HARVEY (1950)
This is a very moving comedy about a charming man (Jimmy Stewart) whose best friend is a six foot rabbit named “Harvey” that only he can see. His family finds his delusion and insanity terribly embarrassing and tries to have him committed. This doesn’t go very well because he is far more charming than those who want him locked up.
I tend to love stories that portray delusion and insanity as preferable to “normalness”. I suppose it starts with Don Quixote (I’d say this is a variation on that idea). But this is a hilarious and truly positive movie. I cry the whole thing just because it’s so cathartic to see a work of art so hopeful about the human potential, about the survival of beautiful child-like imagination that society and civilization often work so hard to crush.
