Harvey

Jenna's Movie Reviews

Jenna throws a tantrum because she wants a pooka like Harvey. I've told her that real pookas are actually not always nice creatures!

 

Jenna enjoyed the classic 1950 film "Harvey" last night. Elwood P. Dowd is an eccentric, yet kind-hearted man who has a friend named "Harvey," a 6 foot, 3 inch white rabbit visible only to him. 

Dowd eventually enters a "sanatorium" (asylum) and given the age of this film, you see what the premises of mental health they had in those days were. Was he supposed to fit their view of a "mental" patient? Throughout the film, Dowd does keep a blissfully ignorant innocence about him, introducing all of those around them to his "good friend Harvey" and inviting the hospital staff out for drinks. Although this seems to be a lighthearted film, I couldn't help but notice some "darker" tones, if that makes any sense. In real life, a forty-something year-old man who still had an "imaginary friend" would most certainly have been institutionalized...and unfortunately there still is quite a bit of stigma surrounding like individuals.

However, is there something else there? Are people like Dowd "schizophrenic" "delusional" or do they really have a gift that most don't have? Should they be taken more seriously than we sadly do even today? 

Overall, with all that said, we enjoyed Harvey! 

LOVE the old cars...I want one in the worst way!

Remember-pookas are actually not always as benevolent as Harvey!