Psycho ««½
R, 104m. 1998
Cast & Credits: Vince Vaughn (Norman Bates), Anne Heche (Marion Crane), William H. Macy (Detective Arbogast), Julianne Moore (Lila Crane), Viggo Mortensen (Sam Loomis), Philip Baker Hall (Sheriff Chambers), Robert Forster (Psychiatrist). Screenplay by Joseph Stefano. Directed by Gus Van Sant.
I have never been a fan of movie remakes, but I’ve never been one to completely boycott them either. They are curiosity pieces if nothing else; a chance to see what the director and his new cast can do with old material from what was arguably already a great film.
The best remakes are the ones where directors pay tribute to the originals the way Martin Scorsese did when he cast movie veterans Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck in cameo roles in his 1991 remake of Cape Fear. When director Philip Kaufman gave actor Kevin McCarthy the chance to scream “They’re coming!” again to Donald Sutherland in the 1978 update of Don Siegel’s sci-fi thriller, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it was probably Kaufman’s way of saying, “You can’t replace a classic.”
Now director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting-1997) pays homage to yet another one, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 black and white horror/slasher film, Psycho, by not changing a thing in screenwriter Joseph Stefano’s original script. All of the screenplay’s tragic character-driven elements Hitchcock incorporated in his earlier work are here.
They are greed (female lead character steals money), guilt (she soon regrets having stolen it), voyeurism (male hotel owner has a thing for looking at nude women through a peephole), murder (female lead is unexpectedly killed by who seems to be an old lady), fear (boyfriend and sister think something bad happened to the woman and investigate), and insanity (the killer has a dual personality).
Everyone who has seen the original knows the story. Those who haven’t are at least familiar with Janet Leigh’s infamous shower sequence who, as Marion Crane, is stabbed to death by the nice guy next door, a hotel owner named Norman Bates, chillingly played by Anthony Perkins. Perkins’ signature role caused him to be typecast as psychotics in a number of films in later years, few good; a high number of them bad.
Let’s be realistic here. The fact this “remake”, along with the infamous shower sequence is now shot in color is enough to peak anyone’s interest. The thought leaves one with the impression the shower scene will be a little more graphic when the tragic victim, now played by Anne Heche, meets her untimely demise. It is probably the only reason why the film grossed ten million at theaters opening weekend last December. Unlike the couple sitting a few rows down from me who quickly lost interest and walked out after Crane died, my mind just drifted elsewhere.
The turnoff is the new cast. I found it hard for me to sit there and imagine someone else in the roles made famous by Leigh and Perkins. Heche’s Crane exhibits guilty feelings in obvious ways through a variety of facial expressions as she ponders what her boss, the police, and her friends may be saying about her suddenly leaving town with over $40,000 cash in her purse. When Heche runs out of facial expressions, she just looks into the camera with a blank stare.
On the other hand, Vince Vaughn’s rendition of Norman Bates is all wrong. What made Perkins’ performance memorable was how he gave us the false impression he wanted female companionship or at least someone, anyone to talk to. His tall, handsome, maybe even nerdy but noticeably thin appearance made me feel like this guy was the one the kids always made fun of in high school. When Perkins’ Norman gave that self-assuring smile as the second car carrying Detective Arborgast’s body sank to the bottom of the lake, it was the look of someone who became used to killing and would be even less hesitant to do it again.
Vaughn, who is physically the opposite of Perkins’ appearance, is tall but his rugged husky physique reminded me more of Vincent D’Onofrio’s questionably unstable Gomer Pyle in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987). His character also has a weird laugh that suggests this guy might have some kind of mental disability. The remake’s biggest mistake is when Heche’s character tells Norman to consider putting his mother in a home. Vaughn’s Norman launches into an almost violent, accusatory frenzy that obviously suggests what is going to come next.
When there were no comparisons to be made between the new and old cast as to their feelings, I started taking note of how a couple of the characters dressed and their lifestyles like Marion’s boyfriend, Sam Loomis (Viggo Mortensen), who runs a hardware store, drives a pickup truck, and dons a cowboy hat. When compared to the clean-cut handsome John Gavin in the original, Mortensen’s character is a complete opposite.
On the other hand, Julianne Moore’s rendition of Vera Miles’ Lila Crane, who carries around a backpack and listens to music on headphones while investigating her sister’s disappearance, acts as though she has never trusted a single person in her life. She plays the role with too much skepticism. I was convinced more by Miles’ character who was frightened for her sister’s safety.
Yet after all this, I still liked a few things about the movie like composer Danny Elfman’s (Batman-1989) version of Bernard Herrmann’s musical score and the way the opening credits raced across the screen in both horizontal and vertical fashions. The music is still just as haunting today as it was back in 1960 and was enough for me to go out and buy the original soundtrack.
The best thing about the film is the way Van Sant shoots the movie like the cast is in some sort of time warp. Heche wears the kind of dresses women would only wear in the 60s while William H. Macy’s Detective Arborgast still sports the same fedora hat Martin Balsam’s character did.
There are only a few new additions like the scene where Vaughn’s Norman gets sexually aroused for a minute or two as he stares through the peephole of his office into Room 1 at Crane’s naked body. Then there are shots during the shower sequence and Arborgast’s murder of a cow or deer being slaughtered on the road and clouds racing across the sky marking the passages of time as Norman murders his victims.
I have always viewed remakes as Hollywood’s way of saying they no longer have the ability to come up with fresh ideas. It will be a sad day in Tinseltown if all studios have left to give audiences in the 21st century is digitally enhanced special effects combined with a recycled storyline. Then again, it will be a sad day should it turn out that is all movie lovers want.
With future remakes like the Rat Pack movie Ocean’s 11 (1960), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1970), and even Casablanca (1942) being considered, it is only a matter of time before someone sets their sights on redoing Citizen Kane (1941).
Watching this new Psycho, I am reminded of the subplot in Star Trek: Generations (1994) where the android Data has a computer chip installed in his brain that allows him to exhibit the same feelings as a human being. He laughs, cries, tells jokes, swears, and gets scared.
By using the same script, Psycho’s new cast mimics practically everything the original stars did in the first one. What is different is how they deliver their lines and their reactions to various situations.
On a technical level, Van Sant’s camera movements and direction are all perfectly timed exactly the way Hitchcock shot them. Like so many remakes of other memorable classics before it, the film made me appreciate the original even more.
The only thing missing from this version is a soul.
©3/3/99
R, 104m. 1998
Cast & Credits: Vince Vaughn (Norman Bates), Anne Heche (Marion Crane), William H. Macy (Detective Arbogast), Julianne Moore (Lila Crane), Viggo Mortensen (Sam Loomis), Philip Baker Hall (Sheriff Chambers), Robert Forster (Psychiatrist). Screenplay by Joseph Stefano. Directed by Gus Van Sant.
The best remakes are the ones where directors pay tribute to the originals the way Martin Scorsese did when he cast movie veterans Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck in cameo roles in his 1991 remake of Cape Fear. When director Philip Kaufman gave actor Kevin McCarthy the chance to scream “They’re coming!” again to Donald Sutherland in the 1978 update of Don Siegel’s sci-fi thriller, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it was probably Kaufman’s way of saying, “You can’t replace a classic.”
Now director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting-1997) pays homage to yet another one, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 black and white horror/slasher film, Psycho, by not changing a thing in screenwriter Joseph Stefano’s original script. All of the screenplay’s tragic character-driven elements Hitchcock incorporated in his earlier work are here.
They are greed (female lead character steals money), guilt (she soon regrets having stolen it), voyeurism (male hotel owner has a thing for looking at nude women through a peephole), murder (female lead is unexpectedly killed by who seems to be an old lady), fear (boyfriend and sister think something bad happened to the woman and investigate), and insanity (the killer has a dual personality).
Everyone who has seen the original knows the story. Those who haven’t are at least familiar with Janet Leigh’s infamous shower sequence who, as Marion Crane, is stabbed to death by the nice guy next door, a hotel owner named Norman Bates, chillingly played by Anthony Perkins. Perkins’ signature role caused him to be typecast as psychotics in a number of films in later years, few good; a high number of them bad.
Let’s be realistic here. The fact this “remake”, along with the infamous shower sequence is now shot in color is enough to peak anyone’s interest. The thought leaves one with the impression the shower scene will be a little more graphic when the tragic victim, now played by Anne Heche, meets her untimely demise. It is probably the only reason why the film grossed ten million at theaters opening weekend last December. Unlike the couple sitting a few rows down from me who quickly lost interest and walked out after Crane died, my mind just drifted elsewhere.
The turnoff is the new cast. I found it hard for me to sit there and imagine someone else in the roles made famous by Leigh and Perkins. Heche’s Crane exhibits guilty feelings in obvious ways through a variety of facial expressions as she ponders what her boss, the police, and her friends may be saying about her suddenly leaving town with over $40,000 cash in her purse. When Heche runs out of facial expressions, she just looks into the camera with a blank stare.
On the other hand, Vince Vaughn’s rendition of Norman Bates is all wrong. What made Perkins’ performance memorable was how he gave us the false impression he wanted female companionship or at least someone, anyone to talk to. His tall, handsome, maybe even nerdy but noticeably thin appearance made me feel like this guy was the one the kids always made fun of in high school. When Perkins’ Norman gave that self-assuring smile as the second car carrying Detective Arborgast’s body sank to the bottom of the lake, it was the look of someone who became used to killing and would be even less hesitant to do it again.
Vaughn, who is physically the opposite of Perkins’ appearance, is tall but his rugged husky physique reminded me more of Vincent D’Onofrio’s questionably unstable Gomer Pyle in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987). His character also has a weird laugh that suggests this guy might have some kind of mental disability. The remake’s biggest mistake is when Heche’s character tells Norman to consider putting his mother in a home. Vaughn’s Norman launches into an almost violent, accusatory frenzy that obviously suggests what is going to come next.
When there were no comparisons to be made between the new and old cast as to their feelings, I started taking note of how a couple of the characters dressed and their lifestyles like Marion’s boyfriend, Sam Loomis (Viggo Mortensen), who runs a hardware store, drives a pickup truck, and dons a cowboy hat. When compared to the clean-cut handsome John Gavin in the original, Mortensen’s character is a complete opposite.
On the other hand, Julianne Moore’s rendition of Vera Miles’ Lila Crane, who carries around a backpack and listens to music on headphones while investigating her sister’s disappearance, acts as though she has never trusted a single person in her life. She plays the role with too much skepticism. I was convinced more by Miles’ character who was frightened for her sister’s safety.
Yet after all this, I still liked a few things about the movie like composer Danny Elfman’s (Batman-1989) version of Bernard Herrmann’s musical score and the way the opening credits raced across the screen in both horizontal and vertical fashions. The music is still just as haunting today as it was back in 1960 and was enough for me to go out and buy the original soundtrack.
The best thing about the film is the way Van Sant shoots the movie like the cast is in some sort of time warp. Heche wears the kind of dresses women would only wear in the 60s while William H. Macy’s Detective Arborgast still sports the same fedora hat Martin Balsam’s character did.
There are only a few new additions like the scene where Vaughn’s Norman gets sexually aroused for a minute or two as he stares through the peephole of his office into Room 1 at Crane’s naked body. Then there are shots during the shower sequence and Arborgast’s murder of a cow or deer being slaughtered on the road and clouds racing across the sky marking the passages of time as Norman murders his victims.
I have always viewed remakes as Hollywood’s way of saying they no longer have the ability to come up with fresh ideas. It will be a sad day in Tinseltown if all studios have left to give audiences in the 21st century is digitally enhanced special effects combined with a recycled storyline. Then again, it will be a sad day should it turn out that is all movie lovers want.
With future remakes like the Rat Pack movie Ocean’s 11 (1960), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1970), and even Casablanca (1942) being considered, it is only a matter of time before someone sets their sights on redoing Citizen Kane (1941).
Watching this new Psycho, I am reminded of the subplot in Star Trek: Generations (1994) where the android Data has a computer chip installed in his brain that allows him to exhibit the same feelings as a human being. He laughs, cries, tells jokes, swears, and gets scared.
By using the same script, Psycho’s new cast mimics practically everything the original stars did in the first one. What is different is how they deliver their lines and their reactions to various situations.
On a technical level, Van Sant’s camera movements and direction are all perfectly timed exactly the way Hitchcock shot them. Like so many remakes of other memorable classics before it, the film made me appreciate the original even more.
The only thing missing from this version is a soul.
©3/3/99
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