Pyscho (1998) 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Viggo Mortensen, Julianne Moore and William H. Macy
Here's a philosophical pastry to chew on while you're sipping your morning latte.
A painter announces he has created an exact replica of the Mona Lisa down to the original hues and shading, and he's offering it for sale.
The original is your favorite work of art, and the only difference between the two is that while the original is signed Leonardo, this replica is signed Fred.
So, would you buy it? Probably not, because no matter how beautiful it is, it's worthless. Why? Because it's a copy, a re-creation of another person's vision, work and sweat.
Which brings us to Psycho. Director Gus Van Sant has not remade the Alfred Hitchcock classic, he has copied it, using Hitch's setups and storyboards, as well as Joseph Stefano's original screenplay. The only major difference: Van Sant's version is in color, while Hitchcock's original was shot in black and white.
Another difference is today's audiences and their cognizance of movies.
In 1960, when Psycho was released, moviegoers had certain expectations, a certain perception of what a film was supposed to do. In Psycho, Hitchcock set out to deliberately shatter those ingrained ideas.
Never before was a film's "star" dispatched so early, nor so brutally, as was Janet Leigh when she stepped into that shower. The psychological effect on an audience was mind-blowing. It unnerved viewers. The person they thought they were identifying with, the character they believed would be with them until the closing credits, was cruelly murdered and dumped. It was no dream, there was no escape.
What other conventions would Hitchcock break? Expectation kept the audience on edge, which is exactly what Hitch wanted.
Which brings us to Van Sant's movie.
Granted, many filmgoers in their 20s and 30s have never seen Psycho, but the movie's title and the name Norman Bates have become ingrained in our collective pop culture lexicon.
The missing ingredient in Van Sant's version is the shock value, the defiance of movie conventions that Hitchcock set out to break. You may not have seen the original movie, but you know what is to come and who turns out to be who.
Thus the senses are dulled, your level of expectation anesthetized.
Van Sant gets workmanlike performances from his Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy and Viggo Mortensen.
The only problem, ironically, is Vince Vaughn's interpretation of Norman Bates. Vaughn, from the outset, seems like a loose cannon, a nut case, a psycho. Unlike Anthony Perkins who, at first, appeared as a shy mama's boy, Vaughn adds an extra layer of menace to his Norman that renders Van Sant's film a bit a-kilter.
Again, perception is everything. Before he played Norman Bates, Perkins was best known as a young juvenile lead - Gary Cooper's son in Friendly Persuasion, the young Cornelius Hackel in The Matchmaker. It was Psycho that transformed Perkins' career, typecasting him as a maladjusted individual.
Unfortunately for Vaughn, he recently played a similar weirdo in Clay Pigeons, so he already has a reputation for oddball characters.
Wisely, Van Sant had composer Danny Elfman adapt Bernard Herrmann's original score, which, as in the original, heightens the suspense.
So, is Van Sant's Psycho as good as Hitchcock's? Yes, but the question is moot. For who deserves the credit? Van Sant or Hitchcock?
The only way to answer that question is for you to rent the original and judge for yourself.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net
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