If there’s one genre of movies I absolutely love, it’s suspense flicks, or the movies where you are so engrossed that you’re sitting on the edge of your seat eating popcorn like someone who hasn’t eaten in weeks. However, while there have been a few good suspenseful movies that have been made recently, such as Inception or Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, there have been many which I was not satisfied with such as Cloverfield where I was thinking throughout the entire movie “Holy cow! This monster must be horrifying,” only to be met with an unsatisfactory result or Paranormal Activity where my reaction was, “Meh. Cool effects but nothing too spectacular.”
Enter Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspenseful movies and director of many films like The Birds, Pscycho, and Rear Window. Most times if I see one of Hitchcock’s films after seeing a really bad movie, especially a bad suspense movie, I am immediately put in a good mood. My personal favorite, however, has to be North by Northwest. This movie follows the story of Roger Thornhill (played by Cary Grant) who is almost killed after being mistaken for a CIA agent. In an effort to discover the root of this, Thornhill finds himself involved in a vast conspiracy involving information on a microfilm, a spy who wants him dead (played by James Mason), a beautiful woman (played by Eva Marie Saint), and duels with a plane and on Mount Rushmore.
What makes this my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie and thus a must-see? Apart from the chemistry shared by the cast, the whole scenario is just compelling. Thornhill is not pursuing the people who tried to kill him just because it’s the right thing to do but mainly because he wants to know why he was targeted, even though throughout his quest he goes through several challenges, including being framed for the murder of a UN ambassador. Another thing that makes this movie so fascinating is the pursuit of the microfilm. As the audience, we see that every character has either been affected by it or wants it and yet we do not even know what it has on it and why it is so important. In following this pursuit, the audience is left to come up with the contents on their own and feel the same interest as the characters on the screen.
Granted, compared to some movies today some of the acting can be over the top and the premise of some ideas (think dueling airplanes) are pushing the envelope a little. In spite of this, Hitchcock does not focus on these but rather on the story, which is more than can be said for certain other suspense movies (are you taking notes, M. Night Shyamalan?). Overall, this movie is very strong and a must see for both cinephiles and the average movie goer. Now I have to test drive this Delorean which the owner assured me could travel back in time to stop Twilight from being written…….though he did have poofy white hair and said “Great Scott” a lot.
