Catching Up with the Classics: Vertigo

Still working on plugging up those holes in my movie history knowledge. I think this is the last Hitchcock film I can count towards completing my goal, although I'll definitely be coming back for more. Heck, I might even watch The Birds again.

Of course, that might just be to wash the taste of Birdemic out of my brain.

I'll admit I was a little disappointed in Vertigo. Some scenes were genius - especially poor ol' Jimmy Stewart's dream sequence, but, all in all, I found myself getting BORED.

The bulk of the movie is just watching Mr. Stewart trailing a woman he's been hired to stalk. There are a lot of driving scenes and almost no dialog. I spent about 30 seconds wondering what the woman was up to, and then another two minutes asleep on the couch.

Sorry, Mr. Hitchcock, but you're just not that good at suspense.

Like the rest of Hitchcock's films - and really the suspense genre in general - Vertigo gets a twist ending that's the REAL payoff. Sometimes, a film endures even when you know the twist ending. Psycho, for example, has a lot of very compelling acting and memorable scenes that are a joy to watch even when you know the twist. Unfortunately, Vertigo just wasn't as compelling. The twist was good, I guess, but the ending felt far too abrupt - there wasn't really enough time to process it. You almost missed the fact that you'd been fooled.

I'm not saying Vertigo was BAD at all. Neither, for the record, is The Sixth Sense. I don't feel a strong urge to watch EITHER of those films again.

Catching Up with the Classics: Rear Window

Ever have an uneventful Saturday night, where you hit the streets with money in your pocket that you just have to spend? That's the situation I found myself in this past weekend, and I walked away with a pretty impressive collection of Alfred Hitchcock movies.

Should make meeting my goal a little easier.

Rear Window is the first movie in my remedial Hitchcock education. I'm quickly getting to the point where I can call myself a Hitchcock "fan." The unusual cinematography created a unique movie-watching experience - nearly everything is shot from within a single room, which cultivates a claustrophobic and paranoid atmosphere. And speaking of paranoia, Jimmy Stewart does paranoia very well in a role QUITE different from the one I'm used to seeing him in.

Hitchcock is a master of suspense, and the suspense is strong in Rear Window, especially near the conclusion. Unfortunately, that suspense may be the film's biggest weakness (possibly a weakness in ALL Hitchcock films - I'll have to let you know later). Suspense compels the viewer to fear for the life/well-being/sanity of the protagonist; however, when we already know how things will end, suspense loses it's power over us. I worry that the several long, drawn-out scenes will bore me on a second viewing.

However, we're talking about the FIRST viewing today, and that was a good one. In my mind, Rear Window is an obvious classic, and well worth a look if you haven't seen it.

Horrorshow Trifecta

It's been a busy week - but, apparently, not so busy that I wasn't able to squeeze in three more scary movies. Exactly HOW scary... well, I'll tell you.

First up, we've got Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd. Now, this isn't exactly a horror movie per se, but I killed all the lights in my apartment and treated it like one. Actually, if you're pretty squeamish about blood (which I am), then you might find this movie pretty scary (which I did). I had been told that the blood was very cartoony, so I thought I'd be able to handle it. Well, the gore's definitely over-the-top, but it's extremely gruesome - cartoony is NOT the word I'd use.

My first encounter with Sweeney Todd was the Angela Lansbury musical, so that's more or less what I was expecting. I found that I missed a lot of the great Sondheim music that I loved from the original. The visuals (except for the blood) are great, classic Burton, so it's worth seeing for that.

Final verdict: Good movie, but not quite what I expected.

The second movie I caught is considered to be a horror classic, Rosemary's Baby. I'd been looking forward to this movie, as everything I'd heard about the story promised exactly the tense, threatening atmosphere I was so hoping to find in a horror film. Sadly, here I was a bit disappointed.

For a story about a woman pregnant with the devil's child, I expected more suspense. The ending is nice and tense, but there's not a whole lot of action to carry me through to the end. Rosemary gets a little sick-looking, sure, and there are a couple of moments when she devours raw meat that helped to create a real feeling of unease. The problem, though, is that we know from the beginning how things are going to end. It's no real surprise when we find out who the father of the baby is, because we saw the whole thing, right from the inception.

Which leads to another criticism I had with the film - it's unnecessarily graphic. The female lead gets a couple of full-frontal shots, which feel completely tacked on and irrelevant. Again, that's probably a weird complaint, especially when "devil rape" is the central action in the story. The nudity doesn't really serve to shock or make anyone feel uncomfortable - it's just sort of there.

I've been told I should be more forgiving of the film and consider the impact it must have had when it first came out - and, granted, the audience of 1968 was probably more shocked by nudity than I was. Still, I think the best movies don't need time to serve as an excuse - they're great REGARDLESS of when you watch them.

Case in point: Psycho.

There's a reason this is considered to be one of the best movies of all time. It's truly fantastic. The entire movie works to build a growing sense of unease that completely rocks the audience.

I wish I'd seen this movie before hearing the whole plot synopsis - that way, the surprise reveals would have been more effective. Alfred Hitchcock, though, is a master, and I found myself shouting in surprise (yes, shouting, alone in my apartment) at every twist. The famous shower scene is every bit as effective as you've heard without actually showing the naked woman (take note, Rosemary's Baby).

I strongly recommend Psycho for a Halloween viewing. The movie now belongs on my list of all-time favorites.