Blog Directory CineVerse: From Madison Avenue to Mount Rushmore

From Madison Avenue to Mount Rushmore

Thursday, September 29, 2016

When it comes to sheer exhilaration, intrigue and adventure, no Alfred Hitchcock film quite surpasses "North by Northwest." Some 57 years later, the picture remains a fresh and fast-paced entertainment that keeps audiences enthralled – a testament to the master of suspense's keen ability to keep viewers on the edge of their seat while also infusing elements of comedy and romance designed to please. Among the observations reached by our CineVerse group last evening, after watching this movie, are the following:


WHAT IS THIS FILM’S MCGUFFIN, AND WHERE IS HITCHCOCK’S CAMEO?
There are two possible McGuffins: the microfilm/top-secret information wanted by the spies as well as the wrong man/mistaken identity that begins the film.
The director appears shortly after the start of the movie – shown missing a bus he tried to catch.

WHAT THEMES ARE EMPLOYED IN THIS FILM?
The wrong man, misunderstood innocence, and mistaken identity
Disorientation and the challenges of navigating a dangerous world, as indicated in the very title of the film: North by Northwest is not an actual direction on a compass; it’s meant to signify a lack of specific direction. Consider that there is a famous quote in Hamlet that goes: “I am what mad North-North-West; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.”
Masquerading, false identity, and playacting – every significant character in this movie pretends to be someone they are not.
The capability of an everyman being a hero and mystery solver, even if reluctant. As in Vertigo, the main protagonist steps into the role of a detective/investigator who must try to solve a mystery or crime.
A female love interest who is duplicitous and not whom she seems to be – also explored in Vertigo.
The double chase: the innocent man erroneously accused has to elude both the police and the film’s villains.
The potential for danger anywhere and everywhere – for example, in a least likely place like a mundane cornfield (which can feel downright claustrophobic in the hands of Hitchcock) as well as a highly popular tourist attraction like Mount Rushmore, and an assumedly safe and secure place like the United Nations building.
o Danger, mystery and adventure, in fact, can occur in high-profile public places – a plot element Hitchcock likes to revisit in several films; consider how Saboteur concludes with a dramatic scene atop the Statue of Liberty, The Man Who Knew Too Much includes a tense scene inside Britain’s Royal Albert Hall, a pivotal plot point occurs adjacent the Golden Gate Bridge in Vertigo, and a suspenseful chase leads to the British Museum in Blackmail.
Criticism of bureaucracies and the way they treat humans as disposable. Critic James Kendrick wrote: “In North by Northwest, the community is represented by heartless bureaucracies like the CIA, willing to sacrifice innocent people for secretive causes involving the Cold War. Community is symbolized by the huge, emotionless stone faces on Mount Rushmore and the towering glass building that houses the United Nations, which in one fantastic shot is seen literally towering over the ant-like characters trying to escape it. The underlying cynicism about government in North by Northwest – which predates the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, and Watergate, all modern harbingers of mistrust in politics and government officials – makes it somewhat ahead of its time. This is a movie that never gets old, despite its Cold War datedness.”

WHAT ELSE DID YOU FIND INTERESTING OR UNEXPECTED ABOUT THIS PICTURE, ESPECIALLY COMPARED TO OTHER HITCHCOCK FILMS?
The opening credits by Saul Bass are visually inventive and memorable.
Hitchcock employs “pure cinema,” as he often does in Rear Window, by using images and sound effects to tell a story without dialogue, voiceover or other narration: this is effectively demonstrated in the crop-dusting scene, which builds very slowly and extends over approximately seven minutes.
This is also one of the longest films in terms of runtime that Hitchcock ever directed – yet many viewers don’t feel it is excessively long and in fact want more, which is a testament to fine direction, pacing, screenplay writing and other elements.
James Mason and Martin Landau make for two of the most memorable Hitchcock villains in his canon – the former a mannered, cultured and sophisticated character who exudes class and taste, the latter a quiet but subtly menacing figure who could be a homosexual partner to the former.
Hitchcock and his collaborators are particularly sexually suggestive and playful in their use of double entendres and visual metaphors (like the speeding train rushing through the dark tunnel).

WHAT OTHER FILMS COME TO MIND AFTER WATCHING NORTH BY NORTHWEST?
Previous Hitchcock films that mine the wrong man theme, including The 39 Steps, Saboteur (which also features a famous concluding scene atop a major American monument – in this case, the Statue of Liberty), and The Wrong Man, as well as The Man Who Knew Too Much.
The James Bond films – which would have certainly been influenced by the suave charm and debonair sexiness of Cary Grant in this role as well as the globetrotting action of the plot.
Silver Streak, a 1976 comedy starring Gene Wilder that tries to repeat North by Northwest’s formula while also paying tribute to it.
The X-Files Movie
Eagle Eye (2008)

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