Tuesday, October 13, 2020

I Saw Psycho Theatrically... Uncut

I'll explain what I mean by that.

Getting to see the “uncut” version theatrically: awesome.

Of course this has been seen by me plenty of times in my life...in fact I reviewed it here in 2013 and on Letterboxd in 2015. Heck, this wasn't even my first theatrical experience w/ this classic. However, I had to see this Fathom Event not just because it's a legendary film... also, it was the “uncut” version not seen since 1960. It was alluded to in the TCM opening and closing, yet for some reason never elaborated upon. After '60, some snippets (probably not even a minute total) were taken out for fears of it being “too much”. I'm not sure why, as it was such things as "someone has blood on their hands after the first big kill" and "the other big death scene is longer." I don't know why that was never added back until the upcoming UHD release but it was nice to see and the movie is still legendary whether those snippets are in it or not.

Other than that, I will not reiterate what I wrote back five years ago as my opinion has not changed between then and now. It's still an incredible movie which “subverts expectations” in an actual good way, has some stunning performances, and Bernard Herrmann's score strings-only score has to be one of the best of all time both heard on its own and its impact on making the film so chilling and unforgettable.

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