Movie Discussion: Strangers on a Train (1951) by Alfred Hitchcock
Details
When tennis star Guy Haines meets smooth-talking Bruno Antony in the bar of a train, he finds the stranger sympathetic with his desire to be rid of his troublesome wife. The methodical Bruno tries to coerce the seemingly righteous Guy into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders — each killing the other’s most-hated person. Blurring the line between coincidence and complicity, Strangers on a Train asks how easily an innocent person can become implicated in another’s wrongdoing — and whether escaping that implication is ever as simple as refusing to participate. Robert Walker’s extraordinary performance as the unscrupulous Bruno is one of the most celebrated in the Hitchcock canon.
"Hitchcock's study of the guilt that taints the human condition is just one cinematic masterstroke after another." (The Guardian)
"Ingeniously structured like an obsessive, inescapable nightmare — with uncanny repetitions of events, ghostly echoes of small details." (MUBI)
“Intensely enjoyable... with some of the best dialogue that ever graced a thriller.” (New Yorker)
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As promised, a crowd pleaser to follow up on Cassavetes 😄. Let's discuss the 1951 psychological thriller Strangers on a Train directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock and based on a 1950 novel by Patricia Highsmith. The film opened to mix reviews, though the film's reputation has grown considerably since 1951; modern reviews have been overwhelmingly positive and the film is now generally regarded as one of Hitchcock's major achievements. Other films we've discussed by Hitchcock include The Birds (1963) and Psycho (1960).
Please watch the movie in advance (101 minutes) and bring your thoughts, reactions, and queries to share with us at the meeting. You can stream it here (check the player settings to adjust quality) or rent it through Criterion or other streaming platforms (for best quality).
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Check out other movie discussions in the group, currently happening about 2 or 3 times a month.
This link here is a spreadsheet of the approximately 200 movies we've watched in this group and my ratings for each. You're invited to share your ratings too if you've watched a bunch of these movies with us. (I can add your list here if you send me a link. You can make your own list on sites like Letterboxd or by copying my spreadsheet and filling in your own values. Note that my list doesn't include every movie that Yorgo hosted on cause I didn't watch them all.)