Losing Control: Comparing Governmental Authority between North by Northwest and the French Connection

There is much that separates the two golden eras of Hollywood. Filmmakers of both generations employed styles and techniques that reflected the convention and technology of each respective era. Meanwhile, America underwent seismic social change in the sixties. At the end of the second world war, which had occurred during the first golden era, the average American viewed government as a dependable and trustworthy institution to an authority. By the time Francis Ford Coppola won his sixth Academy Award, that perception of government had transformed into one of a regime that was incapable and dishonest. Compounding the sense of disillusionment with the government was a sense of its failure to guarantee a good life for its people. A darker reality had set in for America, and it seemed to be beyond fixing. The great social change that occurred, along with the new technology and styles that were employed in the second golden age, resulted in two markedly different attitudes toward authority and the law. Two films from both golden ages reflect changing attitudes particularly well: North by Northwest (1959) and the French Connection (1971). Although there are similarities between the two, thematically and visually, authority and the law in both films are portrayed very differently. The NYPD of the French Connection are generally well intentioned, but their efforts are largely futile, unrewarding and counter productive. In contrast, North by Northwest the unnamed spy agency is manipulative and competent, while the police are mistaken, bureaucratic and occasionally oblivious, but can still guarantee security.

To bring these films into historical context, North by Northwest was shot and released in the heart of an era Thomas Hine calls th...

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...le years, Nixon resigned in scandal, which brought people’s distrust of government to an all-time high. It is very difficult to believe that a mere decade separates these movies.

Works Consulted

The French Connection. Dir. William Friedkin. Perf. Gene Hackman and Fernando Rey. Twentieth Century-Fox Video, 1971. DVD.

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Hine, Thomas. The Great Funk: Falling Apart and Coming Together (on a Shag Rug) in the Seventies. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.

North by Northwest. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Prod. Alfred Hitchcock. By Ernest Lehman. Perf. Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Leo G. Carroll, and Martin Landau. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1959. DVD.

"Thomas Hine." Populuxe. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. .