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In Alfred Hitchcock's final movie Family Plot, new advances in film technology as well as changes in American culture allow for a film that is much different from anything that Hitchcock had previously created.
Stylistically, Family Plot does not possess any new innovations in shot or lighting compared to other Hitchcock movies.
However, a noticeable difference between this movie and other Hitchcock films is that this one is in color. In addition to this technological innovation, American culture of the 1970's allowed Hitchcock to include language in this film that would have been shunned during his early film making career.
While this film does not introduce any new film techniques, it continues in the Hitchcock tradition of leaving the audience in suspense until the final moments of the movie.
Throughout the movie, Hitchcock uses color in order to set the mood. At the beginning of them movie, dark colors were used during the golf course scene in order to accent the eeriness of the scene.
While the lady and man were examining the diamond over the body of the dead man, the only light in the scene was the light from the flashlight that the man was holding. To show that this was something out of the ordinary, Hitchcock showed his audience a picture of the golf course in long shot, showing that the only light in the whole area was the light from this flashlight. Without color, the white light of the flashlight set on the background of the dark surroundings would not be as prevalent because the audience would have been accustomed to seeing white on black.
However, by choosing to put white on black, Hitchcock is able to make the light stand out and stick in the mind of the audience. In addition to this scene, near the end of the movie, the fire coming from the burning car, once it went over the cliff, was highlighted by the use of color film. Without color, the fire would not be as brilliant as it appeared and only would look like varying shades of grey. In Family Plot, Hitchcock uses color to highlight certain aspects of the movie and to set the mood throughout the movie.
In addition to what the technological advancements of film allowed Hitchcock to do, a change in American society also allowed Hitchcock to include language and ideas that would have been shunned only a few years before. During the opening car scene, Hitchcock inserts words such as "bitch" and "damn" and "shit" for no apparent reason except to keep the conversation flowing.
While these words seem to be very often today, in American society during the 1940's and 1950's words like these were not spoken in everyday conversation. However, after the cultural revolution of the late 1960's and early 1970's, these words found themselves into the language of mainstream America.
In this movie, this change in American society is reflected in the words that the characters use throughout the movie. While this change in language is not an innovation in movie technique of the camera, the change in the final product of the film is clear. The change in American society during the time before this film was made is clearly seen in the language used throughout the film.
In Alfred Hitchcock's final movie Family Plot, new advances in film technology as well as changes in American culture allow for a film that is much different from anything that Hitchcock had previously created. While the only major change in filming technique and technology in this film, compared to other Hitchcock films, was the use of color, he was able to use this new technological development in order to set the mood and make things stand out. In addition, the new developments in American society are also reflected in this film by the colorful use of language throughout the movie.
Even though the last film made my Hitchcock follows closely in the style of his other films, there are no new changes in content or technique that sets this film apart from the other Hitchcock classics.
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