Johnny Depp and Amber Heard — Fame, Money, Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll. So, What’s the Problem?

An opportunist blonde femme fatale manipulates a wealthy older man and brings about his downfall. This simple but effective plot is the mainstay of hundreds of detective stories made popular by the likes of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane. These novels are also the basis for the American Film Noir movement of the 1940’s and 50’s and the post 1970’s rebirth known as Neo Noir.

Film Noir / Neo Noir

Film Noir and Neo Noir are among the most utilized genres of American cinema. This genre is so popular and pervasive that many argue that the best Noir may not be the classics Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) or Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) but the Neo Noirs Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) or Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982).

Kiss Me Deadly — Played Out in Court

One of my favorite Noir films, and a template for all future Bond movies, comes at the tail end of the classic Noir period and is called Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955). This film portraying the private detective Mike Hammer (created by Mickey Spillane) and his accomplice Velda could easily be the basis for future bond films. Hammer drives expensive fast cars, dresses well, has gadgets, lives good, punches his way out of situations and is adored by women wherever he goes and it also involves a nuclear weapon. That’s James Bond.

Alternatively, “Kiss Me Deadly” could be used as a title for Ms. Heard and Mr. Depp’s short-lived romance.

Childhood Programing

While I was watching Johnny Depp’s testimony in the defamation trial against Amber Heard, I noticed a storyline that is all too familiar. In fact, no part of this story stands out as original in any way. It has Noir written all over it, plus some added basic psychology — something that I call Childhood Programming.

Emotional Ammunition

Based on his testimony, Mr. Depp transitions from an abusive mother to an alleged abusive wife. He basically hid from his mother in the bathroom and does the same with his wife. Is anyone surprised by this? We are all byproducts of our childhood programming and are doomed to repeat them until we learn to identify the patterns, use the experiences as ammunition to quicken our growth, rise above them and move on.

The Blueprint for a Femme Fatale

A wickedly smart, attractive young woman is trying to protect and secure her future by any means necessary. That’s the blueprint for femme fatales in literature and on film. In Film Noir the femme fatale is the real heroine of the story. In those films she is always the smartest person in the room, as she manipulates everyone to fall in love with her. It’s a survival tactic that is highly effective if played by the right woman.

Trauma as a Weapon

Mr. Depp mentions in his testimony in the April 2022 defamation trial that Ms. Heard used her intimate knowledge of his past, including his childhood traumas, as a weapon against him. For me, the situation reads more like, Mr. Depp enabled Ms. Heard so that she can replace his mother and continue those traumas, because they represent feminine love to him. It is possible that he may feel that if he is not being triggered in some way, he is not being loved. The core issue with this pattern is that it can’t last long with the same person. It has the tendency of getting redundant very quickly, especially for individuals like these two who are highly active creatively.

Lack of Imagination

I believe the downfall of their romance may have been lack of imagination. The situation seems to have become too repetitive. The same one page of dialog over and over again. It’s possible that Ms. Heard, after some time, may have sounded like a broken record and wasn’t triggering Mr. Depp’s neurons like she used to.

$30,000 Monthly Bill for Wine is Justified

Mr. Depp allegedly spent $30K a month on wine. It sounds like an outrageous some, almost like an accounting error, until you realize that the bill wasn’t for Mr. Depp alone, but for his entire party, including allegedly Ms. Heard’s large crew of friends. And the wine being ordered wasn’t ordinary but a $500 a bottle Vega Sicilia, considered the best wine coming out of Spain. Since a regular bottle of wine serves 4 glasses, and in this case each at $125 a glass, and considering it’s being enjoyed by about a dozen people on practically daily basis, $30K/month sounds like a bargain. That’s only the fee for 2 bottles a day.

Text Messages are Consistent with the Bro Culture

The text messages between Mr. Depp and his male friends and colleagues are straight out of a Scorsese movie. The dialog is all too familiar. Mr. Depp is a rock musician whose band Hollywood Vampires features some of the biggest names in rock music. That culture invented the phrase sex, drugs and rock & roll. That’s how they talk. For example, pay attention to the dialog in American movies from the 1960’s where they all refer to their girlfriends or wives as “old lady.” To boast about drinking and doing drugs and whine about their girlfriends or wives is the programming code that their friendships are based on.

Deliberate Secretive Footage Doesn’t Help Ms. Heard’s Case

Although the counsel for Ms. Heard may feel that they need to take advantage of every piece of evidence to strengthen their case, however, showing footage of her secretly filming her husband having a drunken moment isn’t helping. What would help are impartial footage such as security cameras and such. The counsel for Ms. Heard isn’t helping the case by suggesting advanced planning and intention from her part to cause damage to Mr. Depp’s reputation.

Immense Charm of the Last Generation of Stars

Live footage of Johnny Depp’s testimony was the best streaming program in April. This guy is a real star, he oozes with charm, heart and charisma. His generation of actors, which include Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise, who are all born in the ‘60s, are the last of the grand film stars. The only exception is Leonardo DiCaprio (born ‘74).

I Still Love You Steve. I’ll Always Love you Slim, but You Ruined My Life…

If this wasn’t real life and just a Disney movie, they might have decided to end it with the actress playing Ms. Heard, with tears in her eyes, crying out to the actor playing Mr. Depp, while he is seated in the witness stand, “I still love you Steve.” With him replying, “I’ll always love you Slim, but you ruined my life.”

One Great Movie Away?

To wrap, I believe regardless of the outcome of this trial, Johnny Depp could be one great movie away from a comeback.

UPDATE 1: TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2022–7PM

It’s becoming more obvious that the counsel for Ms. Heard doesn’t have a strong case. It’s surprising to me that initially Ms. Heard got away with successfully convincing the world that Mr. Depp was, basically, a “wife beater.” A term that helped to negatively impact his already difficult career at that time. In their cross examination, the counsel for Ms. Heard appears as desperate, defensive, combative and pity.

The testimony by the forensic psychologist Dr. Shannon Curry was specially damaging to Ms. Heard. She testified that Amber Heard suffers from borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder. She also called her shallow with severe abandonment issues. When it came time for the cross emanation the best Ms. Heard’s team could come up with was to accuse Dr. Curry as having an affair with Mr. Depp. Her counsel kept repeating you had dinner and drinks with Johnny Depp. Does Ms. Heard’s team really think they can win over the jury with such cheap theatrics?

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