Historical Film Movement Film Noir as the Forerunner of the Present-day Crime and Action Movies - Essay Example

Historical Film Movement ‘Film Noir’ as the Forerunner of the Present-day Crime and Action Movies During the early forties, European film talent infiltrated the American industry, and in this influx was a new type of mystery/suspense movie known as the film noir. This was a hybrid of American pulp fiction street smarts and European expressionism. Film Noir was a style of black and white American films that became prominent in the post-war era. The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia. Alfred Hitchcock was a forerunner of the American film noir. He presented a different kind of suspense thriller and was the first to attract attention from French film critics. His films presented the audience the flaws of the characters. He created the first psychological thrillers, one of them was Psycho, released in the 1960s. Psycho is based on the story of a serial killer named Ed Gein who was featured in a novel by Robert Bloch (1998). The term ‘psycho’ refers to the psychological state of a criminal, or someone who has committed or is about to commit a crime without consciously knowing it. Movies based on serial killing have been popular, but in the 60s, there were a few serial killings, one of these was perpetrated by the notorious Ed Gein (also one of the inspirations for the character of Hannibal Lector). Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel for $9,000.00. We can see at the start of the movie the use of shadows and windows. Marion and Sam peer out of the window through the blinds. Some other props used are stuffed birds’ shadows as they loom over Marion as she eats, and the perpetrator of the killing – the ‘mother’ – is seen in only shadows. Mirrors are used, reflecting the character Marion as she packs, later her face in the policeman’s sunglasses, and her hands as she counts out the money. Janet Leigh’s character Marion Crane is an effectively realized character, one who shares similarities with Norman Bates. Both are on the run – she, literally, from her past, and Norman from the present and future – and both have secrets. Marion’s secret has to do with the contents of her purse which contains a stack of bills that belong to her boss. Norman’s secret concerns the contents of his house, a spooky old hilltop mansion overlooking the Bates Motel in which Norman’s long dead mother continues to reside, barking orders and hurtling insults at her wayward son. One of the memorable scenes of Psycho is the shower scene which became controversial during Hitchcock’s time, but for which earned him the reputation as the maker of valuable film noirs. It was told that the shower scene was shot 70 plus angles, with different techniques to make it as realistic as possible. It caught the eye of the viewing public. Most of the shots are close-ups, but some are medium shots in the shower, before and after the murder. These close-up shots with the short duration between cuts combined made the sequence looked longer and more subjective and uncontrolled. Hitchcock transformed subplots into a powerful main plot to give a horrifying story of an unknown serial killer who for years lived quietly in that mansion over the hill with his ‘resurrected’ mother. In the last portion of the film, a forensic psychiatrist explains the motives behind Norman’s behavior. The doctor explains to the authorities that Bate’s mother, though dead, lives on in Norman’s personality. He killed her when she remarried, but became guilt-ridden that he tried to erase the crime from his mind by bringing his mother back to life. He did this by exhuming her corpse and preserving it with taxidermy skills. Norman acts as he believes she would, talks as she would, and even dresses as she would, in an attempt to erase her absence and the guilt. Because Norman was so very jealous of his mother while she lived, his split personality is equally jealous of any woman to whom Norman might be attracted. The film Psycho is important in the film history. It was made with a small budget but earned millions, and for Hitchcock it made him one of the most influential film makers of horror/thrillers and the mystery/suspense genres. The sound and good scoring are attributed to Bernard Herrmann. From the opening moments when the titles are slashed away, Herrmann masterfully conveys the sense of a knife eagerly ripping into human flesh. Traditional values in the 60s still overpowered over the age of bikinis or Americans showing a lot of flesh in public. There were not enough bold movies except the introduction of film noir and femme fatale. Hitchcock ‘killed’ the character Marion at the end of just the first act, and was to be interpreted as shocking during that time. The murdered character was a sympathetic one and to finish her immediately, in such a dramatic and prolonged scene, was out of the traditional way of movie making. Psycho was unprecedented in its depiction of sexuality and violence. To compare this with the present trend of movie making, it can be called a little softer. But it was the 60s. Censors were upset by the shot of a flushing toilet and the mention of the word transvestite from the film. Another of Hitchcock’s most powerful films is the film Vertigo. It is an intense psychological study of a desperate, insecure man’s twisted psyche and loss of equilibrium. It follows the troubled man’s obsessive search to end his vertigo and becomes a masterful study of romantic longing, identity, voyeurism, treachery and death, female victimization and degrading manipulation, the feminine “ideal,” and fatal sexual obsession for a cool-blonde heroine. One of the film's posters featured an abstract vertigo effect - a spiraling shape with the figures of a man and a woman falling into its center. The Twelve Monkeys The film Twelve Monkeys is a futuristic film that deals with drugs, sex, crimes, and time travel. The story begins with James Cole (Bruce Willis), a convict being sent back in time (1990 – 1996) to find the source of the virus which exterminated most of humanity. The disease is believed to have arisen as an act of bioterrorism by a mysterious group called “The Army of the Twelve Monkeys.” The scientists wish to study the virus in its unmutated form to enable them to produce a cure. Cole meets Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), a deranged animal rights activist. Cole warns psychiatrist Railly (Stowe) and the doctors of the impending catastrophe, and inquires about the Twelve Monkeys. Cole uses his photographic memory of the pictures he was shown by the scientists to locate the office of a group of animal rights activists. Cole is sure he has found the source of the outbreak, not only because Goines is in charge of the organization but also because Goines' father is a famous virologist with access to deadly biological agents. Goines quit the group to work at his father’s lab. Finally, Cole is informed by Goines that he is the source of the pandemic when he originally broached the idea at a psychiatric facility in 1990. After returning to the future, the scientists congratulate Cole, believing that he found the source of the virus. These films were made decades apart. Hitchcock’s Psycho bears the usual crime, evil, paranoia, ‘psychiatric crime’, while Twelve Monkeys is about time travel which expounds on terrorism, the modern way of crime and extermination. Movies are shaped or influenced by the cultures of the time, but somehow films also shape or influence culture. From the 1940s, then up to Hitchcock’s time, movies were still showing the old-fashioned way. The present day films show a lot of flesh, too much crime and violence. These films are shown a bit dramatically with a lot of suspense and new technology. Works Cited Dirks, Tim, Vertigo, 1958, . Film Noir, 1996 – 2008, . IMDb website, Psycho, 1998, . IMDb website, Twelve Monkeys, 1995, New Arts Library, Psycho Screenplay, 1998, . Psycho, 1996, . Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Twelve Monkeys, 1 January 2008, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Monkeys>. Read More