What Is Hitchcock's Use Of Lighting And Shadows In Strangers On A Train

Hitchcock’s use of lighting and shadows in Strangers On A Train is very meaningful and cleverly masked. To add to the character development and understanding of Bruno and Guy, Hitchcock uses light very early on in the film, to help demonstrate the characters of Guy and Bruno. The window of the train compartment in the first scene, casts lines of shadows onto Bruno’s face, similar to those of jail cell bars. Because of this, we can infer early on that Bruno’s character isn’t to be trusted and that Guy is the “good guy” in the film. We see, as the film progresses, that this is true of each character. With the juxtaposition of good and evil between Guy and Bruno being such a dominant element of the plot, it makes sense that lighting would be used