Hitchcock And Spielberg: The Master Of Suspense

The unblinking eye means so much for so many reasons to a person such as Steven Spielberg or Alfred Hitchcock. A continuous shot, completely uncut or edited, can bring a vision together and tell the viewer to not look away. With their ability to tell magnificent tales of suspense, drama and horror in over 100 films, Hitchcock and Spielberg are, and always will be the two most influential and prolific directors in history. Hitchcock, otherwise known as the Master of Suspense, never saw himself as a part of that crazy, actor filled area Hollywood, California. He was born in 1899 in London, England. His first job at the age of nineteen was as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph Company, manufacturer of electric cables. In the evenings, he
He never made it on the scene until his late 30's or early 40's, directing films like, "The Lady Vanishes", Foreign Correspondent", "Suspicion" and "Rebecca". Rebecca was his only movie that ever won the Academy Award for Best Picture… Hitchcock never won for Best Director. Later, in the 50's, came his more infamous films such as "Strangers On A Train", "Dial M For Murder", "Rear Window", "Vertigo" and "North By Northwest". These films made Hitchcock who he was and made him famous. After the movie, North By Northwest, the Master of Suspense directed his masterpiece, Psycho. The one movie that most of the public know because of its staying power was released in 1960 and caught viewers off guard right away. But when most folks would go home scared or shocked from viewing it, Hitchcock thought it was a fun movie with his strange sense of humor. Before retiring at the age of 77, he was behind the camera for five more films including "The Birds" in 1963 and "Marnie" in
Spielberg's Raider's of the Lost Ark has numerous scenes that were inspired by his hero. In one scene a boulder rolls chasing Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), a shot completely generated by Hitchcock's 1954 film North by Northwest where Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is chased and shot by a plane. Even sound and picture transfer had been duplicated from Hitchcock's ideas. A character's screams when seeing a dead body are replaced by a train's screech when coming down its tracks in the Hitchcock film "The 39 Steps". Spielberg used this technique in two films, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and also in "Raider's of the Lost Ark". But, the most important method of Hitchcock's genius that was used by Spielberg was the continuous shot. In the feature, "Rope", Hitchcock directs the entire movie in very few rolls of the camera, but at the end there is a scene that last for about 2 minutes which takes the viewer from an argument in the den to a knock at the front door. Spielberg has done this many times himself, including in Raider's of the lost