No lets talk about the film Psycho.
I cant think of any film to date that has the hero become the heroin. Norman was the only survivor that achieved his goal. He wanted to undo the horrible crime he committed. The only way he could do it was by bringing back the dead. He becomes his mother and Norman is never to return. Succeeding in resurrecting his mom at the sacrifice of his own mind.
Now the thing that gets me is Hitchcock gets credit for the structure of the story. Joeseph Stephano, the writer who helped make THE OUTER LIMITS the paranoid fearfest it is was the man who wrote the screenplay of Psycho. Based on the Robert Block book(which was based on the crimes of Ed Gein) Stephano was the man who came up with the idea to kill the “main” character 40 minutes into the film. A bold move to say the least. With the budget and pace of a TV movie Psycho still ranks in the (pardon me Leonard fucking Maltin for stealing your word) Pantheon of horror. As far as Hitchcock films go it does not support character development. You don’t really care about anyone in the film. With the one exception of Norman whose personality is carefully dissected. *If you want latter years Hitchcock with great characters try VERTIGO.* Norman is the perfect monster. Unassuming creature that can lurk in the daylight unnoticed. Its too bad that Paramount let this one go. They could have had classic to add to their library of 12 great films!
Now the thing that gets me is Hitchcock gets credit for the structure of the story. Joeseph Stephano, the writer who helped make THE OUTER LIMITS the paranoid fearfest it is was the man who wrote the screenplay of Psycho. Based on the Robert Block book(which was based on the crimes of Ed Gein) Stephano was the man who came up with the idea to kill the “main” character 40 minutes into the film. A bold move to say the least. With the budget and pace of a TV movie Psycho still ranks in the (pardon me Leonard fucking Maltin for stealing your word) Pantheon of horror. As far as Hitchcock films go it does not support character development. You don’t really care about anyone in the film. With the one exception of Norman whose personality is carefully dissected. *If you want latter years Hitchcock with great characters try VERTIGO.* Norman is the perfect monster. Unassuming creature that can lurk in the daylight unnoticed. Its too bad that Paramount let this one go. They could have had classic to add to their library of 12 great films!
posted by Gavin Elster at 5:51 PM
1 Comments:
Norman was not a woman hater by any means. He loved woman. It was his "mother" that disapproved of his disire of them. She was the killer not norman. Now thats the film version. The book is something else. Block's Bates was a balding 40(ish) redheaded sweaty doughman who was a transvestite and got off on wearing womens clothes. The Films Bates had to wear the clothes because it was one of the nessasarry tools to bring his mother back. Robert Blocks' Bates was not such a victim of madness but a creator of it. The Sad part is PSYCHO the movie spawned 5 sequels. Psycho 2,3,4 and a TV movie with Bud Cort taking over the bates motel entitled "BATES MOTEL". All good stabs at creating a franchise from a movie that should have been left alone.
Post a Comment
<< Home