North By Northwest Essay

Submitted By owenlikeshotdogs

Words: 537

Pages: 3

Open Document

Zachary Acosta
5/10/15
Film Studies 6
North by Northwest
North by Northwest is Alfred Hitchcock's most enjoyable film. It has mystery, comedy, romance, thrills and suspense. It has a great main character and a hot blonde who he falls for. One of the keys to the brilliance of the film is the way the director tells the story. There are two basic forms of narration in telling a story, omniscient and restricted. Omniscient allows the viewers to know everything while the restricted form puts the audience in the shoes of one of the characters. This film has both because at the beginning of the movie the audience knows more than Thornhill and but we do learn information late. We do not find out that Mr. Kaplan does not exist until Thornhill has already been searching for him and we do not learn that Eve Kendall is an agent until Thornhill does. Because we don't know what's going on either, this makes for mystery and confusion.
In North by Northwest, Hitchcock uses a combination of these two forms of narration to explain a complex plot. For the first 40 minutes the viewer is Roger Thornhill, and has such has no idea who George Kaplan is and what Vandamm wants from him. Thus we have our first example of intrigue, something which is maintained right up until it is revealed that Kaplan is in fact a non-existent decoy, invented by the government to catch Vandamm. But while we now know more than Thornhill, it doesn't really explain anything. The next shift in tone occurs when we see Eve sending a note to Vandamm. Suddenly, suspense is added to intrigue and there is a new concern for Thornhill and suspicion of who Eve is.
Halfway through the film, comes a well filmed scene. By now we know that Eve is not to be trusted so when she sets up a meeting with Kaplan for Thornhill, while he is eager to find out who this mystery man is, we can only suspect that this isn't going to end well for Thornhill. Thornhill arrives at the supposed rendezvous point, an empty spot to say the

North By NorthWest Essay

North by NorthWest In this film directed by the famous Alfred Hitchcock, North By NorthWest, Cary Grant plays the role of Rodger Thornhill, a mistaken spy for the government named George Chaplin who in reality is an executive in advertising market in Manhattan. Eva Marie Saint plays as a beautiful blonde, Eve Kindle a government agent, who is an undercover mistress of Mr. Vandamn. An evil man, who is importing and exporting government secrets, Eve gets mixed up with Rodger on a train ride that turns…

Words 526 - Pages 3

Northwest Passage Research Paper

The Northwest passage The Northwest passage is a sea route that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the arctic waters of Northern Canada. The passage extends from the Baffin Bay in the Northern Atlantic Ocean to the Beaufort Sea on the Pacific Ocean. Since the last ice age, this sea route has been covered in ice for the majority of the year, and was only traversable during the summer months. Not only this, but due to the unpredictability of weather in the far north, parts of the passage…

Words 919 - Pages 4

Hitchcock: Saul Bass and Lines Essay

Boundaries: Lines in Hitchcock’s Films In the latter part of Alfred Hitchcock’s career, specifically during the creation of Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho, he used different line movements during the opening titles of each film. In Vertigo, the audience sees multiple swirling patters that then circle towards us, changing colors and rotating. North by Northwest presents its audience with a grid, where the lines constrict the area into smaller spaces. The credits in Psycho are a pattern of straight…

Words 324 - Pages 2

Alexander Mackenzie Research Paper

1800 Alexander Mackenzie joined the new concern, then it became known as "Alexander Mackenzie & Co. He was offered a partnership in the XY Company if he goes to Saskatchewan River to join the competition of North West Company in fur trading. He is a quick learner his company was merged with the North West Company. People know him because he crossed of what is now Canada to reach the Pacific Ocean in 1793.…

Words 524 - Pages 3

Plate Tectonics

Pacific and the North American plates where separated by first the Farallon plate and then the Juan de la fuca plate. During the Cenozoic, the Farallon plate was being sub ducted underneath the Pacific plate. Once this had occurred the Farallon plate had been destroyed and with this the San Andreas fault line was created. While this was happening new sea floor was being created replacing the old sea bed and also with the plate movement the Baja Peninsula was created while the North American plate…

Words 173 - Pages 1

Essay on Canadian Arctic Sovereignty

So now why should Canada defend the Arctic? Canadians should be concerned about what could possibly happen if the Northwest Passage were to be made an international shipping route. The route could facilitate the entry of drugs, arms/weapons, illegal immigrants and even terrorists into what is currently the poorly defended northern Canada (Byers). There could be an increase…

Words 1208 - Pages 5

Pacific Fur Trade Research Paper

The turning point in Pacific Northwest history came with the discovery of how lucrative furs were in trade. The British were losing interest in the Pacific Northwest; Captain Cook traded with native Americans and received some sea otter pelts. After Cook's death, his crew sailed to Canton and discovered that the sea otter pelts were worth a fortune (Lecture, “Discovery” of the Pacific Northwest). This discovery kicked off the Pacific fur trade and put the Pacific Northwest on European maps. The economy…

Words 244 - Pages 1

Articles of Confederation and Mississippi Trading Rights Essay

equaled 640 acres. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 that Congress passed applied to the lands north of the Ohio River which was known as the Northwest Territory. Slavery determined by popular sovereignty in these territories. B. Shays rebellion was a situation where farmers led by Daniel Shay protested after taxes were raised to pay for Revolutionary debts. The combination of high taxes and depression led to farmers revolting. Resulting in an increase of tension between the North and South. The British…

Words 384 - Pages 2

Manifest Destiny 1839 Analysis

was a calling of God for them to govern the North American continent. Americans settled west to expand their land and their religion. If Americans spread their religion with natives, they would have more followers, and then, they could possess the land of their followers. Americans wanted to spread the religion and idea of God to all settlers, but Americans could not do that because many settlers already had their own religion. Americans thought the North American continent would be a great nation…

Words 787 - Pages 4

The Great Depression Essay

one of the greatest and strongest of countries to its knees. I believe there are three main reasons that contributed to the economic collapse of the United States. New York stock Market crashed, The Dustbowl, and thousands of migrants move to the Northwest. But there are also three causes that helped U.S. recovered from this tragic event. They were Roosevelt’s New Deal, Grand Coulee Dam, and World War II. The Great Depression began with New York Stock Market Crash in 1929; it lasted through the 1930’s…

Words 1017 - Pages 5