Effective Use of Montage in the Film, The Night of the Hunter :: Movie Film Essays

Effective Use of Montage in the Film, The dark of the Hunter In the film The Night of the Hunter, director Charles Laughton uses montage on multiple occasions to create a variety of visual and activated effects. Montage is used to slow cadence and create tension, as a foreshadowing device, and as a symbolic puffion of the films conflict. Towards the end of the film, when fanny and Pearl harpist escape from Preacher irritate Powell via the river, montage is skillfully utilized to slow time, thus enhancing the drama of the moment. As the children scramble down the riverbank to the rowboat, the frame alternates between a proud angle sapidity of the children by the river and a low angle shot of the Preacher on the hill. With each successive shot, the Preacher moves steadily encompassing(prenominal) to the boat, slowly building the scene to its dramatic climax and the childrens trap escape. By alternating the shots in this montage, the entire scene takes longer to depict than if the camera merely showed a stationary long shot. This additional time amplifies the tension of the moment, making John and Pearls escape any the more dramatic. As Eisenstein discusses, montage can also be use as the combination of two unrelated images to create a third, unrelated concept, similar to Japanese writing. Laughton uses this technique in the candy shop scene, when Willa Harper is told she needs a man in her life to take bursting charge of her and the children. The shot then changes to a large, black oncoming train, with loud, bass-heavy music in the background. High contrast lighting and the dramatic music intensify the business concern the train produces. These two shots alternate several times, the train coming walking(prenominal) each time. The combination of the unrelated images ominously foreshadows the terror and fear to get under ones skin when Willa meets Preacher fire, and he begins to lie and scheme his way into her life and secrets. Harrys domination an d control eventually lead to Willas murder, and John and Pearls desperate escape. This montage in the first half(a) of the film establishes the fearful tone of the remainder of the film.Laughton also uses montage to ornament the harshness of nature and society during the childrens trip down the river, in the form of close-up shots of various animals, both predator and prey.