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Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is considered the "Master of Suspense" due to his subtle techniques that influenced thousands of films after him, even if directors are not consciously acknowledging him. Hitchcock employed curious nuances like musical cues, camera angles, and conversations to create tension without obvious scares. Examples like Inception, Black Swan, and The Social Network reference specific techniques from North by Northwest, Vertigo, and Rear Window. While some modern films are not entirely original due to Hollywood's exposure to Hitchcock's influence, his impact has helped shape American cinema for the better compared to other potential influences.

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188 views2 pages

Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is considered the "Master of Suspense" due to his subtle techniques that influenced thousands of films after him, even if directors are not consciously acknowledging him. Hitchcock employed curious nuances like musical cues, camera angles, and conversations to create tension without obvious scares. Examples like Inception, Black Swan, and The Social Network reference specific techniques from North by Northwest, Vertigo, and Rear Window. While some modern films are not entirely original due to Hollywood's exposure to Hitchcock's influence, his impact has helped shape American cinema for the better compared to other potential influences.

Uploaded by

rbatson
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Robert Batson

March 2k11
Opinion
470 wrd cnt
RB- Hitchcock’s Hand in Modern Day Cinema

SPOILERS: The ‘Master of Suspense’ title is not received by any director who can get a

mild jump scare out of an audience. It’s more of a Highlander kind of scenario, in that “there

can only be one!” To apply to recent context, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island did cause

widespread anxiety in movie theaters, and Black Swan may have caused some unanticipated

bowel movements from movie patrons, but the title remains to the original horror filmmaker,

Alfred Hitchcock.

The only correct way to summarize a forty year movie career is this: Hitchcock is subtle.

His curious nuances attract little attention and one would only spot them if they were a film geek.

The musical cues in scenes of zero drama to add an undeserved tension, the ground shots looking

up to the sky to see some horrible airborne fate for the characters on screen, or simply a

conversation where the angles are creepier than an abandoned doll factory. To think there are

thousands of movies that apply all of the techniques stated (Manhattan, The Warriors,

Labyrinth, Star Wars, The Dark Knight, Inglourious Basterds, etc.) that would lose so much

cinematic value if it were not for Hitchcock and his influence. Respect is due to Hitchcock in

every film released after his career, he needs no star on a sidewalk or photo in the Chinese

Theater. His influence acts as his own memorial.

In Christopher Nolan’s Inception the opening scene of the endless cliffs and long

shoreline mirrors Hitchcock’s North by Northwest(1959) where the train races along the lake as

the camera moves with the locomotives path. In Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan the repetitive

use of shadow-hidden profiles recollects the climax to Vertigo(1958) when the camera pans to
the left to reveal a horribly timed nun. And in David Fincher’s The Social Network the intense

use of camera angles to grant reverse perspective, is identical to the same effect in Rear Window

(1954). Almost every filmmaker after 1971 has employed a filmmaking quirk that was either

created or popularized by Alfred Hitchcock. This can range to almost anything out of the

mainstream that can be identified in one of his films (director cameos, victim perspective,

elaborate character chase sequences, etc.)

The thousands of Hitchcock-esque film making techniques directors employ every year

aren’t shameless rip-offs or conscious acknowledgements, it’s just they came after Hitchcock’s

time. And that doesn’t justify every modern film as conformist or uninspired. It’s the mainstream

exposure to Hollywood cinema, where film studios will boast their influence from Hitchcock,

that flaws every American director. Instead of moping at this realization that most of what oyu

pay $11 to see is un-original film making, we should celebrate that Hollywood was influence by

an awesome director, for the fate of American cinema could’ve been in worse hands (Michael

Bay cough cough).

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