Thornhill And Kendall Dangle Off A Cliff example essay topic

1959 was an exciting year in the history of filmmaking. An extraordinary conjunction of talent throughout the globe existed. In France, Truffaut, Godard, Cabrol, Roomer, Ricette, and Res nais all directed their first films, thus establishing the French New Wave. In Italy, Fellini created the elegant La Dolce Vita, and Antonio ni gave us L'av ventura. Most importantly, though, in America, famed British director Alfred Hitchcock gave us the classic thriller North by Northwest, the father of the modern action film. Throughout the history of filmmaking, many different genres have thrived such as the romantic comedy, giving us such classics as Bringing up Baby and His Girl Friday.

The war film gave us All Quiet on the Western Front and Paths of Glory. The western gave us Stagecoach and The Searchers. Film Noir gave us such films as Sunset Boulevard and Chinatown. The one modern film genre not existing prior to 1959 was that of the modern action film whose entrance as a genre was inaugurated with the release of Hitchcock's psycho political thriller North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant. North by Northwest is your basic espionage thriller involving mistaken identity and a government conspiracy.

Cary Grant plays advertising executive Roger Thornhill, who, one evening at his usual club calls over the page boy when his is paging a Mr. George Kaplan. Two mysterious men observing Grant get the idea that Mr. Thornhill is Mr. Kaplan, not simply a man talking to a boy who is paging him. Believing him to be Mr. Kaplan, the two men kidnap Thornhill at gunpoint and whisk him away to a beautiful mansion somewhere outside the city. An important discussion point is that as to which type of hero Roger Thornhill is.

The action hero created through North by Northwest is that of the everyman, only man attractive and witty. He is a reluctant, yet brave, hero. Thornhill is unafraid to make an attempted escape while he is in the captive of these two men. Thornhill is confronted at the house by a vaguely European fellow who demands answers from him. This usage of the seemingly upper class Euro trash villain will permeate throughout the action film genre from the Die Hard movies to The Fifth Element. Thornhill, of course, has no answers for the man.

While being held captive in a library, Cary quips, "I'll catch up on my reading". When they believe his as simply being uncooperative, they intoxicate him by forcing him to drink a glass of bourbon. Placing him behind the wheel of a car, they expect him to drive the car off a cliff. This begins the first of the film's many action sequences. Thornhill's car, hanging off a cliff realigns itself with the road and Thornhill, intoxicated, swerves all over the road, attempting to avoid the two men chasing him.

Endangering the lives of others and his own, Thornhill escapes the two men following him, but causes an accident with a police cruiser. He is brought into the police station for DWI. At the police station, a man asks to smell Thornhill's breath. "You better stand back", he warns. The following day in court Thornhill tells his story of being kidnapped, only no one believes him.

When Thornhill leads police to the house where he was held captive, there is a woman there claiming that Thornhill attended a party the previous evening and was "a bit tipsy" when he left. With not a single person believing his story, Thornhill goes to a hotel where this so-called "George Kaplan" is staying. While there he obtains a picture of the man who was demanding "answers" of him at the house the previous night. The maid working at the hotel also mistakes him as Kaplan. Discovering that the man in the photo, Van Damme, works at the UN, Thornhill proceeds there. While at the UN, a man lands in Thornhill's arms.

The man has a knife in his back. Thornhill grabs the knife and the people surrounding the incident immediately mistake Thornhill as the murderer. At this point there is one of the most economical and beautiful transition shots in the film. Hitchcock segues from his striking overhead shot of an ant like Thornhill running away from the UN to a nameplate for the CIA in Washington. Hitchcock has the foresight to use a mirrored surface for the sign reflecting the Capitol building, thus identifying the city as well as the "company" and neatly saves an extra shot.

He then dissolves to the newspaper headline "Diplomat Slain at UN" with an accompanying photo of Thornhill. The newspaper is being held by the head of the intelligence agency and Hitchcock pulls back from the paper and goes on with a conference scene at the agency. At this time, however, there is some extraordinary metaphorical information in this elegant little dissolve for, if we analyze these still images we can see that the CIA imposes itself on the UN, that the Capitol is a reflection of the CIA (or that intelligence agency has superimposed itself over the seat of government), and finally, that the CIA gives birth to the newspaper headlines that include, in addition to the one conveying the necessary information: "National Fears Tie up" and "Nixon Promises West Will Remain in Berlin". It is also at this point where Hitchcock's film begins to show political affiliations. The CIA is depicted as a ruthless government agency that will "do nothing" even though Thornhill is being mistaken for a phony CIA operative. After fleeing the UN, Thornhill goes to the nearest train station wearing a disguise of sunglasses.

When Thornhill is asked why he's wearing them by one of the ticket sellers, he responds, "My eyes are allergic to questions". Thornhill sneaks onto a train and in the hallway of one of the cars meets Eve Kendall, played by the beautiful Eva Marie Saint. At this point in the film is the only flub with the plot. Thornhill was being chased by police and boarded the nearest train just in the nick of time. Eve Kendall has been placed on the train for she is an accomplice of Van Damme's.

How would Van Damme's heavies have known that Thornhill would hop that particular train at that particular time? One of Hitchocock's co-workers on the film noticed that gap in the plot and decided to point it out to Mr. Hitchcock. "Don't be droll, dear boy" was Hitchcock's response. While aboard the train, Kendall and Thornhill fall in love. They just nearly escape from the train, with the police searching all over for Thornhill. The two lovers escape to a nearby hotel and Kendall sets up an appointment between Thornhill and Kaplan in the middle of nowhere.

Thornhill takes the bus to the middle of Ohio and waits at a bus stop for Kaplan. While he waits, a crop duster comes swooping out of the sky and begins firing rounds off at Thornhill. He attempts to hide in the corn but the crop dusting forces him out. This is one of the most famous and exciting action sequences in the history of motion pictures. The crop duster crashes into an oil tankers and Thornhill steals the car of one of the on-lookers. While in the city, Thornhill learns that Van Damme is headed for South Dakota.

A government agent called the Professor goes with him to South Dakota where there is an arranged meeting with Miss Kendall at Mt. Rushmore. When they meet, Kendall becomes agitated with Thornhill when he tells her not to go off with Van Damme. She pulls out a gun and she shoots him twice. What ends up to have actually occurred is that Kendall shot Thornhill with blanks and he faked his death. Kendall, now needing to leave the country, will be taken by Van Damme, where she will spy on him for the government.

Thornhill shows exasperation, believing that Kendall was going to stay in America and live with him. The Professor tries to comfort him: "War is hell, Mr. Thornhill, even when it's a cold one". This is another point that the film shows us its political affiliations. Thornhill replies: "Well maybe you better get used to the idea of losing a few cold wars", obviously making reference to the current one with Russia. Thornhill is kept in custody by the government, hoping to conceal the fact that he is still alive. He escapes, though, climbing out onto a ledge and into the nearest room without a locked door.

He travels to Van Damme's house, near Mt. Rushmore and warns Kendall that Van Damme and his heavies are onto the fact that she is a government spy. The two of them escape from the house, with Van Damme's secret microfilm, and flee across Mt. Rushmore, in one of the most famous chase sequences in motion pictures. This is where the film shows its true roots as the father of the modern action film. While Thornhill and Kendall dangle off a cliff, they partake in witty banter.

This ironic posturing of the characters is both a wink to the audience and to the danger that they are in. While Kendall nearly falls off a cliff, Thornhill pulls her to safety directly onto the bed of a private room on a train. Lacking the ability to end the picture with a sex scene, Hitchcock cheekily ends the picture with a shot of a train going into a tunnel. What marks North by Northwest as the father of the modern action film is that of its hero. He is a contemporary man, with a decent and respectful job (here an advertising executive). As opposed to the heroes of Westerns, who are dark and mysterious characters with shady pasts, in the action film the hero is likeable, attractive, and witty.

What made Cary Grant so perfect for the role of Thornhill is that he is attractive to both men and women. "Cary Grant is the male love object", said Pauline Karl. "Men want to be as lucky and enviable as he is-they want to be like him. And women imagine landing him".

The influence of North by Northwest on the action and spy film is immeasurable. It influenced the James Bond series, the Die Hard movies, and even science fiction films such as Total Recall. What Hitchcock did, basically, was create an action film of such quality that directors ever since have been trying to equal its success in story, action, and characterization.