# Psycho (1998)

### reviewed by
Eric Vinegart

    "Psycho", A Film Review by Eric Vinegart
    **** (R)
    Norman Bates:  Vince Vaughn
    Marian Crane:  Anne Heche
    Lila Crane:  Julianne Moore
    Viggo Mortensen:  Sam Loomis
    Milton Arbogast:  William H. Macy

Written by Robert Bloch (novel) and Joseph Stefano

    Directed by Gus Van Sant

Friday, December 4, 1998, Tempe, AZ -- When I first heard about another release of "Psycho", I wondered how on earth could anyone find another way to beat this one to death. But when it turned out this one is a total clone, that piqued my interest. Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 release was a favorite of mine when I first viewed it in the seventies, and has stood the test of time whenever I saw it again. In fact, when I last experienced the classic about 10 years ago, I liked it more than ever. Seeing this new rendition seems like an exciting opportunity to re-visit the original, only from a color and 1998 perspective.

Actually, I'm here at the AMC Laguna Theaters because my buddy, Brandi, is absolutely crazy about "Psycho" and Anthony Perkins. She's been reminding me for more than a month now about this opening day, and now that we are here, you'd think her excitement level was about as high as someone who finally boarded a vacation flight for Europe, after waiting a full year. Brandi has seen all versions up to "Psycho 4", and I swear she has each scene memorized. Talk about spectator enthusiasm from someone who was not even born yet in 1960.

The story chronicles Marian Crane (Anne Heche), a Phoenix secretary who steals $400,000 from her boss's client. On her way out of town to meet her boyfriend (Viggo Mortensen), she checks into the Bates Motel for the night, which is owned by lives-with-a-corpse Norman Bates, a taxidermist and dual-personality guy who is pleasant and engaging when he is himself, but a psychopath when his dead mother's personality takes over. Marian is murdered in the shower, and her sister (Julianne Moore) and private investigator (William H. Macy) begin a search. Eventually, we learn Norman murdered his mother and lover years earlier, then exhumed and stuffed her to keep her memory alive, all of which explains the dismal action of a psychopath.

I'm one who always must be seated before the movie starts, preferring to glue my eyes to the credits while everyone else is still buying popcorn and trying to find a seat (usually right in front of me). Most people care little about the credits (or being rude by arriving late), but some of the best photography takes place at the beginning. It's the director's opportunity to set the stage. But during the beginning in "Psycho" (1998), there is no photography -- only credits and music. And I've got to admit, everyone in the theater is spell-bound by the opening soundtrack. No one's buying popcorn or coming in late to this movie. The trademark staccato violins are magnificent. And Brandi tells me she's got to have the soundtrack -- even before the credits finish.

So much has been said for the original classic (1960), which has its share of flaws. And I think the fanfare surrounding the original "Psycho", though a masterpiece, has less to do with quality and artistry, and more with the conscious-shocking value of a movie first released during a time when social conservatism was much, much higher than today. It outraged a lot of people, and consequently received a lot of notoriety, too.

I'm surprised the producers of this movie didn't find it odd to re-make a movie using 1998 tense and the original 1960s script nearly verbatim. It's simply not realistic for anyone today to pay cash for any big-ticket purchase, and when I see the rancher belly-up $400,000 ($40,000 in Hitchcock's "Psycho") in a downtown Phoenix real estate office, I wonder, "Come on, get real".

Just try to buy a ticket at the airport today using cash. Someone will call the DEA and the drug-sniffing dogs, after which they'll take away all your cash, even if they don't find contraband. Of course, had "Psycho's" tense been left intact, I believe this remake would have turned out a lot better. Doesn't it make us wonder why the producers updated the script from $40,000 to $400,000? Supposedly to add more realism for 1998? Okay, so why not make everything more realistic? I'd like to see Gus Van Sant pull this off with "Gone With The Wind".

Marian Crane's (Anne Heche) encounter with the law is no less unrealistic. Even for anyone who has never watched "Cops", we all know the police today will go off the deep end whenever they're suspicious. With their favorite weapon, the RICO Law, they always find the slightest excuse to search your car so they can steal your possessions and forfeiture your wheels. Of course, this exact scene in the original masterpiece plays well, given the 1960 era. But it's way out of character for 1998. I can just visualize all the police who are going to watch this new movie, and then water-at-the-mouth at the sight of all that cash. They'll also give the state trooper an imaginary dope slap on the old noggin for not ceasing the money, which is enough to promote the dweebiest cop who finds it to captain.

The shower scene is intense, and I can imagine that the impact on a 1960's audience would've been more shocking. I really do think they could have done without the bare-ass nude scene. Who wants to look at someone's butt anyway? Maybe market research reveals that half the movie-viewing audience now is perverted, and so directors, anxious to squeeze the last dollar, want to appeal to everyone.

The violins are superb, and there's no mistaking the hopelessness of Crane on her way, alone, into the next world. Of course, the music stands on its own, but with modern technology in music delivery today, the screeching violins are too much for me. I'm one who wants to punch-out anyone who deliberately scratches a black board.

Brandi says she likes Anthony Perkins in this role better than she likes Vince Vaughn. Me, I like Vince better. I absolutely love actors who can play a psychopath -- charming one minute, cold and calculated the next -- never nervous. The guy next door. Roddy McDowall can do it (Martin Ashley, "Shock Treatment", 1964), and here in "Psycho" I can see Vince doing an excellent job. He's not as serious as Perkins was in 1960, nor as one-dimensional, and displays a much broader range of acting and personality.

Even though he didn't play the part of a psychopath, William H. Macy demonstrated the same skill in "Fargo". Here, as the investigator, and given his talent, I'm expecting more from Macy. But being realistic, he would have to play Bates for that to happen.

"Psycho" is less of a remake and more of a scene-by-scene duplication, with most, if not all, of the original script intact. Which means the flaws from 1960 will carry over. Some of the scenes should've been updated to convey more passage of time and distance. I feel cheated whenever a movie covers a lot of ground with too few transition scenes. In one setting, for example, Mortensen convinces his girlfriend to stay at the store while he visits the Bates Motel, and in the next he's already there. Is this flop house across the street or what? Give us some sense of time and distance, so we don't wonder why Marian didn't just keep her eyes open five minute longer and drive to her boyfriend's place instead of staying at the motel. The movie is full of these flaws, all the way to the end when Bates is confined in a jail cell in one scene, and in the next the psychiatrist offers dual personality as explanation for the psychopath in him. Remakes should at least improve a movie, but we don't get that here.

An interesting footnote I learned is that Robert Bloch, the author of the original story, is still alive, and that his book is based on a real cannibal from Wisconsin. Alfred Hitchcock purchased Bloch's rights to "Psycho" for a mere $9,000. Granted, that was almost fifty years ago, so maybe that was a lot of money back when it would buy four cars. Today, however, would anyone trade screen rights for four vehicles?

Psycho is a good movie. Brandi gives it four stars, and not wanting to be all together contrary, I'll go along with her. Between you and me, however, three and a half would be more like it. It was fun to see the story in color and from a new pair of eyes, and share it all with one hell of a "Psycho" (and movie) enthusiast.

    (c) Copyright 1998 The Vinegar.    All rights reserved.
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    http://www.bigfoot.com/~thevinegar
    Email: thevinegar@usa.net

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