Psycho (the movie) Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Alfred Hitchcock's Contribution To Cinema - Essay Example Aristotle, in the Poetics, while attempted to provide definition of tragedy, provided a great deal of emphasis over purgation of â€Å"pity† and â€Å"fear† and as a tragedy effectively provides an emotional outlet to such human sensibilities, is also capable of attaining appreciation of the audience: â€Å"Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious and complete, and which has some greatness about it. It imitates in words with pleasant accompaniments, each type belonging separately to the different parts of the work. It imitates people performing actions and does not rely on narration. It achieves, through pity and fear, the catharsis of these sorts of feelings† (Aristotle; Cited in Shields 385). Despite the fact that context of the topic of discussion does not really provide sufficient scope to evaluate that how successful the movie Psycho (1960) is as a tragedy, however, relevance of this definition seems quite evident as explicit evidence can be cited, indicating the fact that behind development of a successful commercial film, Hitchcock has relied considerably on the features of purgation as well as providing attention over psychological state of the audience, as pointed out in the classical definition itself. It would be wrong if the success of the Psycho is evaluated entirely from the commercial perspective. The director, in an interview though, has admitted that the film was made on a budget of â€Å"eight hundred thousand dollars† and till the date of interview â€Å"it has grossed some fifteen million dollars† (Hitchcock; Kolker 21), however, it cannot be denied that in order to attain such a great success from artistic, aesthetic and commercial perspective the directorial ingeniousness regarding the art of filmmaking and perceiving audience’s psychology played a very vital part.