Movie Time! 'Vertigo'

"One of Alfred Hitchcock's darkest and most compelling suspense films tells the story of police detective Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart), who has a crippling fear of heights-- and an all-consuming obsession with a married woman.  When an old friend asks him to tail his wife (Kim Novak), Scottie is drawn into a vortex of deceit and murder.  But that's only the beginning as a mesmerizing score draws Scottie to the film's haunting final shot."

This was my first Alfred Hitchcock movie!  Honestly, I wish we had watched more of his movies in Literature and Film class.  We had to write a paper on him in relation to his movies 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' (that review is coming soon!) and it was just so interesting to read about his life!  Did you know the first movie he directed was never finished?  And that the way he got into the movie business was by designing title cards for silent films?  And that his parents sent him to jail with a note that he had been bad at home and should be shown what happens when you do bad things when you're older?  It's just so interesting!

Any way, the movie.

I liked the choice of James Stewart (I like him more since I've seen 'Rear Window') as the main actor.  He portrays someone with extreme Acrophobia and vertigo quite well-- I believed that he had it, in any case.

Things get more interesting when Madeleine came into the picture and Scottie (James Stewart) was asked to follow her to make sure that she wouldn't hurt herself as her husband feared.  I don't completely understand what happened to Madeleine, but it's still really intriguing and thought-provoking.  It was amazing how attached Scottie could become to one human being, especially when he met the other girl, her character's name was Julie (she's played by the same actress that played Madeleine in the first two-thirds of the movie).  His attachment to Madeleine became really uncomfortable to watch as Scottie bought her clothes like Madeleine's, asked her to bleach her hair and style it like Madeleine's... Madeleine was Scottie's drug.  He was on Madeleine withdrawal and he wanted her back so badly that he was willing to create her.  What made it so scary was that I had never really seen this kind of attachment before.  Scottie was just unable to let go.

When I die, I don't want people to become to attached to me as to try to bring me back through any means.

Technically-speaking, this was really interesting.  The ways Hitchcock filmed this movie were ground-breaking.  Zooming out and moving forward in order to zoom in?  Genius!  It was just beautiful.

Alfred Hitchcock is truly the Master of Suspense.  This was such a great film, even if it was uncomfortable to watch at times

I would recommend this movie to anyone who has never seen any Alfred Hitchcock movies but would like to (it's a good start), those who love movies with suspense, and those who like technically-brilliant movies.

Thanks for reading!

--Jude