North by Northwest

Finally, a review for a movie by one of my all time favorite directors, Alfred Hitchcock. Hopefully most everyone that reads this has at least heard of this movie despite it not being one of his more widely known pieces such as The Birds or Psycho, but even if you haven't, read the review and watch the movie...or vice versa.

I've been meaning to see this movie for an incredibly long time, but only recently actually sat down and watched it.  The movie follows a businessman as he is mistaken for a government agent by foreign spies and then is pursued by both the police and the spies.

The movie starts out fast, jumps right into the main plot as the main character (Roger Thornhill, played by the incredible Cary Grant) is abducted and forced to drink a bottle of whiskey before being put in a car that is to be sent off a cliff.  Of course, he wakes up, takes control, and survives, but is apprehended by the police.  Soon things get worse for him and he is pursued again by the police for murder.  As he attempts to allude them he runs into the most elaborate character in the movie, Eve Kendall.

So many points in this movie show how incredible Hitchcock was.  The character development is literally perfect.  Hitchcock is a master of developing his characters in such a way that at one moment you can root for them and then seconds later hate them more than anyone else in the movie and then back again.  Pay attention to how easily your emotions for Eve change throughout the course of the movie.

The humor holds up very well, impressively well considering the age of this movie (1959).  Cary Grant is quite the actor though and does a great job of making the funny parts funny and the serious parts serious.

My only gripes are about some of the questionable actions taken by the enemies in the movie.  The iconic dive-under-the-plane scene ends in such a way that it makes you wonder how the hell the pilot could possibly make that mistake.  Similar things happen towards the end of the movie with the really awesome Mount Rushmore backdrop.

For me, it's not as good as Psycho or Vertigo, but that's not saying much.  This movie is great and is worth watching if you can appreciate an older movie.

Grade: B+