Journal of Religion and Film (2012) - Hitchcock and the scapegoat: violence and victimization in The Wrong Man

Details

• article: Hitchcock and the scapegoat: violence and victimization in The Wrong Man
• author(s): David Humbert
• journal: Journal of Religion and Film (01/Oct/2012)
• issue: volume 16, issue 2
• journal ISSN: 1092-1311
• publisher: University of Nebraska at Omaha, Department of Philosophy and Religion
• keywords: "Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light" - by Patrick McGilligan , "Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light" - by Patrick McGilligan, "Hitchcock - the First Forty-Four Films" - by Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol, Hitchcock and 20th Century Cinema (2005) by John Orr11358, "Hitchcock at Work" - by Bill Krohn, "Hitchcock's Films Revisited" - by Robin Wood, "Hitchcock's Films" - by Robin Wood, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV), Alfred Hitchcock, Angus MacPhail, Bill Krohn, Cahiers du Cinéma, Chicago, Illinois, Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero, Claude Chabrol, David Humbert, François Truffaut, Helen Scott, I Confess (1953), John Orr, Margaret Herrick Library, Motion pictures, Movie reviews, New York City, New York, Patrick McGilligan, Paul Verhoeven, Psycho (1960), Robin Wood, Saboteur (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Slavoj Žižek, The 39 Steps (1935), The Birds (1963), The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), The Wrong Man (1956), Éric Rohmer

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Abstract

Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man tells the story of Emmanuel Balestrero, arrested for a crime committed by his physical double. This paper examines the theme of the scapegoat in the film and argues that it portrays in miniature what theorist Rene Girard has described as a mimetic crisis. While the plight of the central character is usually portrayed as a product of blind chance, it is instead due to the mimetic fears, desires, and vanities of the members of society that accuse him. The fate of Balestrero reveals the operation of a specific kind of scapegoat mechanism that has its roots in mimetic desire.

Article

• Archived from http://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol16/iss2/4/
• © 2012 Dr. David Humbert