Psycho and Christians in a world with Violence

“Psycho” was made in 1960 by famous director Alfred Hitchcock. The story portrays a young woman, named Lila Crane who, after stealing $40,000, ends up staying at a small motel off the main road. This motel is run by a man named Norman Bates and while staying there, Miss Crane is killed. This movie has been called a classic by everyone and their mother. As I watched the movie for the first time, I looked to see what made it so great. I found that the way this movie makes its audience feel, through the musical score and the cinematography, is the reason this movie is viewed as a classic. “Psycho” also made me wonder about how Christians deal with the violence in the world right now.

Music is an important piece of any movies story telling. I think the main point of having a musical score in a movie is to make the audience feel a certain emotion while watching a scene. Hitchcock did a fantastic job at making his audience feel fear and suspense in “Psycho”. A perfect example is in the scene where Lila Crane is killed. The character is in the shower and there is no music, just the sounds of the scene. Then a dark figure slowly comes up behind Miss Crane with still no score building the anticipation. But then the figure rips back the shower curtain and the score shoots up with a high pitched screech of a violin that shocks the audience just as much as it shocks Miss Crane as she is stabbed repeatedly by the figure. This music is now a cultural icon of cinema and it has stood the test of time. The musical score of “Psycho” has helped to make this movie feel like the classic it is today.

The cinematography is another major staple of this classic film. One of the best first shots of the movie is a scene with a conversation between Norman Bates and Lila Crane. As they talk you get this very uncomfortable feeling as Norman talks about how his life with his mother. The way Hitchcock focused and held on Norman makes the audience focus on the way Norman tells his story. The scene gets under your skin and foreshadows more uncomfortableness to come.

One of two other important shots is the ultra-close upshot of Miss Crane’s eye after she falls over dead in the shower. Again, Hitchcock holds on this shot after the horror that the audience just saw. This makes the feeling that this scene causes sink even deeper and stays with the viewer through the rest of the movie. The other significant shot is the where Hitchcock holds, again, on Norman at the end of the movie after we learn that the second personality in his mind has taken over. The smile that actor Anthony Perkins gives in this shot is bone-chilling and leaves the audience with the fear of what this person, this psycho will do next.

“Psycho” is an American classic that is a household name. But this movie raises some questions on violence in this world. The movie also made me ask myself, as a Christian, “How should we deal with this?” Christians are told to be peacemakers and to help others. But this world can be violent and dangerous, so Christians need to be ready to protect themselves and others. We need to be able to keep ourselves safe in order to continue to spread the word of God to others. Christians need to be strong and ready in case they run into a Norman Bates in the real world.