After re-watching North by Northwest, I noticed the large crowds in the first 2 to 3 minutes of the film. I think the large crowds provide the "mob mentality" in the film, which adds to the motif of crowds in Hitchcock films. Hitchcock uses the "mob mentality" to add to his common theme of framing innocent men for crimes they did not commit. Although we do not know anything about this in the first moments of the movie, it makes more sense watching it again to see the recurring themes and motifs in Hitchcock's films.
Another scene that I found to be interesting was when the men were pouring Thornhill a drink (time stamp: 13:42) and the scene when they are putting him in the car to frame him for driving intoxicated (13:50). I noticed that when the men were holding Thornhill down and he said "Cheers," the music changed to an almost ominous tone. Also, in the scene where they are putting Thornhill in the car drunk, the music also changes. In past films, Hitchcock did not really utilize music, but in North by Northwest, he uses music as a technique to set the mood of certain scenes and the overall tone of the entire film.
In the scene where Thornhill sees the doctor at the police station after getting arrested for driving under the influence (time stamp: 20:03), while he is talking to the doctor and telling him how much he drank, he holds up his hands in a way that states that "It wasn't me!" This is a common theme in Hitchcock's films since the plot continuously accuses innocent men of certain crimes. I just thought that this was an interesting point, not just in the movie, but generally speaking for Hitchcock films as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment