A classic. Hitchcock's greatest film. Everything is perfectly done and the film has the most famous scene in movie history you know the scene "The Shower Scene".

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2000)

Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho has it all to start with romance, embezzlement, disappearance, secrets, voyeurism, a dead corpse, a split personality of a man who thinks from time to time he's his dead mother and of course death in the most famous scene of all time the scene of Janet Leigh getting stabbed to death in the shower. The first time I saw Psycho as a kid and seeing the shower scene it terrified me so much I actually became afraid to take a shower I had great fear of getting stabbed to death even in my own home. As any child would do myself included they grow away from the terror of scare scenes as age increases, but recently I have looked at the famous shower scene from a different perspective. Many are unaware but it took seven days to shoot the shower scene, seventy camera positions for the forty-five seconds of very famous footage not an actual bare breast or plunging knife is to be found in the final cut, just illusion through montage. Now I begin my discussion on montage for those who don't know it's meaning or importance. Montage is a distinct type of editing that brings more drama to film and it links shots of film together and the editing separates and makes a film different from other forms of art. Montage was developed from the Soviet Union. Montage was used in very distinct ways in Psycho mostly crafted from Russian editor and director Eisenstein whose editing technique clashing of images or more properly known as a graphic match in film. Actually both similar terms can be explained first clashing of images create conflict just as in the shower scene the images flashing quickly of the knife and Janet Leigh's body symbolize the action and drama of the film while tied to the music of the Psycho shower scene. The term graphic match is very symbolic to show that life goes down the drain. To explain in the shower scene as Janet Leigh is stabbed and her body slides down with the shower curtain breaking the camera does a very close angle shot of her eye and then the camera slowly but surely makes it way to the blood and water flowing down the drain to symbolize death. This is a great example of graphic match it does exactly what it says by taking two unlike objects as in this case an eye and a drain of a tub to compare the action and drama that just unfolded in a scene with blood and water going down the drain symbolizing death while the eye open and an open drain show that life is no more. Finally enough about the famous shower scene everyone should know by now the story and technique behind it and how it was done to perfection, but I end my discussion of the scene I don't what you to think that your in a cinema history class! Hey don't forget how great a film Psycho is it has several other good reasons for it's classic ranking besides the shower scene with montage to start the intelligent directing of Alfred Hitchcock he simply was the master at keeping people in suspense and Psycho is full of suspense from start to finish. Also another interesting moment is to notice Hitchcock as the pedestrian outside the office in the very first few minutes of Psycho it was common for Alfred to make small appearances in his movies. And Anthony Perkins was great as the best and most liked Psycho character of our time the famous Norman Bates. The character had such intelligent wit and yet evil twisted means. So make reservations to the Bates Motel you will enjoy this classic of strange happenings at a rundown motel. I added this movie to my video library just this year and I recommend that anyone add Psycho to a personal movie collection of their own. After 40 years and beyond we all still have the right to go a little mad.