Psycho (1960)

Director: Alfred HitchcockStarring: Anthony Perkins as Norman

Bates Janet Leigh as Marion Crane

Vera Miles as Lila Crane

Plot/MacGuffin

The plot itself is the MacGuffin in Psycho.

Marion Crane has grown tired of how life has

treated her. She has to meet her secret lover

during lunch breaks and can’t get married because he has to give most of his money away in alimony.

In order to get away, she steals $40,000from a trusting client at work as partof her plan to get away and start a new life.Without a clear plan, she simply drives as faraway as possible... under the surveillance of apolice officer. We perceive this to be the threat- will she getcaught?

However, Marion begins to get tired and stopsoff at the secluded Bates Motel. The action

thatunfolds following this makes the openingevents of the film surrounding the stolen money insignificant- it’s purpose was to drive the plot along (the MacGuffin).

The man who runs the motel is Norman Bates

who seems to be a vulnerable young mandominated by his controlling mother.

Hitchcock’s Thoughts

We are made to think that the film will be about the stolen money and so when Marion Crane is murdered at the motel, we are left in shock. This makes us apprehensive as to what we should expect from the rest of the film. What will happen next? Will somebody else getkilled? Hitchcock stressed that as the apprehensionbuilds, less and less violence is shown. He muchpreferred suspense over surprise.

How is Psycho an archetypal thriller?

The external threat is a mad man with a disturbedmind, we find out that he has a split personalitydisorder. Norman Bates’ mother had in fact been deadfor several years and he had been acting as thecontrolling and domineering mother all along- he isthe murderer of Marion and Arbogast.

Thrillers are characterised by fast, frequent

action. The main action scenes are the shower,

staircase and car scenes (shown below).

Thrillers include “resourceful heroes must thwart the plans of more powerful and

better equipped villains”At first, we are made to think that Marion Craneis the heroine. A blonde woman as theprotagonist is a recurring theme of Hitchcock’s;he preferred them because he thought that theaudience would be suspicious of a brunette.Another reason for this was because he believedblondes looked better on screen than brunettesin black and white filming.

I believe that the “heroine” is initially theprotagonist Marion Crane. However, quitequickly into the film we begin to change

ouropinion of her when she carries outmischievous and criminal behaviour.She loses all heroic traits-if she even had any beforehand.

When we are introduced to Norman Bates at the

Bates Motel, he is portrayed as a vulnerable and

emotional “big-kid” dependent on his controlling mother. We feel

sympathetic towards him, particularly when Marion

acts quite harshly towards him.

Transference of guilt occurs when she commits a crime and

is murdered- the protagonist/heroic role

has been given to the ambiguous Norman Bates.

Overall, there is no consistent hero. His true character is revealed at the end- Norman

Bates is in fact the genuine villain. Like Marion, our feelings of sympathy for him gradually fade

after he peers into Marion’s room while she

undresses. This is the first time we feel entirely unsure

of his true character. It is strange for the

protagonist to be killed off so early however this is effective because Hitchcock ensured we felt

sympathetic towards Norman up until Marion’s death. We

had nosuspicions that it was Norman.

Thrillers have “devices such as suspense, red herring and cliff-hangers

that are used extensively”Suspense is particularly used after the death of Marion when her

sister Lilaand boyfriend Sam attempt to find the murderer. In this scene, Lila

is in Bates’ room in attempt to uncover the mystery of Norman’s mother.

Hitchcockbuilds suspense here with his cinematography. Slow eye-line

matches and the groove in the mattress create suspense. The melodramatic music

foreshadows a drastic event about to occur.The false shocks, for exampleLila jumping at her own reflection, also builds the tension.This misleads us to assume that Lila will have the same fate asher sister. Instead, Norman Bates is caught as his “mother” and the police intervene. http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIOT-0IQOus

The one main red-herring in Psycho is the first 20 minutes ofthe film itself. We are mislead to believe the plot will follow Marion running away from the police with the $40,000.Instead, she heads to Bates Motel and the money becomesirrelevant altogether.

I think that the ending of the film is a cliff-hanger because the situation isn’t entirely resolved. Norman/”mother” make plans to appear sane and vulnerable in the vital scene when he says “she wouldn’t even harm a fly”. This abrupt ending suggests that Norman could be released in the future and the cycle will repeat itself. Marion’s car rising from the swamp creates a sense of inevitability; Norman’s past will never leave him.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYDxxHrlmUg