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

Use of Montage in the Movie, Night of the HunterEbert said it best when he describes the characters of Night of the Hunter as Norman Rockwell archetypes. Taking place in an unassuming river town presumably during the Great Depression, the plot unravels around $10,000, stolen during a indisposed planned bank robbery. No thought need be heeded on the heist, however, seeing as it was not important enough to waste film on. The gold serves only to set up the dominoes that will be knocked down rather linearly in this predictable storyline. But to criticize this movie as predictable would be missing the entire premises the movies authentic purpose is seeking to illustrate a kind of righteousness vs. corruptive through key use of montage.The central character to the storyline, Reverend Harry Powell, is what today would be considered the archetypal psychopath. His mask of a righteous, God-fearing saver of souls makes his true self that much creepier. In a truly twisted scene, Rev. Powell perverts the embraced idea of a hero riding in on a white supply by using such a steed to stalk John and Pearl, the two children of the robber who have been entrusted with the money, accurately portraying the helplessness of innocence when a greater evil looms. Such Biblical conflict can be seen throughout the movie, culminating with Rachel, a true follower of her Lord, warding off the evil Rev. Powell.In regard to montage, it would be easy to write off its use as the most effective instrument for illustrating an idea with the technology at hand in those days. Upon closer inspection, however, montage allows a concept to be portrayed much more effectively than might otherwise be possible using standard filming techniques. The childrens journey down the river is a great example of this. The collision of scenes of them slowly drifting in a boat, sometimes sleeping, sometimes talking, both day and night, with the man of the cloth on his horse somehow keeping up explodes in the rather nebulous concept of a nightmare in which no matter how solid or far one runs, the pursuer always keeps up (Eisenstein, The Dramaturgy of Film Form).