week 5 North by Northwest post

In North by Northwest, the character Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a Mr. Kaplan when he is having lunch with his friends (4:00-5:00) and because of this incident the entire movie is based on this incident. Thornhill was merely trying to send a wire when another waiter was calling out a table for a Mr. Kaplan, in which Thornhill raised his hand to ask where to send a wire, but because the two actions were simultaneous the men assumed since Thornhill raised his hand they assumed he was Kaplan and then so they took him because of this one action (4:00-8:00). This scene was important to me because it laid the foundation for the plot, because of the mistaken identity and Thornhill going along with being called Mr. Kaplan, it led to him being accused and being hunted by authorities for the murder of Townsend, but again the role of misinterpretation is once seen because Thornhill is looking for Townsend after he met the man who (he Thornhill thought was Townsend) because prior to that he was brought to Townsend's home, but the man who had him kidnapped was not the real Townsend (9:25-12:00), he also was impersonating someone else but because Thornhill went looking for the fake Townsend he managed to get the real Townsend dead (35:00-39:00). After the real Townsend was murdered, Thornhill took the knife out of him and when everyone turned around they assumed he killed Thornhill when it was one of the men who kidnapped him in the beginning did sparking the manhunt of Roger Thornhill. I really enjoyed the scenes because they made up the plot and added to the conclusion where Thornhill triumphs and gets the leading lady while evading the people after him, he also proves his innocence.There were suspenseful scenes in the film when we don't know if they will catch Thornhill or if he was going to fall down Mt. Rushmore in the final scenes of the movie as well as the music added to the suspense because whenever someone is about to do something or die there is this suspenseful music which gets the audience up on their feet and guessing what will happen next. I thought it was also typical Hollywood thriller because Roger triumphs and gets the girl at the end and most Hollywood films the leading man ends up with the lady, almost like the James Bond 007 character in those action thriller type movies. Hitchcock definitely influenced movies in today's era or atleast 20th century movies. It was also interesting how Hitchcock uses and repeats previously scene motifs in his movies because there is relation between the height to where the characters were standing at Mt. Rushmore and to Vertigo in the church tower, also there was repeated motifs of knives as weapons to kill, especially people who are passing on information like Annabella in The 39 Steps and to the real Townsend in North by Northwest.