Visual Arts - Peeping Tom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Visual Arts - Peeping Tom - Essay Example The reason behind such a huge criticism was the extreme of voyeurism related to private moments of people. The film included pictorial records of women, which were recorded right at the time of their deaths. The main character of the film, Mark, who was shown as a killer in the film used to capture the moments of fear while murdering young women. This was one of the main factors, which gave rise to such a huge level of criticism against the film, which eventually ended Powell’s career as a director. The critics used to give disgraceful comments about the film because of its absurd nature. Some critics even said that the whole film should be flushed down the sewer. The theme of the film revealed the psychological behaviors of different people involved in the people. The film also revealed that the nature of a person becomes stronger by time and what a person observes in the childhood never gets out of his/her mind. The film involves the audience in the shameful act of stalking and murdering young women, which was also one of the major reasons behind criticism about the film. The critics also believed that the film was a show of frustration and violence instead of a pure entertainment. The film did not give any sort of lesson to the audience rather it just made them feel involved in the shameful act of stalking women and murdering them. This aspect of the film was the most disastrous one because it tried to break the unspoken rules of the English cinema. Some critics believed that the film was portraying the elements of violence, aggression, and voyeurism by involving the audience into the acts of the killer. This was not acceptable for the critics as it was totally against the social and moral ethics. Critics believed that the role of cinema was to make people aware of social and moral ethics of the society instead of involving them into voyeur acts. The director of the film, Powell, broke the rules of the cinema by making such film but he never thought o f consequences of doing such act. â€Å"With this film, he succeeded in breaking through all boundaries and disregarding all unspoken rules of cinema† (Jacobson, n.d.). The consequences of making such a movie were very bad for the director of the movie. The director not only faced heavy loss due to failure of the film but also his career as a director ended. â€Å"It’s fifty years since Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom was released to notorious critical umbrage, a Caesar-like mass stabbing which essentially killed his career† (Robey, 2010). Today, some people consider this movie as the first modern horror movie of the century, which included the elements of sex and horror. Although the lightening and genre of the film was very outstanding, yet the story and style of the film did not come up to the expectations of the audience and the critics. The film was very unsettling in nature as the director portrayed the main role of the film as a mentally ill person. T he murdered used to trap the girls and murder them in order to fulfill his psychological frustration. The way the film was made and the way it showed the actions of Mark, who was the hero of the film, was not expected by the audience, which gave rise to such a great criticism against the film. Powell, the director of the film, was very much aware of the dark aspects of the film but even then, he went on to make this film. The film just remained in the cinemas for one