Sabotage , 1935

Sabotage was another of Alfred Hitchcock brilliant films, this one being made in 1935. The film shows a dramatic amount of irony throughout. Some of the characters within the film do not know what is happening but we as an audience do. In this case, the husband of Stevies sister, Verlock gives Stevie a package to deliver to Picadilly circus by exactly 1:30. The boy does as he is told, not knowing that the package he has been told to deliver is in fact a bomb, set to explode at 1:45. Verlock tells the boy to go straight to Picadilly circus and be sure that it arrives at exactly 1:30, however Stevie is prevented from doing so by many different obstacles such as the Lord Mayors Show. This has deadly consequences!



How does Hitchcock create suspense and tension?

Hitchcock creates suspense in a numerous amount of ways, one of the may ways is that he uses a lot of close ups on the bomb and the boys face, this shows that the boy is totally oblivious to the bomb, which he is holding, but there is alot of danger in his hands. Also when Verlock is giving the boy the bomb he starts to breathe heavily and get impatient as the boy does not leave and he is worried about him being late.
The music in the scene becomes to becom deeper and sounding like a clock in a sense it is contrapunctual as he is only in a market and nothing is happening, however it keeps zooming to close ups of the bomb so it becomes parallel.  The lord mayor show causes him to slow down and he keeps getting distracted. There is then a flashback on the note and a close up on the 1.45 to emphasis, back to the lord mayor show there is a close up one the clock
The music changes as the camera looks from the bomb to the cloggs of the clock working to change the time. Its already 1.43 as the boy is stuck in traffic and the music become more dramatic, as the boy looks at the clock and becomes worried as he is afraid of being late. Things start moving faster as he runs out of time, the puppy is trying to escape out of the womans arms next to him as though knowing what is about to happen. One last look at the clock changing to 1.45, then the bus exploding.