Vertigo

(Movie Review)

Why I Saw This Movie

          As you know, this movie was in the news a lot this past year when it was voted the best movie of all time by the sight and sound critic's poll, finally replacing Citizen Kane after Citizen Kane’s 50 year run as the best movie of all time.

            I was discussing this news at work a few months back with my friend the - Cinephile  and I made the mistake of mentioning I had never seen Vertigo before.

           

            I consider myself an Alfred Hitchcock fan.  (In my youth, long before I started this movie review project I have seen and enjoyed Rear Window, Psycho, The Birds, Topaz, Dial M for Murder, Shadow of a Doubt, Suspicion, and most of Lifeboat (I tuned into it on TV after it was already halfway through) and countless hours of The Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV show (when it was re-run on Nickelodeon in the 90s.)

            In more recent years, I saw The Man Who Knew Who Knew Too Much .

            But somehow Vertigo had managed to escape my attention.  And now it is officially the greatest movie of all time.

            After I made the mistake of admitting I had not seen this movie to my Cinephile friend, he insisted for weeks I come over and watch it with him.  Eventually we did manage to find a night when we were both free, and both in the mood, and I came over and watched the movie.

The Review

          Despite my Cinephile friend’s enthusiastic descriptions of the art of Vertigo, I went into the movie knowing nothing about the plot.  And, as with all suspense movies that have a few twists and turns along the way, that is the best way to view this film. 

            So if you haven’t seen the film yet, stop reading this review here.  I’m going to spoil stuff.

******WARNING SPOILERS*****

          I suppose to fully appreciate a movie like this, I would have to re-watch a few more times and let some of the various elements sink in a bit more.  But nevertheless, for what they’re worth, here are my initial thoughts after the first viewing:

          I’ve got to admit, the 3 different punches in this movie caught me unaware and shocked me pretty good.

            1). I did not expect Madeleine to actually go through with killing herself halfway through the movie.  Even when she was running up the tower, I just assumed Jimmy Stewart would get to her in time.  The shock of seeing her body actually falling off the tower—that got me pretty good.

            2). The subsequent revelation that her death had been completely faked—again, was not expecting that.  The movie caught me unaware again.

            3). The final scene were Jimmy Stewart is dragging Madeline up onto the tower really had me all in goosebumps.  I wasn’t sure whose side I was supposed to be on for one thing.  Jimmy Stewart was the hero of the movie, but it was clear that by this point he’d completely lost his mind, and he might do something crazy.  And even though Madeline had done a bad thing, you can’t help but feel sympathy for her as she’s being dragged, pleading up that tower.  And because it’s a Hitchcock movie, you know there’s no guarantee of a happy ending, and anything could happen up there.  I was really on pins and needles watching that scene.

            Also, the opening of the movie was very good (and I thought a surprisingly modern beginning for a movie so old).

            But those big scenes aside, the middle of the movie just seemed to drag on.  I got bored.  I squirmed in my seat and repeatedly checked my watch.

           Obviously older movies run at a slower pace, and you have to accept that whenever you watch an old movie.  And Hitchcock in particular likes to slowly add layer on layer of suspense, so especially with a Hitchock movie you have to be ready for a slow pace. 

            And generally I am.  We (the cinephile and I) re-watched Rear Window recently, and even though the pace of that movie was really slow, I was able to get completely absorbed in that movie.

            But Rear Window has a straightforward murder mystery that’s easy to get into.  By contrast, I had trouble getting interested in the whole spirit possession story-line in Vertigo. I’m not interested in spirit possession stories much to begin with, but even if I was, the movie drags it out far too long.  Long after you already know she’s possessed,  the movie just keeps giving more and more hints about possession, and there’s about 30 or 40 minutes where the plot doesn’t seem to go anywhere.  It was like, okay, I get it already.  She’s possessed.  Let’s move on with the story.

            “But see,” my Cinephile friend told me, “that’s the whole beauty of the movie.  Once you finish watching the movie, you realize that the whole possession storyline was just a very elaborate ruse.  One of my film professors said once it has to be the most elaborate murder plan in cinema history.”

            “Yes,” I agreed.  “And I can appreciate that now once the movie is finished.  But when it was going on, it just seemed like a very weird and strange plot.”

            I’d be interested in other people’s viewing experiences, but it could well be this is a film that’s more appreciated the second time viewing than the first.  Now that I know the whole first act is just an elaborate hoax, maybe now I can appreciate the intricacy with which it is pulled off?

            The film’s history would seem to support this as well.  Although it’s now considered to be the greatest film of all time, apparently audiences didn’t really appreciate it when it was first released, and it is only in retrospect that the film has grown to be so loved by critics.

The Ending

          As I wrote above, the ending scene of the movie is really gripping.

            The actually ending ending (the last 10 seconds of the movie) I found to be very disappointing.

            I wanted to see what would happen between Jimmy Stewart and Madeleine/Judy.  Had he grown crazy enough to throw her off the tower, or did he appreciate that, despite all her faults, this was still the girl he had fallen in love with?  I could really have seen it going either way at that point.

            I was very disappointed, therefore by the entrance of the nun.  First of all, who was this nun and where did she come from?  The whole thing was very deus ex machina.

            Secondly bringing in an outside element really spoiled the tension between the two main characters.  I wanted to see how things would have resolved themselves with just the two of them. 

            Thirdly, I didn’t find it believable that Madeline would run off the bell tower just because she got startled.

            In short, I found the whole last 10 seconds very unsatisfying.

            It may well have been, however, that this was the only ending Hitchcock had open to him.  The movie code at the time (W) dictated that no movie could ever show someone getting away with a crime.  Under that code, it would have been impossible for Jimmy Stewart to have forgiven Madeline and tried to move on with their lives.  It would have been equally impossible for him to have thrown her off.  (He probably wasn’t that far gone to begin with, but even if he had been, this ending wouldn’t have solved the problem, because then the film would have ended with him committing a crime and not being punished.)

           

            Still, I can’t help but wonder if Hitchcock himself was entirely happy with this ending.  Had the movie code not existed, do you think he would have ended the movie the same way?

Other Notes:

            As we watched the film, my cinephile friend pointed out all sorts of things to me that I would probably never have realized on my own:

* the artistry behind some of the shots,

* the long sequences that would go on without any dialogue at all (apparently Hitchcock believed film, if done right, could tell its story with just visuals alone),

* The various color schemes and motifs,

* The symbolism,

* The various homages to Frankenstein

            Some people (cinephiles) really appreciate this kind of stuff.  I’m not one of them, however.  I don’t mind it, but neither does it make-or-break a film for me.  The story, not the artistry, is what I’m more focused on.

            But obviously for people who love the artistry of film, there’s a lot for them to enjoy in Vertigo.

Wikipedia

            After I finished writing the above sections, I just checked the Wikipedia entry for this film and found some interesting additional information.

*          According to Wikipedia (W):
Reviews were mixed. Variety said the film showed Hitchcock's "mastery", but was too long and slow for "what is basically only a psychological murder mystery".^[26] Similarly, the Los Angeles Times admired the scenery, but found the plot "too long" and felt it "bogs down" in "a maze of detail"; scholar Dan Aulier says that this review "sounded the tone that most popular critics would take with the film".^[27] 

            Now, dig, those are the reviews of the film that came out at the time.  That was the reaction of people in the 1950s, when all movies were much slower paced to begin with.

            If people conditioned to enjoy slower paced movies got bored with Vertigo, then it’s no wonder I did as well.

*          According to Wikipedia (W), Hitchcock went back and forth on whether to include the letter writing scene, but finally in the end wanted to take it out.  However the studio over-ruled him, and the letter writing scene stayed in.

            That means, if this movie had been released the way Hitchcock wanted it to be, you wouldn’t have found out Madeline and Judy were the same person until the very end.

            It’s a pity Hitchcock didn’t get his way, because I think that would have made the last 3rd of the film much more interesting.  If I had been confused about who Judy really was (just like Jimmy Stewart’s character was) I think that would have made me much more interested in the last 3rd of the film.

            On the other hand, I can understand the dilemma about needing to reveal Judy’s motivation (which was why Hitchcock filmed the letter writing scene to begin with, before he took it out.)

Link of the Day
The Assault on Public Education

Vertigo: Movie Review (Scripted)