Psycho Essay

Psycho Essay

 Psycho is a movie directed by the world famous Alfred Hitchcock in 1960. This film is considered one of the greatest films ever made and has influenced many filmmakers since its release. A method Hitchcock uses throughout this film is the close up shot. He firstly uses this shot on Marion; In the Car, office, cabin etc. up until her death, using this shot helps the audience establish a identification with Marion and helps build a relationship between them and her. The audience has seen Marion steal the money and has also seen the circumstances surrounding her need for the money and her treatment in the office. This gives the audience an understanding of why she took the money and in some cases the audience will agree with her, this creates a personal identification with Marion. It is not only the fact that she stole the money that creates this bond it is also that during the close ups of her face her eyes are always 'eye'-catching and wide, it is said that the eyes are the window to the soul and so in this case we are forced to look into Marion's eyes and form a more personal bond with the character.
We have a restricted narration in this film as we're restricted to Marion's view. We have this view until the shower scene in which Marion meets her demise. We're restricted to Marion up until her final few seconds alive, Hitchcock uses a graphic match to combine the shot of the bloody water flowing into the plug hole into Marion's eye just as she dies. The significance of these two shots is that we gained our identification through Marion's wide eyes and so the breaking of the audiences bond with her is validated by the death shown, through her eyes.

 Having all of the focus on Marion through close up shots and the fact that we have a voice over from her thoughts of paranoia and remorse suggests she will be our main character in the film and typically would survive until the end, it is this assumption that makes the twist in the story so shocking. Her death in the film breaks the bond between the audience and Marion and therefore leaves us with no personal identification with any other characters in this film. It is this identification problem that forces us to identify with Bates. Bates is the character introduced into the scene straight after Marion's death and cleans up the mess his 'mother' made. Bates clearing up the mess and disposing of the body forces us to identify with him unknowing of what he has actually done leaving the audience at the end of the film felling uncomfortable, knowing they have just formed a relationship with a apparent normal young man only to find he is a psychotic murderer.