Dramatic vs. Lighthearted

Both Pyscho and The Birds are films created by Alfred Hitchcock, yet they differ in terms of theme, plot, and even color. Pyscho is in black and white, while The Birds is in color, although the colors are very subdued.

In a nutshell, Psycho is about a woman who attempts to steal $40,000, but ends up in the deadly Bates Motel, in which Norman Bates killed her. He vainly tried to hide the evidence from this murder, but this did not work out well. It was revealed that Norman acted as two different people: himself and his mother. But it was beyond just playing dress-up, he actually was both of these people. However, his mother's personality trumped his own, especially towards the end of the film. To be completely honest, this final part of the film freaked me out. It was just plain weird, there was definitely something wrong with him. I was confused because I thought that him and his mother were two separate characters, but they were not. He even hid his mother's corpse in her fruit cellar (basement), complete with clothing and a wig. It was absolutely terrifying, regardless of the fact that it was only a movie. In addition, there was another frightening scene: when Norman stabbed Marion in the shower. Dramatic irony was used here - the viewers could see that a dark figure was ominously standing in front of the shower curtain, yet Marion was unable to see it at this point. With no escape, she was stabbed by Norman's mother. He stuffed her body in a car trunk, and drove the car into a swamp. What an awful way to die. 

The Birds, however, is much less gruesome. While I have not seen the entire film yet, it is very easy to tell that it is not a scary film, and even if it ends up being one, it will be nothing like Psycho. It starts out with a woman, named Melanie, at a pet shop. A mysterious guy comes in and tells her that he "saw her in court", and she proceeded to track him down. She went all the way to Bodega Bay, an island off the coast of San Francisco, just to find him. I'm still curious as to why she was so determined to find him. Was she really that disturbed by the fact that he recalled seeing her before? I missed the viewing last class, so I'm not really sure.

Clearly, there are plenty of key differences between the two films, but on the other hand, there are also plenty of similarities. The style of both films, from the lengthy introduction to the unrealistic graphical effects of the 1960s, is very similar. It is easy to tell that they are made by the same director. He seems to have had a liking for unusual characters: in Psycho, Norman, and in The Birds, Melanie. They both were extreme in one way or another. 

The Lone Survivor

After finishing Alien in class, I was very impressed by the cinematography and suspenseful plot. I expected the movie to be very mediocre visually because it was filmed in 1979, but surprisingly, I found myself flinching and shifting in my seat during multiple scenes. The plot was unpredictable and kept me on the edge of my seat. There was absolutely no point in the film in which I was bored. The two aspects of the film that resonated with the most were Ripley's integrity and leadership, and the conflict of human morality v. biological perfection.

As I have described in my previous post, from the beginning, Ripley showcased a strong sense of intuitiveness and leadership by fervidly trying to prevent Kane from going back into the spaceship with the alien attached to him.  Although her protests were futile, she was dead-on in predicting the chaos that would eventually ensue on the ship, leading to the deaths of every crew member except herself and Jones the cat. The ending scene of the movie was a testament to Ripley's intelligence and bravery. With the horrifying realization that the alien had hidden aboard the shuttle, Ripley put on a space suit and  opened the shuttle's airlock, forcing the alien into the open doorway. Ripley propelled the alien out into space by shooting it with a grappling hook, but the hook caught in the closing the door, allowing the alien to hold on to the shuttle. In a life-saving move, Ripley activated the engine, subsequently blasting the alien into space.

Although the ending of Alien is triumphant, there is still a significant amount of unfinished business. Earlier in the film after Ash brutally attacked Ripley and the entire crew, it was revealed that he was a robot created to ensure that the alien was returned to Earth by all costs. Ripley found out that Ash was acing upon secret orders to, "Bring back alien life form. Crew expendable." This revelation shifted the entire dynamic of the movie from just "human v. alien" to "human v. human." Not only was the alien trying to destroy the crew, but a larger, more powerful outside force was as well. But, this outside force is never revealed and leaves myself and surely other viewers, wondering what will happen, if and when, Ripley returns to Earth.

After this startling revelation, I was wondering why it was so important to bring the alien back to Earth. The conflict of human morality v. biological perfection that I mentioned above ties right into this question. After the crew members finally put down Ash's attacks and dismantled his body seeking information, Ash talked in a stoic, yet subtly reverent tone about the alien, saying, "I admire its purity... A survivor unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions abut morality." This quote was profound because it raised a powerful question about whether or not the human conscious is an advantage or severe detriment. In my personal opinion, the answer falls somewhere in between. Yes, logic is intrinsic to making prudent decisions and achieving important goals. But, a sense of compassion is just as important to connecting with other individuals, and feeling in touch with one's self.

Psycho: Thoughts for the beginning and middle

The movie Psycho is really great so far. I am enjoying it almost as much as Alien. The first class we started watching it I was confused as to why Marion had stolen the money in the first place. Then I was wondering what she planned on doing now that she had committed such a serious crime. When she arrived at the Bates Motel it seemed very suspicious and creepy. The guy who was running the motel, Norman, seemed a bit suspicious at first and turned out really creepy when he introduced his "special" hobby, taxidermy, which was stuffing birds. I was wondering why she didn't feel like she was in any danger because this guy was clearly creepy. Also he had said that "a boy's best friend is his mother," which means he probably has never left that house which adds to his creepiness. I felt the actor who played Norman performed really well in the film so far.

The next class when we continued watching it we got to the good part.

The famous shower scene. I wasn't expecting her to die yet; however, when I saw that she went to take a shower I knew this part was coming. I wondered afterwards who it could be that had killed her. Then when Norman just covered it up I still hadn't suspected that it was actually his mother who committed the crime. I was really shocked when the detective was stabbed by the crazy mom. I'm curious to see what's going to happen next and what's going to happen to Norman and his psycho mother.

Psycho - My Impressions

I enjoyed director Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho very much! It took surprised me very much [It took me by surprise (he's not considered the Master of Suspense for nothing!)], and I didn't know that it was going to end like that. The only problem with the movie was that I thought it was very short [it in fact runs 109 minutes, about twenty minutes longer than today's standard movie fare], that may of just been me but this is what I saw.

I really like the main character/protagonist, Norman [at what point is Norman, as portrayed by Anthony Perkins, revealed to the main character? And how frequently does it take a storyteller forty-five minutes to introduce her protagonist?]. He is a very interesting character. Just the way he acts and talks, makes him very different. Also how he almost cracks under Sam. It was also interesting how he loved to talk about birds. Birds usually resemble peace or freedom, so what does that say about him? [Awesome; very nice analysis of the use of symbol and irony]  Maybe he wanted peace from everyone. Maybe he wanted to be free from the little Motel he worked at. He didn't seem to mind the Motel, but I bet living in the same place for your whole life could get very boring and uninteresting.

Another thing I liked about the movie was when Sam and Lila [Crane] go to the Motel. They try to pull off a couple look, and it seems that Norman doesn't even notice a resemblance to Marion and Lila. Did he try to forget her or just not notice? Or maybe he did notice, but didn't say anything. Then again, a lot of people can look similar, so he could've just brushed it off. I wonder what was going on in his thoughts as he saw her?

Man on Wire - My impression

Man On Wire was interesting to me. I liked seeing how they [director James Marsh and his crew] built up to the big event of tightrope walk between the World Trade Centers. It was really interesting to see a man who started out as a beginner [novice?] and then grew up to be able to do something so amazing. It shows that if you keep on practicing you will get better in the end. I enjoyed seeing other peoples' perspectives as well; it makes us see the story from every different angle, not just one. It put more volume into the story and let us get what it was like to be there.

I also liked how they had the interviews about the story. It let us see the person now and how much they remembered from that one time. It also showed us how they told the story, since everyone tells a story differently, and that generations change the story. So someone might say "A man tightroped across the two twin towers," while these people will say, "a man tightroped on a wire for 15 minutes on the twin towers." We get the REAL story and not a story from other people who weren't even there, like the history documentaries.

I liked how they even told us what happened after and were they are now. Showing that even after the great moment, they are still living to this day, going on with life. Sadly, I think the guy who did it was beaten, by a guy who tightroped in Dubai, but the thing is, his was a surprise while the persons in Dubai wasn't. The person in Dubai had everything prepared for him and people said he didn't even look scared. The Man on Wire's tightrope was not prepared at all, no one knew except for the people involved. This makes the moment even greater and different!

Alien: Ending

We finished Alien a few classes ago and I was pretty satisfied with the ending. I really liked the movie overall. It had a great amount of suspense and creepiness to keep my attention throughout the film.

To answer my previous question in my first Alien blog post: Who will survive? As I watched Dallas go into the air ducts I could tell he wasn't going to make and then he was killed by the Alien. Then when Parker and Lambert went to get supplies before they were supposed to board the shuttle the Alien had gotten to them first. This part was suspenseful, really intense and scary. I enjoyed it.

One scene I was really shocked about was when they found out Ash was an Android and it was his mission to save the alien and not worry about the crew. When Ash tried to kill Ripley the film got really intense. I was a little confused at what was happening at first until someone clarified that he was an android.

Just when I thought the movie was over and Ripley had made it onto the shuttle with the cat safely, we saw that the alien had also made it onto the shuttle. I was sure this movie was going to end badly with Ripley dying in the end. However, she was able to form a plan to get the alien off the shuttle. She is a very intelligent character and I'm glad she was the one that was able to survive until the end. I'm also happy that the cat survived.

To conclude, this movie has been my favorite so far, but I am also enjoying Psycho.

Tracking Him Down

Yesterday my class started watching Birds, another Alfred Hitchcock film. Since we just finished watching his film, Psycho, as well as Ridley Scott's Alien, I assumed that this would be a horror/drama film, but so far it doesn't seem like it will be. Regardless, I'm still interested in seeing the rest of it.

The movie starts out with a woman, whose name is Melanie, shopping at a pet shop. A man wearing a suit and tie, named Mitch, came in, and claimed to have seen her before in court. She liked to play practical jokes, and apparently one of them had sent her to court. I could tell that she was upset about him bringing the subject up, and shortly after he left, she began to track him down. She asked about him around town, and ended up taking a boat all the way to Bodega Bay, an island off the coast of San Francisco. This is where the movie does show its age: it lacked the realism that today's modern films have, but it was released all the way back in 1963.

After reaching the island, Melanie dropped the birds off at Mitch's house, and quickly went back to her boat. Not only did Mitch see her, but she was attacked by a seagull as well on the way back to the mainland. As soon as he saw her, Mitch drove at the speed of light, and met her back at the dock she had come from, coming to her rescue.

What really struck me about what I've seen so far in this movie is that she went to such great lengths to track him down. Clearly she was very determined to find him, but she made some mistakes along the way when it comes to being sneaky. She could've at least ducked down.