North by Northwest

I enjoyed watching North By Northwest. I was a very thrilling movie of a wrongly accused man trying to prove his innocence. One of the scenes that sticks out is the chase scene out In the fields between a crop plane and Roger Thornhill. The scene begins by Roger getting off the bus in the middle of nowhere. The camera does a point of view shot of all 4 directions using cuts and extreme long shots to show that there is absolutely nothing around Roger. It leaves it very suspenseful because I was unsure of how and even if he was going to meet George Kaplan. Roger sporadically sees cars passing the empty road; every time a car passes by, the scene became very suspenseful because it might be Mr. Kaplan.

Mise-en-scene was used great in this scene. Roger is wearing a nicely pressed suit when he goes to meet Mr. Kaplan. It seems odd and makes Roger stand out more in a business suit out in the country. It makes the audience aware that he doesn’t belong there when dry cropland/dirt is the background.

At 1:04:53, Hitchcock sly fully puts in a shot of the crop plane that will be bringing the suspense and action to the scene. It is just in the background in the scene and I didn’t think nothing about it because I was focused on finding something/someone in the ground because that is what the character of Roger was expecting as well. Hitchcock thought out of the box and made this chase scene very unique because Roger literally had nowhere to hide. It wasn’t until the other man waiting for the bus pointed out that the crop plane was attending to a non-existent crop that made me realize that Roger was not focusing on his complete surroundings and that the plane was going to attempt to kill him. The tracking shot in 1:10:08 made it extremely suspenseful because the audience was trying to run away with Roger and attempt to dodge the plane.

Another suspenseful part of the scene was when Roger was trying to stop a truck and seek help. The scene cut between a medium close up of Roger to a long shot (POV) of the truck driving quickly towards Roger to the point where the camera only sees the hood of the truck. Then it quickly cuts to a close up of Roger with his hands raised so the truck would hopefully stop. It seems that his hand gesture is the only thing that are protecting him from getting hit by the truck with is not very hopeful. Then it cuts to the hood of the truck and quickly cuts to an extreme close up of Roger before he falls beneath the truck. It gave me a sense of relief that he was okay. This caused me to forget about the plane which suddenly crashes in the gasoline truck and bursts into flames. This was a very well crafted chase scene. In my opinion, this is the best chase scene Hitchcock every did.