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Autuer Criticism: Alfred Hitchcock And I couldn't leave out Hitchcock's favorite trick, the MacGuffin. I wasn't sure whether this would be considered a theme or a cinematic technique, because it is in a way a plot device that would have been supplied by a screenwriter, but it is more the way it is used and the importance Hitchcock gives it relative to the rest of the film that makes it a MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is simply Hitchcock's term for the thing that sets the plot in motion, or the thing that is integral to the plot, yet has hardly any importance for the movie. Examples are the microfilm in North by Northwest, the radioactive powder in Notorious, the assassination attempt in The Man Who Knew Too Much, the original murder in Vertigo, etc. Basically whatever the story would seem to be about, but you can't remember a week after you've seen the movie. These things are simply not important to Hitchcock's story-they simply get the people together and set up who wants to kill who. Why is rarely important. This is simply one more example that his films are not mysteries, which are almost purely plot-driven. So, again, though Hitchcock means to entertain and astonish with his camera techniques, there is always a reason underneath. He is never merely showing off his ability to do weird and wonderful things with his shots; he is always bringing his audience deeper into the story and the psychology of his characters. Many people are uncomfortable watching Hitchcock films, and he intended them to be. It's part of the point. Psycho (1960) is probably Hitchcock's best known film, and brought pretty much all of these themes and styles together in a completely new way and basically invented the modern horror genre (for better or worse…) While I wouldn't venture to say that it is his most typical, I do believe that is the culmination of many facets of his previous work. While most of the themes do appear in Psycho, they do not always appear in the same form as in other Hitchcock films. I'm assuming a knowledge of the plot. Psycho contains the most well-developed MacGuffin of all-the entire first plot of Marion Crane stealing the money is, in one way, merely a device to get her out to the Bates Motel so that Norman can kill her. The money completely disappears after her death, in fact, for Norman throws it in the trunk of her car and sinks the whole lot in the lake. But important things do happen in this beginning plot. The theme of the powerful woman is strong here — it is Marion who is the risk-taker in her romantic relationship. She wants to get married despite her lover's financial problems, and when she sees an opportunity to take $40,000 to alleviate them, she does it. And the very first scene is highly daring for a film of its time. Hitchcock leaves virtually no doubt in the mind as to what the couple had been doing five minutes earlier in their cheap hotel room. It's a nice visual touch that in this scene, Marion's underthings are white, and after she's stolen the money, they are black. As for powerful women, could one get more powerful that Norman Bates' mother? Even from beyond the grave her control over him is fierce, and for a dead person, she really gets a lot of murders committed. The wrong man is in this case a woman, and a dead woman at that. We are led to believe throughout the film that Mrs. Bates has committed some very grisly murders-in fact, we have seen her do so. But finally the heroes (two of the more bland heroes in Hitchcock's work, if I may say so) stumble across her decomposed body and the true murderer is revealed. This is unconventional because the wrong man is not on the run from the police, and in fact is strongly connected to the crimes. This plot would seem to be an elaborate red herring, which I've already said Hitchcock rarely uses, except for the fact that Mrs. Bates is indirectly responsible for the murders; while alive, because of her overprotectiveness of her son which caused him to go insane, and once dead, as a portion of her son's mind. (I am not saying that Mrs. Bates is in some spiritual way controlling Norman, or reincarnated in his mind, or anything like that. Just that part of him became her in response to his psychological need for her.) Page last updated 8/1/04. |
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