Vertigo

Chris Auer

Philosophy of Film

April 27, 2014

Dr. Langguth

Vertigo

            The movie Vertigo is about a retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia which is the fear of heights and he has to investigate his old friend’s wife because she has been doing some strange things lately.  While investigating his friend’s wife he becomes obsessed with her. John “Scottie” Ferguson is asked to follow around Madeleine because of her odd behavior lately. She believes that she is a reincarnated version of a woman who died many years ago and Elster, John’s friend is concerned about her. When Scottie is following her he follows her to the bay and where she tries to commit suicide and he saves her. Scottie take her back to his place and when he does that he gets to know Madeleine and then falls in love with her. Scottie then begins to spend time with Madeleine and they go to this old church that she runs away from him to the top of the steeple and he is unable to stop her because of his vertigo. Vertigo is when you get a dizzy sensation which causes them to lose balance. When she gets to the top of the steeple she then jumps off to her death. After this happens he is entered into a hospital because of how much this screwed with his mind because he lost the love of his life and they said it was his fault because he didn’t stop her. Once he is released he meets Judy and she is a spitting image of Madeleine. Scottie begins dating her and tried to change Judy to make her look exactly like Madeleine, by changing her clothes and hair color/style. Later in the movie Judy blew her cover by putting on a necklace that Madeleine always wore and he finds out that he was just a pawn.

            This was one of the better movies that we watched in my opinion and it had my attention the whole way through. I like these types of movies because they always keep you on your toes and you are just trying to put all the pieces together and once you think you have another clue pops up and it just changes your whole point of view. I’m a big fan of mystery movies because they make you pay attention to the movie because if you miss a part of the movie you could miss the answer to the question. Also this movie is a thriller so it gives you that rush and excitement and wanting more and more.

            Hitchcock does a great job in this movie the give the audience to make them think they understand what is going on and then he does a total plot twist that changes to audience’s perspective. I like the way Hitchcock directs his movies because this is what makes him one of the best. He always knows how to give the audience what they want and he never seems to disappoint when he directs. Especially in this movie because it is so confusing and all over the place that you can’t just watch it once and understand it you have to watch it multiple times to get the big picture and understand it all because not just in this film but in basically all films there is always stuff that you miss and when you watch it more than once your eye catches it.