tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38454049.post8099587989442607496..comments2024-03-27T23:36:43.408-07:00Comments on Apocalypse Later Film Reviews: North By Northwest (1959)Hal C. F. Astellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16807389103456317098noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38454049.post-67749878589563403852010-01-22T01:10:09.628-07:002010-01-22T01:10:09.628-07:00Yeah, I guess I'm a dreaded plausible sometime...Yeah, I guess I'm a dreaded plausible sometimes. I don't need everything to be utterly realistic, as that just wouldn't be realistic... so I can often just overlook the flaws.<br /><br />Sometimes there's something that I just can't ignore though. I prefer Westfront 1918 to All Quiet on the Western Front because I can't get past the latter not having German accents. It drives me nuts when people who shouldn't ever take off their masks do so, like Batman Returns, Spider-Man 2 or Judge Dredd. I hate that there's no romance in Gone with the Wind.<br /><br />And I really don't buy Cary Grant suddenly becoming James Bond. Perhaps it's because the beginning sets him up as everyman, clever but flawed just like the rest of us, but suddenly he becomes a better secret agent than the secret agents. It's easier to buy into fantasy if I'm watching someone like Arnie because I can sit back and enjoy him kicking ass because there's never any association with his characters.<br /><br />It sounds like we mostly agree about the film (it's a great technical piece and it's a great ride), but I remember Hitch mostly talking about actors as cattle. He was all about how he could play tricks on us through manipulation of story and image. He was all about the perfect crime and the details that made things click.<br /><br />Welcome though and I hope you enjoy the site. It's as eclectic as your tastes seem to be (Merzbow and Van Morrison don't usually appear two names apart...)Hal C. F. Astellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16807389103456317098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38454049.post-46610348708745599502010-01-21T07:04:55.745-07:002010-01-21T07:04:55.745-07:00Wow, Hitchcock definitely would've called you ...Wow, Hitchcock definitely would've called you one of his dreaded "plausibles"! This is a movie where you really have to suspend disbelief to enjoy it; it's not a realistic film in the least, it's a fantasy. And it's one of Hitchcock's very best films, a kind of summation of his entire career, packed with references to his other films and delivering one brilliant set piece after another. The plot doesn't matter so much as the joy of Hitch's visual imagination, and the joys of his suave, sexy stars: Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint at their most glamorous. It's like <i>To Catch a Thief</i>, a sheer confection. It's funny, too, like all the barely disguised sex talk between Grant and Saint, or the business about the ROT monogram: the "O," of course, is the middle initial of producer David O. Selznick, and Grant's "nothing" is Hitch's not-so-subtle dig at his controlling former employer.<br /><br />Anyway, Hitchcock always said that the plot wasn't nearly as important as the chemistry of the actors, and the images, and the action. This is one of his films where the whole plot is actually the MacGuffin, an implausible excuse to catapult Cary Grant into a wild adventure.Ed Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18014222247676090467noreply@blogger.com