Blog 2

Tim Baldrick

Dr. Langguth

Philosophy of Film

Vertigo

Vertigo is not what you would think of when you think of a typical movie. Many times in movies you can follow it pretty easy and know where it is going to lead. Movies try to keep you on edge but typically a viewer can put a good idea together of what will happen. In this film that is not the case when watching. There are many times throughout this movie that as a viewer you can be left wondering what is going on exactly. There are many times in this film that you may know what is going to happen but then something completely different happens to make you completely rethink everything.

The movie Vertigo is a film about a detective who has the disability of acrophobia, which means he suffers from the fear of heights. The detective’s name in this film is John. Throughout the film he follows around a woman because a close friend of his explains to him that she has been acting different and in a weird way. The person that asked John to follow around the woman is actually that particular girl’s husband. He is not sure exactly what is going on with her and asks John to see what is going on.

Throughout the movie there are many different times that you as a viewer are not sure what is going to happen next or exactly what is going on. There are many different scenes throughout the film that while trying to follow the woman John gets tricked and lost by the girl. The producer also throws in different scenes to make the viewer’s thinking. One of these scenes is when John follows her to the bay and she jumps in attempting to her own life and he jumps in after her since he saw her do it and he saves her life.

This was a very important scene in the film because this throws an entire twist into the film. When he saves the girl he begins to hang out with her more instead of following her around. He eventually falls in love with the woman that he was supposed to be following for a friend and her husband. Once he falls in love with her he tries and attempts to change the woman into a girl from his past to recreate the memories that he has of her. This is how the movie goes for a while until the girl decides to run away from John. She knows that he is afraid of heights and so she runs to the top of a steeple. While she is up there she eventually falls off where she dies.

After finishing the film the idea of Vertigo was what I feel is the reason that she fell off the steeple to her death. Overall I feel that this is a very good movie. To me this is the best kind of film because of the aspect that it has when it comes to not letting the viewer’s know what is going on. This is the type of film that you have to pay great attention to detail if you want to stay following along. I feel that films should all be created like this and put together just like this producer did.