Week 5: North by Northwest

What I have noticed through all the Hitchcock’s film that we have watched are the techniques used are the same. Most of the movies start off with an action scene and slowly unravel to the truth at the end. North by Northwest first starts off with introducing Roger O. Thornhill going about his normal routine and is suddenly mistaken for another man, George Kaplan. Roger Thornhill goes through much to prove that he isn’t Kaplan. Something that stood out in this movie for me was time stamp 34:15 is where a different ethnicity is presented in the film.  The film was made in 1959 and shows how the American culture has changed. Focusing back to the film time stamp 36:50 and on, where Thornhill escapes after the death of the actual Mr. Townscend was visually interesting. The high aerial shot used to depict Thornhill’s escape places the audience in an omniscient view and also made Thornhill extremely small. In addition the building used to frame one side of the shot encloses the space therefore pushing the character towards the left side of the screen; therefore pushes the plot forward. For his escape, the surrounding was extremely empty which is contrasted with the congested interior of the building. Another scene which used the aerial shot to make the character seem small is at time stamp 1:04:06.Here the surrounding encapsulates Thornhill.  In this scene Roger Thornhill is surrounded by nothing but desert except for a few passing cars. I believe this is supposed to show how he is alone during the movie. Also I believe it shows the vastness of the problem and how Thornhill currently stands in the situation. Also during time stamp 1:07:11 reminded me of a standoff between the two characters. It was somewhat comical because of the other character does not deny that he is Kaplan and also wears a cowboy hat.

Overall North by Northwest was similar and different to Hitchcock’s films. I feel that he made the romance and the flirtations between Thornhill and Kaplan more prominent than any of his movies. Such as time stamp 47:50, where Eve Kendall takes out a cigarette and Roger Thornhill takes out matches to light her cigarette.  Also the act of blowing out the candle was also flirtatious. In addition the ending of the film depicts both the characters married and happy.