North by North West by Alfred Hitchcock

North by North West

From watching the trailer for this movie, I think it would appeal to the audience because it describes the plot of the movie in a dramatic way, making the audience excited to watch the movie.

"North by North West" (1959) tells the story of an advertising executive who gets caught up in government conspiracy when he is mistaken for a government spy called George Kaplan and has to go on the run from the police and a group of foreign spies.

Cast and Crew:

Alfred Hitchcock: Born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, he was a famous film director and has been knighted as Sir Alfred Hitchcock. His movies mostly cover the thriller, suspense and horror genres, earning him the nickname of "The Master of Suspense". Examples of his most famous movies are North by North West, Psycho, Spellbound, The Birds, etc. He was born 13th August, 1899, in Leytonstone, London. He died 29th April, 1980, in Bel-Air, Los Angeles.

Ernest Lehman: Born Ernest Paul Lehman, he was the writer for Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie, "North by North West". He was one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood. He also wrote a few novels, e.g. "Sweet Smell of Success". He was born 8th December, 1915, in New York City, USA. He died 2nd July, 2005, in Los Angeles, California.

Cary Grant: Born Archibald Alexander Leach, he was a famous actor who starred in movies like North by North West, To Catch a Thief, etc. He once turned down the role of James Bond in "Dr. No". He is ranked No. 7 in Empire magazine's "Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in 1997. He was born 18th January, 1904, in Horfield, Bristol in England. He died 29th November, 1986, in Davenport, Iowa from a cerebral haemorrhage. In North by North West, he plays the main character "Roger O. Thornhill".

Eva Marie Saint: She is a famous actress who starred in movies like North by North West, On the Waterfront, Superman Returns, etc. She has been nicknamed "The Helen Hayes of Television". She is married with 2 children and 3 grandchildren. She was born 4th July, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey in USA. In North by North West, she plays the secondary main character "Eve Kendall".

James Mason: Born James Neville Mason, he was a famous British actor who starred in movies like North by North West, Rope, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, etc. He once visited the set of the horror movie "The Shining". He was born 15th May, 1909, in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, UK. He died 27th July, 1984, in Vaud, Switzerland from a heart attack. In North by North West, he plays the main villain "Phillip Vandamm".

Hitchcock's Work
In every one of his films, Hitchcock visually planned out each scene before filming and he memorised the script so that he rarely needed to read it. The way he works could be compared to that of a conductor in an orchestra. When directing on set, he never looked at the camera and instead looked at the scene and imagined it on a cinema screen.

In what ways is this an archetypal thriller?
Thrillers generally contain fast-paced, intense and frequent action scenes. In North by North West, there were several notable action sequences, such as the Plane scene in the Crop Field and the Final Climb down Mt. Rushmore.

Thrillers feature a resourceful hero/heroine (or protagonist, meaning the character that faces danger and fights, self-sacrifices, etc, for the greater good) who is thrown into the plot in response to a villain/villainess (or antagonist, meaning the character that is evil and brings a negative effect on other characters, e.g. kills other characters) who is much more powerful and better equipped than him/her. In North by North West, the hero is Roger O. Thornhill, an advertising executive, who unintentionally gets involved in a government conspiracy against a group of rogue foreign spies led by the main villain, Phillip Vandamm. Roger Thornhill didn't expect to be a part of this and was, therefore, completely unprepared for what Vandamm had in store for him, regardless of the fact that Thornhill wasn't the man he was looking for in the first place, i.e. George Kaplan, so this meant that Vandamm would take out anyone and anything in his way, innocent or not.

Thrillers often use devices like cliffhangers, red herrings, suspense, irony, etc. Hitchcock movies almost always use some form of suspense, and North by North West is no exception. The most infamously suspenseful scene in the whole movie is the lead-up to the Plane in the Crop Field scene. Leading up to it, Roger Thornhill looks around the empty area and all you, the audience, can hear is silence, apart from the sound of the plane in the distance. The Auction scene also uses suspense by emphasizing Eve's discomfort and guilt shown on her facial expression, caused by Roger Thornhill's deliberate taunting of Eve and Phillip Vandamm, following the former's betrayal.

Thrillers have villain-driven plots in which the villain creates obstacles for the hero to overcome. In North by North West, the hero, Roger Thornhill, has overcome or avoid obstacles set by the villain, Phillip Vandamm. Roger Thornhill is constantly on the run from Vandamm's henchmen, who believe he is a secret agent called George Kaplan and wish to assassinate him, as well as the authorities, who believe he killed a powerful UN diplomat called Lester Townsend, who he believed could help him in his situation.

The Crop Duster Scene
The infamous Crop Duster scene is what made this movie so iconic and famous in film history. This is because it takes a few moments for the scene itself to kick in. The silent moments before the plane attacks is what builds up suspense and prepares for the eventual attack. Hitchcock greatly uses visuals to make the movie easier to understand even in different languages and create suspense in this scene also. He constantly switches from a close-up of Roger Thornhill to what he is looking at make the viewers "brace for impact" if what he is looking will try to kill him. This is how Hitchcock "transfers" the menace of the situation from the movie to the subconscious of the audience.

What Hitchcock did to symbolism
The final scene of the movie is set on Mt. Rushmore. Mt. Rushmore was built as a symbol of order. The final scene, in which Roger Thornhill and Eva try to escape from Vandamm and his men, throws the whole meaning of Mt. Rushmore into disorder. This was also to change the pace of the movie from suspense to action at the last minute, probably for laughs.

MacGuffin
A MacGuffin is an important plot element (something makes the plot progress) that the characters in the plot care about greatly, to the point they would do or sacrifice themselves or anyone or thing for it, regardless of what it is or what it looks like, but the audience don't care or know about it until a later point in the plot. In North by North West, the MacGuffin is a roll of microfilm, hidden within a small statuette, that contains important government secrets.

The nature of a MacGuffin is usually mysterious, unknown, ambiguous or even absent in a movie. Therefore, people tend to try and question its true identity before it is eventually revealed (if it is revealed at all in the movie). Some MacGuffins are actually unimportant to the plot, despite it being responsible for driving the plot. Some examples of MacGuffins are: simply money and glory or, as mentioned before, something completely unexplained.

MacGuffins are quite common in films, especially in Thrillers. In some cases, the MacGuffin acts as the central plot element at first, but then decreases in importance throughout the rest of the film, due to the characters' struggles and motivations acting as the central focus instead. Sometimes, the MacGuffin is brought back into play by the end of the film, however, in most cases, it is completely forgotten by the end of the film, as if it were never in the film in the first place.

In an interview with Alfred Hitchcock, he described the MacGuffin as something the plot revolves around, but "the audience don't care" about what it specifically is.

Interview with Hitchcock
Hitchcock described Thrillers as a way for the audience "to dip their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like". I believe he succeeded to portray this in North by North West, particularly in The Crop Duster Scene and the climax of the movie, from when Thronhill hides in Vandamm's house to warn Eva to the frantic trek down Mt. Rushmore.

Here, Hitchcock discusses the film.