Movie review
The paper seeks to review the movie strangers on a train directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The movie shows two strangers Bruno and Guy who meet when travelling their different ways. On his side, the author uses cinematic terminology and methodology through the plot. The paper discusses the plot of the movie in brief but from the start to the end. The paper explains the nature of the movie as a both work of art and entertainment. The paper discusses how the author uses different patterns, techniques, themes and meanings to make the movie successful.
The movie starts by showing two strangers Bruno Anthony and Guy Haines who incidentally meet on a train. Guy is an architect while Bruno is a psychologist. The two strangers start a conversation and all of them depict issues that affect them. Guy wants to divorce his unfaithful wife Miriam while Bruno wanted his father killed. Bruno suggested an idea of murders to do away with the two. He justifies his ideas how the police would not suspect them for they never knew each other. He suggested that they swap murders for they live far away from each other. Guy thought that Bruno joked all along with the matter. Bruno murders Guy’s wife Miriam when Guy was in Mexico but Guy hesitates to take him to police. Guy found it hard to murder Bruno’s father due to the guilt he felt. This made Bruno to pressure him so much until he accepted to murder the father.
After certain period, Bruno attends Guy’s an uninvited wedding that made private detective who suspected connection of the two in their respective murders. In the wedding scene, Guy Bruno falls during a sailing cruse but Guy goes to save him. However, Bruno drowns and the police closed the murder investigations. A lot of guilt pressures Guy and confess the two instances of murder to the crime investigators. However, the investigators oversaw the matter and termed them as appropriate punishment for the unfaithfulness. This made Guy to hand himself to the detectives immediately.
Accessing meaning and worthiness
The movie on two strangers meeting on a train is worth viewing for it portrays the true nature of the contemporary society we live in today. The movie properly describes several instances of betrayal that often happen in the society. Bruno betrays his father to Guy suggesting Guy to kill him. On the other hand, Guy betrays his wife Miriam to Bruno that causes her death. At the end of the movie, Guy confesses the reality to the police. By this, he betrayed his friend Bruno, betraying their secret agreements. The movie also teaches lessons on people without morals and the punishment they get at the end. Miriam was unfaithful to their marriage with Guy. This made Guy divorce her, and later being murdered which caused her death. Bruno, who was the master planner of the murders, got his pay too. At the scene, Bruno falls in a sailing cruse and drowns causing her death. The movie teaches many lessons and these makes it worthy for the viewers.
METHODOLOGY
Nature of the movie
The director of the movie, Alfred Hitchcock directed the movie to attain standards of an art. As a work of an art, he used different techniques throughout the movie. The techniques include symbolism, where he used material objects or events to describe other events. He proved an artist by proficiently using crisscross of crosscutting events in the movie. These instances describe two events happening at the same time in the same or different venues. The movie is an art as it brings out different lessons in life. The ability of the director in using different techniques shows the movie as a work of an art.
The movie may also be a form of entertainment. Use of sounds the background entertains the audience, making the movie more lively. The director uses humor to describe Bruno as a confused psychologist. Psychologists are supposed to solve mental matters but Bruno was unable to solve. This made him make the wrong decisions and plot murders to the one they disliked.
Systematic patterns in the movie
According to (Gibson, 153) a pattern is a technique in any work of an art, where an instance is repeated more than one time. Hitchcock used a double pattern, to explain things and events that happened in doubles. As the movie starts, Bruno orders two drinks, one for him and the other for Guy. The movie shows two situations that seem to be alike. Bruno dislikes his father while Guy dislikes his wife Miriam. This leads to another double where the two strangers conduct two murders. The movie shows two pairs of feet walking along a road in the street. These two pairs of feet are a pair of black shoes and a pair of white shoes. Guy repeats the word “SureSure” two times as he feign to admit to swap the two crimes. The movie also shows a pair of railway lines that crisscross one another. Hitchcock used another instance of double in the two rackets on Guy’s lighter. These suggest Guy’s involvement in both politics and tennis playing. Guy tells his wife that she is a double crosser after she changed her mind after their divorce agreements.
Cinematic techniques
The movie director used sounds at the background of the movie. These sounds apply according to situations. He uses a cool music to console in case of a death in order to release tension. He applies the technique of foreshadowing to create suspense in the film. The foreshadowing makes an audience to stay in touch and increases concentration (Rabiger, 418). At one instance, Guy converses with Ann and suggests that he would strangle Miriam on the divorce matter. This created suspense for the audience wanted to know Miriam’s fate. The director used symbolism in the movie to describe instances and events. The two railway lines that crosscut symbolize exchange of murders among the two. The two pairs of shoes walking down the street are white and black. White shoes symbolize goodness while black symbolize bad side, which are the characters of the two strangers. Guy’s lighter has a pair of rackets that symbolize his engagement in both politics and tennis playing.
The director used yet another technique of editing in the movie. This technique brings together independent scenes to complete the plot of the movie. By this, editing removes unwanted scenes to maintain relevance and eliminate boredom (Rabiger, 512). The director uses irony or ironic instances to mean the opposite of reality. Bruno is a psychologist. Psychologists solve mental issues to people and should be good counselors. However, Bruno does not portray those skills and makes the wrong decisions for people. Another ironic instance is that we view relationship between Bruno and his father. In real life, a child should love a parent and protect him/ her of any danger. However, Bruno dislikes his father and plots for his murder.
The movie is both an art and an entertainment. It is worthy for viewing for it teaches different lessons to the society. The director used several techniques including symbolism, irony, and crosscutting to prove his skills. He also used cinematic techniques as editing and use of sound in directing his movie. He discussed different themes like the doubles and the theme of betrayal in his movie. He combined those techniques and successively achieved his goal.
Works cited
Michael K. Rabiger. Film Techniques And Aesthetics. Burlington: Focal press publishers. 2003
Print
Christine M. Gibson. Cinematic Techniques in The Prose Fiction Of Beatriz Guido. New York:
Universal Publishers. 2007 print
http://www.artistdirect.com/video/strangers-on-a-train/66079
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=crosscutting+in+strangers+in+the+train
