Tony Bowling: Analysis of Secret Window

Secret Window psychological thriller about a mind that is cracking right down middle and separating into two different people, and then the most dominate of the two personalities take over. Shooting a movie like this is very difficult because you have to shoot one personality in the same body, without cheating or letting the audience know too early.

In the opening sequence the camera angle goes into a mirror and continues on so it looks like we are going through the mirror and eventually into the mind of the main character Mort Rainey. This camera shot is significant because it shows at the beginning that we are not from an unbiased point of view. We are entering the mind of Mort Rainey.

Choosing a mirror to go into and through was a nice choice because it showed that we were now seeing the world around Mort through his eyes and in his mind, and we are also seeing the way he sees himself. We are seeing his mirror imagine, the way he sees himself. But not just the way he sees himself and the world but the way he thinks about the world and himself.We hear what he wants to hear because he hears what he wants to hear, and I think that going into his mind so we could see what he sees was a very good choice for shooting such a movie. Using a mirror to first go through and end up in his mind was very symbolic and not only that it made for a nice looking shot.

Mort Rainey is sharing a mind with John Shooter who claims that Mort plagiarized a story from him. At first we see that Mort just shrugs this off and thinks nothing of it. Then we start to see that he is doubting himself. This is significant because we think “well he would know if he wrote it or not” so even we start to wonder if he stole it or not. This helps us relate to him even more and therefor we can see things through his eyes even better.

The fact that we are confused about why Mort doesn't know if he wrote his own book should be a hint that hes going insane. In a sense Shooter did write the book, but so did Mort since they're the same person.When Shooter says that he is more upset that Mort ruined his ending people who have seen the movie a few times before may start to pick up on the theme of this is a writer struggling with himself. He can't decide which way to end the story. He knows which way he wants to end it but he has to think of the people that will read his book and how they would want it to end.Something worth noting about this movie is when Mort cracks his jaw. The first time we see this is the night right before Mort falls asleep thinking about how good an ending Shooter wrote and then when Mort goes to sleep Shooter comes out and kills Tom Greenleaf and his own bodyguard Ken Karsch.The next time we see it Mort is very upset because he just hung up the phone on his ex-wife who is annoying him about signing the divorce papers, and Mort is on his way to meet up with Shooter to prove the story is his and he didn't plagiarize.

The last time we see it is at the end when it looks like Mort has taken a shower and hes actually dressed and it appears hes been working out. When Mort is looking like a million bucks right before it goes off he cracks his jaw and gives a malicious look to Sheriff Newsome. This lets us know that even though Mort may be clean and composed on the outside, Shooter is still taken over and he is just as crazy as ever.

Shooter's hat is good symbolism of Shooter the personality. Mort bought the hat that represent Shooter when he was with Amy and before he started losing his mind. He got the hat when he was happiest in his life.The hat is significant because it is Shooter, in one scene Mort thinks Shooter is hiding in his bathroom and he thinks that because he can see the hat in the bathroom mirror. This is another point where mirrors are important. Mort runs into the bathroom and breaks the mirror with his weapon, this is symbolic even more of him fighting with himself. The shattering of the glass is symbolic to his mind shattering.Shooter represent everything that Mort wants. Shooter wants the ending that he wrote and Mort agrees that its a good ending. So Shooter is going to go back and fix that ending because Mort really wanted it that way. Shooter has now shown up to clean up his life. Shooter is going to take care of a few things and get rid of the stuff that is messing up Mort's life.

Shooter's name is even a hint to something that Mort wants. Shooter or “Shoot Her”, he hates that his ex-wife cheated on him and he cant move on with his life knowing that she is still dating someone else. So Shooter is going to take care of that for Mort, which he does at the end.Near the end when Mort is finding out that he is a crazy and he is sharing a mind with a killer the camera angle shows the roof of the house cracking and breaking right down the middle. This is symbolic of his mind, its breaking right down the middle and Mort will back away and Shooter will become the dominate personality.Once we the audience find out that we've been relating to psychopath the camera comes out of Mort's mind and goes into Amy's mind. Once in there we see that Mort has not been keeping the cabin clean at all like we thought. Its actually quite dirty, and there is an almost empty bottle of Jack Daniel's on the table. Also we see “Shoot Her” carved everywhere. This is just further proof that we've been following a madman this whole time.