In the movie Psycho, Hitchcock does a
good job portraying obsession. At the beginning of the movie we see how Marion
is head over heels in love with her soon to be divorced “boyfriend” Sam. Since
Sam is getting a divorce money is tight, since Marion is so in love with Sam
she is willing to go long measures to show her love. How Hitchcock portrays
obsession with Marion is how far she will go to prove her love. For example,
when Marion steals the 40,000 dollars from her employer’s client this shows her
obsession with Sam.
Another way that
Hitchcock shows obsession is by the police officer, when Marion is stopped by
the police officer for sleeping in her car, the police officer automatically
becomes suspicious of her. With the police officers suspicions he became
obsessed with coming down to the bottom of her. He follows her down the highway
and to the car dealership. With all of his hard work to find what Marion was
doing in Arizona he was unsuccessful with her disappearance.
Lastly, Obsession
is portrayed through Norman Bates. When Norman Bates is first introduced in the
movie he seems like a kind and calm individual but we shortly find that he is
not all what he seems. Hitchcock shows the first sign of obsession with Marion
through his spying on her before she is about to take a shower. At first it
looks like Norman is obsessed with Marion’s looks and wants to be with her but
in reality he is obsessed with being in control. When we are introduced to this
obsession is when Norman murders Marion. Murdering was a way for Norman to feel
like her was in control and had full power.
Even though
Hitchcock showed many different ways of obsession, they all tied everything
together in this movie. This movie showed that obsession can be driven by love,
suspicion, and the need for power. When first watching this movie, I did not
see all the examples of obsession but when watching it a second time I found
that there were multiple examples of this. I believe that Hitchcock wanted to
show how there are many different reasons for obsession.
Jordan Venard
I think that all thrill movies have to provide some type of obsession with a character or object that is coveted as the center of attention. This is what grabs the audience. It's the feeling we all get when watching movies of this genre, the feeling where your uncertain of the outcome. As an audience, we all want a happy ending but there is a climatic build up that leads to a climax, and that is when the audience is in a state of uncertainty as to which way the pendulum will sway. It's ironic almost, because the characters in the movies are obsessed as is the audience with the final outcome of the movie. Alferd Hitchcock has a unique style that breaks away from the traditional story line where good always trumps evil. He sometimes lets evil wins, making the story not only realistic, but unpredictable. In essence making this climatic build up for the audience to become completely obsessed with the climaxes conclusion connecting the characters in the movie with the audience.
ReplyDeleteThis movie set the bar for new thrillers to come. He used many of these same techniques in all his films. More specifically though, he used the element of obsession a lot in his next hit film, Birds, which was just as much a success as psycho. This element creates a concise focus for the audience to follow throughout the movie, almost over exaggerating every action the characters makes to put the audience in a desperation to know whats going to happen next. It wasn't the first thrill or horror movie ever made, but it was the first movie to really make you wonder what the outcome was going to be. Since then, these techniques have been used in famous movies like, Silence of the Lambs and Witness. Both of the these films have obsession seen throughout the movie, mostly through motives of the killers. It created a method for thrillers and horrors to follow in order to produce a film that stimulates that obsession of "whats going to happen next?".
Philip Shutler