Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train

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For my short paper essay assignment, I decided to write about Strangers on a Train, which is a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1951. The story is about two strangers that meet on a train. Those men’s names were Guy Haines and Bruno Anthony. Guy is a professional tennis player and he is married. His wife’s name is Mariam, but he wants a divorce with Mariam because he loves another woman. Bruno Anthony is the other stranger, slightly psychotic, hating his father and wanting to kill him. The movie runs for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Now, in this paper, I will try to analyze Hitchcock’s filming techniques, setting, suspense, camera shots, character plot and theme on this movie. In Strangers on a Train, I think Guy is guilty because he wanted Miriam dead. On the other hand, guilt is the one thing that weakens Bruno. The audience sees, in the senator’s house in party meeting, when Bruno saw Barbara he felt guilty and confused because Barbra was similar to Miriam when she has her glasses on. In general, both Guy and Bruno fluctuates between guilt and innocence, especially Bruno because he did not get any benefit, because Guy he refused to kill Bruno father, even though he killed Miriam and finally he also died. In this film, there are signs of possible homosexuality in Bruno. For example, in his smooth, slightly effeminate way of speaking when he says, “Guy, I can do anything for you. I like you.” His care about his nails and his colorful shoes: all of these behaviors would indicate that he is gay. As for Guy, it’s really hard to decide if he is gay or not. It depends on the interpretation of the audience. If we consider his weak relationship with Anna, maybe we can categorize him as gay. On other hand,... ... middle of paper ... ...t includes several themes, stylistic patterns and plot elements that are characteristic of Hitchcock's style. The lighter was the most important object in this film. In general, Bruno he is very distractive character in this film and Guy is very weak person he can’t decide anything in his life. For this reason Bruno he played in Guy life by. I wish Bruno was unable to reach the lighter when it felt in the swear but he picked up after multiple time trial. However after Bruno death the police found out the lighter in his hand and Guy not found guilty. In other words, in this movie my view of point for Bruno was same as Norman in Psycho Hitchcock film. Works Cited Wood, R. (1986). Stringers on a Train. In M.Deutelbaum & L.Poague ( Eds).& A Hitchcock Reader (2nd Ed.).(pp.172-181). Amos, IA: Iowa University press.

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