Psycho

Title: Psycho (1960)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
AFI Rank: 14

Starting off the "100 Movies in 365 Days" project is the classic film Psycho by the infamous Mr. Alfred Hitchcock. I have seen this movie a few times before, although it has been years since my last viewing of it. Tonight, I am joined in viewing this film with my husband Danny and my good friend Kevin, both of whom are also movie lovers.

The theme of this movie comes down to two words: mental health. Being mentally healthy does not just mean being free of mental illness, but being emotionally happy and stable in mind. In the beginning, we see that Marion discovers that she is not as mentally happy as she first appears to be (and maybe she doesn't even realize at first that she is not as happy as she thinks she is). When a client of her boss, Tom, comes in, he talks about being happy vs. being unhappy. He casually throws around $40,000 in cash and says that buying something expensive is "not buying happiness, but just buying off unhappiness." This gets in Marion's head, and she realizes that she's been in the same job for 10 years, is in a seemingly dead-end relationship (her guy, Sam, doesn't want to get married), and doesn't feel like she is going anywhere. Her stealing the $40K is, essentially, attempting to find happiness and mental health by escaping her world and starting fresh somewhere else.

Norman is the character that the movie pivots around. On the outside, Norman appears normal: he is warm, friendly, welcoming, and charming when Marion arrives, but throughout the film it is revealed that he is deeply disturbed inside. It is revealed in the movie that his father died when he was only five years old, and he has no social conduct other than his mom, and he believes that "a boy's best friend is his mother." After his mother died, Norman gave up half his life to give life to her again, having two personalities in his own head. He would even go to the lengths of donning a dress and wearing a cheap wig to impersonate his mother, never realizing that he was doing so. His loneliness and clingy love for his mother drove him insane, and caused the deaths of at least six people.

As human beings, we are naturally programed to be social. We need contact with other humans to thrive. Without that contact, we would become like Norman: socially awkward, immensely lonely, and unbalanced. We don't necessarily need to have hundreds of close friends, but we do need human contact to maintain mental health. Norman lived as a hermit, and it drove him to such desperate desolation that his personality split in two, one becoming his mother, and that other personality would become jealous of the first.

I think this film made it onto AFI's top 100 because of the emotional and psychological depth it reaches to. The film itself examines a dark side of the human mind and brings out the worst when one lives a solitary existence. Norman isn't necessarily the villain in this film (although, arguably it would be the "mother side" of Norman that is) since the psychologist states that "Norman wakes up after 'mother' has taken over as though he's woken up from a deep sleep." He doesn't realize that it is his own doing. Really, he is a victim of a sad situation, one that may feel like eternal emptiness to him.

Of course, I couldn't end my post about Psycho without mentioning the music! Hitchcock himself credited the music to bringing 33% of the film's success. Music is powerful, it can change our emotions and pull them in one direction or another. Most people, even the ones who have not seen Psycho, can recognize the infamous music used in the shower scene. Hats off to Bernard Herrmann for his outstanding musical contribution to a spectacular film.

It's been sixty years since Hitchcock gave us Psycho, and it still sends chills down our spines. Thanks, Alfred, for making us fear the shower.

Trivia: (trivia source: imdb.com)
• Hitchcock bought the rights to the book the movie is based on from the author, Robert Bloch, for only $9,000. After obtaining the rights, Hitchcock bought as many copies of the book as he possibly could in attempt to keep the ending a secret from most people.
•"Psycho" was remade in 1998 starring Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche.

Off Topic Side Note: Please feel free to comment on anything: the blog, the film, the posts. I would love to hear from someone! I am doing this for myself, but it would be great to get a follower or to and have a little input. :)

Movies to go: 99