Listen Up Y'all It's a Sabotage!

Film: Sabotage
Year: 1936
Where I Saw It: Netflix

It always amazes me how much a film can truly put you on "the edge of your seat".  What amazes me more is Alfred Hitchcock's ability to do this even 75 years later.  When you hear he's the "Master of Suspense", you don't truly appreciate that title until you see some of his work and this movie REALLY shows how richly deserved that title is.

The film follows a family who own a movie theatre in London.  The father has been carrying out acts of sabotage while the rest of the family suspects nothing.  (Side Note: check out the father's eyebrows.  They look like they'll fly away the first chance they get.)  I can't give away too much else without spoiling anything, but I assure you it's worth watching despite my crappy description of it.  In particular one scene featuring the son of the family on a bus.  Again, crappy description but loads of suspense.

The last scene also plays with you sense of right and wrong.  Like all good films do (at least films which I think are good) there is a sense of uneasiness at the end.  I always enjoy it when a film doesn't feel the need to tie up every single loose end.  It makes you think and it forces you to imagine other possible outcomes.  It's this plot device which made me love "M" so much.  There are no easy answers so you have to decide what you would do in that situation.

One Last Point - There is quite the age difference between the wife and the father.  I literally spent half the film thinking the family consisted of a single father and his daughter and son.

Thanks for reading! - Scott Scene