Crazy Good

The opening credits to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho are very interesting and informative about what the audience should expect in the film. Many of the credits are off centered and the music is very unsettling. The fact that the credits were off centered indicates that we are going to be dealing with someone mentally unstable, Norman Bates. The eerie music indicates that something tragic is going to happen, this being the death of Nancy.

The sequence involving Nancy’s flee makes very good use of metaphorical props. The metaphorical props specific to the car lot scene are the two men. Not only are they impeding her exodus, they are part of the gender that has held her and all women back at this time. During this sequence, Hitchcock creatively uses the voiceover to inform the audience what is occurring in Nancy’s world that Nancy is not present for. The use of the close-up shots of Nancy as she is driving demonstrates that Nancy is trapped and doomed since she began her flight. The other indicator of Nancy’s fate is the eerie music that has been continually playing throughout the entire film. No matter how good things may appear to be the music is always the same. This could possibly serve as a warning to the audience that no matter how good things may seem to be, you must always be ready for the worst because life is unpredictable. While on the topic of Nancy’s fate, it is interesting that she was murdered in her attempt to flee. Had she just been caught by the police, she would have just been sent to jail. Instead she receives a much worst punishment. This is possibly because it was not just a robbery but it was also a breach of trust with her job and boss. After having worked there for 10 years as her boss indicates in one of the voiceovers, she decides to steal from the company. Also she could have just been killed by a psycho because he was a psycho and not because she actually deserved to die.

The Sum of its Parts

The scene beginning with this shot is very well done due to the expert work of Fritz Arno Wagner and Fritz Lang.

 

The cinematography and props throughout this scene really improve the viewer’s experience. When Hans is watching the little girl through the window, it is very disturbing to see his reaction. After he regains his composure, we are presented with a shot showing only the left half of Hans’s body. The other half of his body is made visible to us through the window of the shop which acts as a mirror. Seeing the image of Hans and his reflection presented in this way suggests several aspects about his character to the viewer. The first obvious piece of information is Hans’s fractured psyche. This is depicted by the simultaneous shooting of Hans and his reflection. The second piece of information is that Hans has always been crazy because it is part of who he is. This is represented by the two halves of Hans. One half is real and seems normal. However, the other half is insane and evil. This evilness is revealed to us by the darkness of Hans’s reflection. It is much harder to make out details in his reflection than in the actual image of Hans.

As the little girl is walking, she passes a store displaying a hypnotizer wheel. Its presence is comical because it is warning the audience that we are about to get tricked. This trick occurs when we hear the eerie music as she turns the corner. We begin to get a sinking feeling in our stomachs because we are anticipating her kidnapping and know that we are powerless to prevent it. Finally we see the girl get grabbed by someone. To our relief, that someone is her mother and not Hans. At this point we realize that we have been tricked into expecting the worst due to the simple introduction of eerie music. Then we appreciate comical presence of the hypnotizer wheel.

Post-Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times although funny at times does make some very accurate criticisms about life during that time. The life of a factory worker was not one of ease. Workers could not falter on the task at hand. If one person messed up, it caused people performing succeeding jobs to be backlogged as well. They also had to deal with very dangerous working conditions as seen in the scene when Charlie gets sucked into the machinery. Although it was presented in a comical way, it reminds us that workers had to always be mindful of the machines that they were using or working on.

Besides these day to day hazards, workers also had to be physically and mentally tough to withstand the monotony of factory work. Chaplin comically presented this by pretending he was still on the assembly line even though he was already on break. This funny little dance brings to mind the harmful ailments which occur over time due to monotonous factory work such as exposure to toxic chemicals or carpal tunnel. Aside from these physical ailments, workers could also suffer from mental breakdowns. As seen in the film once a worker had one of these breakdowns, they were no longer of any use to the company. They were just fired and cast aside as just another broken machine.

Despite being made years prior to the present Modern Times offers criticisms about life which still ring true to this day namely the unpredictability of life. For example, when Charlie tried to do a good deed and return the flag to the truck, he ended up getting arrested for leading a protest. Although life takes unexpected turns at times, we just need to keep trying our best. Eventually things will work out for us as they did for Charlie.