The movie that I watched for the critical analysis is Strangers On A Train by Alfred Hitchcock. This movie was released in 1951 and is a classic thrillers from Hitchcock. This movie is about a famous tennis player, Guy Haines, who is in love with Anne Morton. However, Guy is already married to Miriam, who has been cheating on him. One night while Haines is on a train, he meets a man by the name of Bruno Anthony, who is a little bit screwed up in the head. Bruno comes up with a plan for Guy. He suggests that he will kill Guy’s wife if Guy will in return kill Bruno’s father. Of course, Guy does not want anything to do this and the two men parts their ways.
One night during a carnival, Bruno shows up and ends up killing Guy’s wife. He then finds Guy and tells him that it is now his turn to uphold his end of the bargain. Guy of course refuses to do so. After Guy’s wife is found dead, the police begin questioning him and accuse him of murdering his wife. He denies it but they do not believe him. As Guy is trying to prove his innocence, Bruno begins appearing without notice, reminding Guy that he needs to finish his part of the deal and kill his father. Guy and Bruno eventually end up fighting each other at the carnival grounds in which Bruno is killed. With this, Guy is able to prove his innocence to the police and is cleared of the charges against him.
As I mentioned earlier, this movie is definitely a typical thriller that we are used to seeing from Alfred Hitchcock. This movie shows us that even though a person such as Guy is very famous and popular, he is still a regular human being like the rest of us. He has problems and is in search of happiness just like everyone else. Even though Guy does not commit the murder of Bruno’s father, this movie still shows us the other side of people, such that Guy eventually thought of committing the murder. Another thing that is seen within this movie is the fact of being wrongfully accused. Even though Guy wanted to get rid of his wife, he was not going to kill her to do so. But since she turned up missing, he was accused because there were some people who knew about his affair with Anne. With Miriam out of the way, Guy would be able to live a happy life with Anne, which would give him a perfectly good reason to kill his wife.
