Nightcrawler: Psychoanalysis Of Lou Bloom

8 March 2015

Dan Gilroy's thriller Nightcrawler (out on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK this Monday, 2nd March) is set in the nocturnal underbelly of Los Angeles. It's been called a social commentary about crime journalism, and American entrepreneurship. But, Nightcrawler is really a story about Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a petty thief turned amateur cameraman, who muscles his way into the cutthroat business of night crawling.

Nightcrawler

Nightcrawlers are cameramen who prowl the night, piggybacking police radio to get to the bloody accident and crime scenes first. The nightcrawler with the goriest images of victims has the best chance of having his film footage bought by a news station, and having it lead in the evening news. As we soon learn, Lou and the job of night crawling are a match made in heaven.

We first meet Lou Bloom as a young man who ekes out a living as a petty thief stealing hubcaps, chain-link fences, copper wire and scrap metal for cash. He prowls the night like a coyote hunting food to survive. Nothing is more important to Lou than the catch. We get the first taste of Lou's sociopathic personality, when he asks to be given a job by the construction owner with whom he just fenced stolen goods. It never occurs to Lou that the owner may draw a line between employees and thieves. He is unfazed by the owner's refusal to hire him and by the boldness it takes to steal the watch right off the arm of a security guard who just caught Lou stealing scrap metal.

Next, he comes upon a group of freelance television camera crews filming a gruesome car crash. Lou is unfazed by the fiery scene before him and dead bodies lying on the ground. He seizes the opportunity to question cameraman Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) about his job as a nightcrawler.The hunt and gore of crime journalism enlivens every fiber of Lou's being.

With no hesitation, Lou buys a camera and interviews a young man named Rick (Riz Ahmed) for an internship position, making it seem like he's heading some big news station. Because in Lou's mind, he already does. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of local TV news, Lou thrives and becomes the star of his own story. There's no Tony Soprano soft spot that connects us to Lou Bloom in some way. In contrast to Bloom, Soprano had just enough emotional conflict to make him seek psychological treatment.

Lou Bloom isn't conflicted in any way about anything. His sole aim is to succeed, no matter the cost.Power is what Lou Bloom is all about. He doesn't have relationships, he has transactions. He manoeuvres people and crime scenes to gain advantage. It never occurs to Lou that things won't work out for him, because he's smarter than other people.

Bloom is a sociopath par excellence. His absence of fear and boundaries, and aggressive nature, and lack of an emotional appreciation of humans meet the definition of the psychopath established by Sigmund Freud back in 1928. Add to this Lou's high intelligence and superior observation skills and you get a very lethal combination of personality features.

Lou Bloom is a product of his genetics and childhood rather than a 'product of his time'. Sociopaths are made on a foundation of no emotional attachments to people, under arousal of the nervous system, and minimal anxiety. They don't react to stressful and emotional events as we do. They have slower brain wave activity and a slower resting heart rate that minimizes fear and anxiety, in them.

Lou Bloom fits the sociopath's profile to the letter. Nothing makes him squeamish. He isn't afraid to get caught stealing, or fearful of fire, blood, or gunfire. In fact, he gets off on all of it. Also, true to the sociopath, Lou doesn't form relationships, he takes hostages.

He manipulates and blackmails people to get his way.Jake Gyllenhaal's portrayal of Lou Bloom, the sociopath, is brilliant; he doesn't give us a way to emotionally connect with Lou Bloom. He makes us peer in curiously at him from a reassuring distance, as if we were watching a gory accident or crime scene