Function of Montage in the Film, The Night of the Hunter

Function of Montage in the Film, The Night of the Hunter

In The Night of the Hunter various montages are utilized throughout the plot to capture the literal and figurative messages of the movie. The director uses montages to basically allow the audience to grasp the ideas that are being put forth. For instance, when the widow and Icy are talking about marriage plans with Harry Powell, clips of a train interrupt the seemingly continuous conversation. The two women discuss the joyous plans for the marriage and ironically this conversation gets interrupted by a runaway train. The train seems to be heading for disaster at high speed. This correlates to the marriage plans, which are also quick to be orchestrated and will eventually lead to disaster. This montage is specifically placed to foreshadow the upcoming events that lead to the widow’s death. The montage fuses together two unrelated shots in order to achieve a specific idea of foreshadowing the future.

I believe that the longest montage of the film is animal clips throughout the duration of the children’s getaway. As the two are in their boat, floating down the river, the seemingly continuous segment of footage gets interrupted with clips of small creatures. The small creatures range from turtles to birds to rabbits, alluding to the small creatures running away from Harry Powell. Now, these images get juxtaposed with the images of predators such as owls and fox that are associated with Harry Powell. This directly reflects the idea that Harry Powell is the “Hunter”, while the children are the small prey. This montage is used to show the danger that the children face as well as helping to characterize both parties as the helpless prey vs the night hunter.