Review of Strangers on a Train (1951) by Chevonne K — 17 Nov 2008
Hitchcock obtains a shit ton of tension in this by intercutting between situations all at once, the tennis match/ lighter sequence, the various things happening on the merry go round and so on. Right from the beginning he cuts repeatedly between the shoes of the two leads.
Having just watched Rope which attempts to make the audience complicit in the murder, I see here Hitch pinning that on Guy and how he is just as bad as the murderer. Yes, we want to see him get away at the end of the day because Bruno is purely evil, but then again after all that Bruno goes through we kind of want him to succeed too.
Bruno is such an interesting character due to his ambiguous motivations we want to see him pull through to hopefully further understand him. Out of all the Hitch films I have watched this one feels like it gets that storyboard right, the way the characters are centered and then lighted is exquisite.
Look at how Bruno moves in and out of the light towards the end of the film, without being told we are made concious that he does need that shade of darkness. Hitch has done better, but this is very a competent exercise of his filmmaking power.
This review of Strangers on a Train (1951) was written by Chevonne K on 17 Nov 2008.
Strangers on a Train has generally received very positive reviews.
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