Film Review
The fourth of the politically slanted thrillers that Alfred Hitchcock
directed in the 1930s is among the director's most chilling and
suspenseful films, its bleak mood being a stark reflection of the
worsening political situation in Europe at the time. There can be
no doubt that the enemy power alluded to in the film is Nazi
Germany. Although it deals with similar themes to
The Man Who Knew Too Much
(1934) and
The 39 Steps (1935),
Sabotage is a much darker film,
with less humour and a much greater sense of realism.
The film is very loosely based on Joseph Conrad's novel
The Secret Agent. The title
had to be changed - to
Sabotage
- because Hitchcock's previous film had been titled
Secret Agent. Unfortunately,
this led to more confusion since a later Hitchcock thriller (made
during his time in Hollywood) was named
Saboteur.
At the time he made this film, Hitchcock was developing a deep interest
in the techniques of the Russian filmmakers, notably Sergei Eisenstein, and was keen
to employ these in his own films.
Sabotage shows this influence most
clearly in its use of montage, a technique of editing where several
shots are combined to create an impression which no individual shot can
convey. The best example of this is the famous sequence in which
the boy Stevie is making his way across London to deliver a parcel
containing a bomb. The shots are meticulously juxtaposed to
create a sense of time being expanded and compressed in a way that
heightens the sequence's subjectivity, making it unbearably tense for the spectator.
Sabotage is also experimental
in that it uses far more location shots than was typical in a British
film of this period. These include some familiar London
landmarks, such as London Zoo and the Strand, and provide an
interesting visual record of how the capital looked in the
mid-1930s. The sequence in which Stevie joins a throng of crowds
attending the Lord Mayor's Show was shot not in central London but in a
field, with the background made up of a huge full-size
photograph. In many of his subsequent films, Hitchcock would
frequently use a similar trick to avoid having to shoot on location,
employing static mattes and travelling mattes (blue screen) to combine
various images.
Although perhaps less well developed than in many of Hitchcock's films,
the main characters in
Sabotage
are the familiar pairing of a man and woman who initially appear
unsuited but who end up romantically attached, suggestive of the old
adage that opposites attract. Hitchcock originally considered
Robert Donat for the male lead, but when he was unavailable owing to
ill health, John Loder was cast in his place. Sylvia Sidney was
an excellent casting choice for the female lead, because she combines
an outward vulnerability with an inner toughness, which makes her
character the stronger and more resourceful of the two.
Watch out for Charles Hawtrey, one of the future stars of the
Carry On films, in one of his first
screen appearances - he gets the funniest line in the film.
On its initial release,
Sabotage
was a highly controversial film. Some countries banned it
outright through fear that it might encourage terrorists.
Hitchcock was also severely criticised for the sequence in which the
bomb exploded, since it killed off the film's most sympathetic
character. The renowned French film critic and filmmaker
François Truffaut described it as an abuse of cinematic
power. Hitchcock conceded he had made a mistake, but this didn't
prevent him from pulling a similar stunt in some of his later films -
notably
Psycho (1960) and
Frenzy
(1972). Had Hitchcock been more cautious and not made this "faux
pas" it is certain that the impact of
Sabotage
would be greatly diminished. Sometimes, to make a statement, the
writer and director must take us over the edge, and what
Sabotage tells us is that terrorism
is invariably self-defeating, because what it arouses is revulsion, not
fear, and revulsion can be a very dangerous enemy.
© James Travers 2008
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Alfred Hitchcock film:
Secret Agent (1936)
Film Synopsis
London is the target of terrorist attacks by an unknown foreign
power. One of the foot soldiers in this campaign of terror is
Karl Verloc, the owner of a small cinema. When his latest
assignment, a blackout in the centre of the capital, results in more
mirth than mayhem, he is told that his next one will be somewhat more
spectacular. He must deliver a bomb to a chosen location at a
precise time on Saturday afternoon. Unbeknown to Verloc, he is
being watched by Detective Sergeant Ted Spencer, posing as a
greengrocer next to his cinema. Spencer has already inveigled his
way into the confidence of Verloc's wife and her younger brother
Stevie. On the day of the next attack, Verloc is unable to leave
home without arousing Ted's suspicion, so he asks Stevie to deliver the
package containing the bomb. Stevie's poor timekeeping
ability is about to have tragic consequences...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.