Theme Of The Movie Vertigo

“Vertigo” was an American film released in 1958 by acclaimed filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock was widely regarded as the “master of suspense” in the film world, so it should be no surprise that “Vertigo” is a suspenseful film, focusing on elements like neo-noir and psychological thrills. Similar to Citizen Kane, “Vertigo” was initially met with a polarizing reaction from both critics and audiences, but as time went on people began to appreciate its style and it’s now regarded as a classic film, as well as being one of the most influential films. In this critique I’m going to give my thoughts on the several different aspects and themes of “Vertigo”, to understand why it is as highly touted as it is. When giving a first glance at “Vertigo”

The film also plays with a lot of psychological elements, due to its main character “Scottie” Ferguson having Vertigo, a medical condition that is considered as the most common type of dizziness and causes things like nausea and vomiting to happen. One of the main plots of the film revolves around Scottie trying to overcome and cure his Vertigo for the betterment of his health and well-being as he starts to get older. Probably the most major thing “Vertigo” is known for was popularizing the dolly zoom, which is a camera effect that moves away from the thing it’s filming but the camera still zooms in, which creates a dizzying effect for the viewers. In many cases, the work of just the camera alone tells the story. There are certain scenes that last several minutes that have no dialogue whatsoever,

For the first part of the film the intention is for the audience to be completely with Scottie, as we follow him on his journey and get deeply embroiled in his mission just like he does himself. Then when he falls in love with Madeline we begin to feel for Scottie in a positive way, as this is a man who is now finding love late in his life. And then when Madeline eventually dies, we feel for Scottie in a negative way, as he starts to lose it and becomes catatonic and dazed. And once Judy comes into the picture and we learn of the twist, we begin to feel a sort of sympathy for Scottie, and that feeling of positivity and hope returns in the final moments of the film when Scottie finds out and the two reconcile with one another, only for the ending to once again snatch away that feeling from both the audience and Scottie himself with Judy’s tragic death. It’s an emotionally complex film, as it makes the audience feel a certain way one scene and then a completely different way in the next scene. The structure of the film itself is far from standard, and the biggest example of this is the revealing of the twist. Instead of putting the twist at the end of the film in its common form, we instead get the twist reveal with about 30 to 40 minutes left in the runtime. And what the twist does is take the film’s point of view away from Scottie and throws it onto Judy, as we learn her tragic tale and