. After the film, a tongue-in-cheek statement about the asylum changing its ways was shown immediately followed by a PBS representative asking the viewer to call the number on screen to donate ten dollars to help the network invest in more documentaries.So what was the film doing for thirty-two years? Wiseman continued to direct many other documentaries after Titicut Follies, where he focused on a variety of subject matters, at the same time try and give his first effort the rightful release it deserved. Finally, in 1991, he did after a Supreme Court ruled it acceptable since many of the patients filmed were deceased, their legal guardians at the time of the film were notified and each one confirmed to the use of the patient in the documentary, and as long as a statement was made that the institution was gradually different.But is it? Currently, what happens behind those Bridgewater doors stays behind those Bridgewater doors. It's an undiscovered mystery. I have a feeling it does possess some essence of normality in the present day. In the sixties, if you were criminally insane you were treated with carelessness. Over the years, I believe people have grew more accepting and tolerate of the unfortunate soles who are simply "not all there." I'm sure now in asylums people are much more patient and understanding with the conditions and trying to help.That's not to say a sheet should be placed over past events. The treatment is nonetheless horrifying to this day, and Titicut Follies is for the people seeking the harsh truth. While it will be neglected by people that don't believe they can handle the subject matter, it truly should be viewed by everyone. It's already sad that the film has had such trouble getting some sort of broad release. This is the kind of film some people need to be forced to watch. Anyone in the medical field should be obligated, and any ordinary human should be aware at the very least.Directed by: Frederick Wiseman.

Coventry All I ever read about is how disturbing and controversial "Titicut Follies" is, and how the Surpreme Court commanded to ban the film and prevent further distribution because it was (and still is) an embarrassment for the Law in the state of Massachusetts. Okay, it may be disturbing, but it primarily is a truly saddening & depressing documentary that depicts real human beings in some of the most humiliation footage ever shot on camera. The controversial impact of "Titicut Follies" is actually some sort of paradox to itself. One could state that the atrocious and inhumanly cruel behavior of the guards & doctors at the Bridgewater Institution urgently needed to be made public, but on the other hand you could also easily claim that Frederick Wiseman gratuitously spread humiliation footage of defenseless mental patients on a large scale. If you stumbled upon the page of this film, I presume you already know this documentary illustrates – in shocking and occasionally painful details – how the mental patients at the Massachusetts Bridgewater State Hospital are mistreated and bullied by the staff members. The patients, varying from catatonic people to paranoid and severely suicidal human beings, are humiliated and mocked, resulting in extended images of mentally disabled people shouting and raving around their rooms naked. Wiseman may have had the permission of the patients' relatives and/or their legal guardians to use the footage, but who is he to "exploit" these poor people's lamentable living conditions to make a statement about the contemporary incompetent medical treatment of mental patients? I heavily appreciate this documentary because it caused a huge scandal and undoubtedly influenced the future of medicine in a good way, but maybe the footage never should have left the evidence room of the Supreme Court in Massachusetts. By now "Titicut Follies", in all his uncut and reputedly infamous glory, inevitably is offered on DVD-websites that usually just sell nauseating horror and perverted sleaze films, and the events of this documentary seriously don't belong in this entertainment section. The essence and importance of "Titicut Follies" is actually more reminiscent to the status of Nazi-propaganda films. They're reflections of the black pages in our social history, but by now they're just here to remind us never to go down that road again. No rating from me, because it feels too much like you're judging the real-life misery of defenseless people on a pathetic scale of 1 to 10.

winopaul OK, the quality is pretty bad but it is watchable. I have been hoping to catch a bit-torrent of this film for the last two years. As of Sept 15 2006 is is up on Google Videos, just search Titicut. I can see a direct influence this film had on somebody that was involved with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Highly recommended. Like a different poster, the people that run this site feel a need for me to post 10 lines of text. I guess they like loquacious people at IMDb. Am I up to ten yet? If the people that make these absurd policies need work they would be well qualified for employment as guards and head-doctors at a mental hospital. Watch the movie Skippy and then look in a mirror. And cry, IMDb Skippy, cry.