Psycho (1960)
Even if you haven't seen Psycho, you know about its famous shower scene. You might even know how the movie ends. That doesn't matter. The movie is not about those individual moments, it's about the whole and unless you've seen this movie, you don't understand how good it is.
Marion (Janet Leigh) succumbs to temptation and steals a huge sum of money from her workplace. On the run, she rents a room at the secluded Bates Motel where she meets the proprietor, a strange young man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). He takes care of the place while his old bat of a mother (predominantly voiced by Virginia Gregg) shrieks from her room. When Marion’s crime is discovered, private investigator Milton Arbogast (Martin Balsam), Marion’s boyfriend Sam (John Gavin), and her sister Lila (Vera Miles) begin looking for her.
You can imagine how shocking this would've been for the 1960s. Crimes committed by someone you couldn't immediately point to as evil in a crowd? Psychotic behavior? When had this seriously been considered as a possibility? It’s also pretty graphic considering the restrictions imposed on cinema at the time. There are many scenes of Janet Leigh in her underwear, undressing or naked - though the nudity is never actually shown. When the violence comes, it's sudden and without warning. Before then, the whole thing drips with suspense. The bloody scenes are cleverly executed to ensure no one could accuse Hitchcock of indecency but push this just a little further and you've got a full-blown slasher movie.
The tension builds from frame one with a masterfully orchestrated opening. Throughout, there's a persistent air of unease. The way the camera and the music work together to highlights little details makes you paranoid. You want that release of tension but you don't want things to end. If there’s any flaw with "Psycho" it's that you're so starved for an opportunity to catch your breath that it becomes slightly exhausting during the middle. It lasts only briefly as this marks the point where the picture's focus shifts onto another character. Your heart will begin pumping at full speed once again.
Technically, this movie is incredible. There are dozens of iconic shots that are pulled off in ways that'll make you scratch your head. The way it juggles all of the characters and also manages to remain frightening despite its best scenes being so well known parodying them is a hackneyed joke at this point.
I keep bringing up the film's place in pop culture for a specific reason. I think there’s a certain amount of resistance among anyone who's seen a movie parodied over and over. You come to resent it, to feel like it won’t have the impact critics say it will, or that it's no longer a piece of entertainment anymore, that's a bit of homework. I get it. I've always wanted to see “Psycho”, but never made it a priority. I now realize I’d been missing out.
I didn’t just like Psycho; I LOVED IT! My only regret is that I didn't get to experience it sooner and the way it was back in the day. Here's my advice: watch it with someone young, someone who hasn't heard of the movie before. No one will care that it’s in black and white - people at the time didn't and color had been available for 30 years. You'll get to see first-hand how unpredictable and shocking a movie it is. Then, you’ll be able to discuss all of the aspects that make Psycho a triumph, from the camera work to the twists, the music, the design of the opening titles, that final creepy scene, and - of course - the shower scene. (On Blu-ray, October 30, 2015)
