Film Theory and Criticism Hitchcock Term Paper

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She must deliver the government plan to an end and be successful. She is determined and uses all her feminine best cards. At the beginning of their meeting she seems to be a superficial, sex interested woman, giving a slight sense of nymphomania. During her adventure with Roger Thornhill she falls in love with him. A theme frequently used in American films (take for example all James Bond films, sexy women ready anytime to jump in the hero's arms). At the end Eve and Roger seem a happily married coupled going on a honeymoon, and the viewer is given the impression of the perfect companion, a future ideal mother and wife, and Roger the devoted husband. They had there moments of doubt, when Roger thought Eve betrayed him and named her a person with no feelings, but Roger realized his mistake and they reconciled. The characters seem to have been "educated," transformed because of their experience together; they have "grown up."

The final battle with the foreign agent on Mount Rushmore is again outrageous because it can be considered unrealistic, but in spite of this, it is reckoned as a Hitchcockian masterpiece. The ending is fabulously constructed. As Roger is fighting to pull Eve on top of the mountain the frame changes and the audience is transported into the train where the couple looks so happy. So the American cinema theory is respected, the viewers are given the satisfaction of a happy ending. Concerning the final scene from the movie Alfred Hitchcock confessed in Cahiers du cinema. No.102: "There are no symbols in North by Northwest. Oh yes! One. The last shot, the train entering the tunnel after the love-scene between Grant and Eva-Marie Saint. It's a phallic symbol. But don't tell anyone." The heads of the presidents on Mount Rushmore are considered "guardians of order." They are the barrier which Eve and Roger must break in order to escape.

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American cinema values the strict division of the characters into good and evil, and in the end good is triumphant. In "North by Northwest" there are the good guys: Roger and Eve and obviously the U.S.A. government (C.I.A, F.B.I. As a unity, take as an example the U.S.A. government agent's line "FBI, CIA we are all in the same alphabetical soup"), and the bad guys who try to invade and "steal" the "perfect" American system which is a motif of envy for the foreigners.

The movie is included in the adventure genre. But it can be easily considered a thriller, or better, a mystery film. Robin Wood wrote in his book ("Hitchcock's film's revisited, book two") about the genre: "All the genres can be profitably examined in terms of ideological oppositions, forming a complex interlocking pattern: small-town family comedy / sophisticated city comedy; city comedy/film noir; film noir/small-town comedy, etc. It is probable that a genre is ideologically "pure" (i.e., safe) only in its simplest, most archetypal, most aesthetically deprived and intellectually contemptible form." The idea Wood developed in his book is that the evolution of the genres is caused by the sort of ideological contradictions his list of values suggested.

Sure the plot asks from the audience to have some so called faith, and knowledge of ideology and how the author is influenced by it, but it is totally absorbing because it is brought up with style and energy. There are certain Hitchcock themes that emerge in the end (the author is clearly marked by a certain education and certain aspects from his own life): the possessive mother, the homosexual, the maid.

Other films don't attain the near perfect tone of this one; it is adjusted between seriousness and silliness......

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