I skipped a day, watching Surrogates and All About Steve instead. Surrogates was OK, pretty short, while All About Steve was all about Sandra Bullock, so I was thoroughly confused. I didn't think I'd be affecting anyone with the day off and the lack of people actually reading, but I see we have some followers (and by use of the word "we," I mean "me," but I say "we" so I feel I'm not alone and can boost my self confidence). So thank you to anyone and everyone that reads: your comments are appreciated and read, nothing much more after that.
We resume the almost non-chronological ascending list of AFI Top movies with Number 9, Vertigo, simply because Singin' in the Rain has been removed from the Instant Playlist on Netflix, Schindler's List is really long, and I have yet to garner enough energy to write about Lawrence of Arabia. Moving on, nevertheless.
There's a simple rule that applies to many movies but not necessarily all, just most. Mainly the suspense, mystery, and thriller categories (not to be confused with horror, which includes demon puppets and 80's fake blood galore). Here's the rule: if I'm thoroughly surprised by the ending of a movie, then you win and I put a little gold star next to the title. You may think this is pretty simple, but it pretty much is not. So many movies have become predictable in that you sit down, and before 5 minutes has passed, you guessed who the killer is, where he hid the body, and his location on the family tree of the main victim-to-be. I'm talking about when the credits start rolling at the end, I'm saying to myself, "Woah." Flashing an unexpected picture at the end of the movie doesn't count as a surprise.
And in order to achieve such mastery and artistic form to shock and surprise the audience, you need to be a gifted writer.
Enter Alfred Hitchcock.
Now he made movies that we now take for granted. He was the originator of awe and shock. He was living proof that slightly overweight men could become rich and famous. Let's just say, I'll appreciate his creepy artwork from a distance.
Vertigo has you fooled from the beginning. At first I thought that the whole thing would revolve around his dizzy spells, but it was really about Carlotta and Judy and Madeleine and everyone else. But if you think about it, "vertigo" refers to a balance disorder, which in this case referred to the mental balance of pretty much every character in the movie. You have Jimmy Stewart, who among his stuttering, has enough problems with the heights and obsession over a dead woman. Then you have Judy, who plays a dead a woman, who wasn't really dead, but was, and in all the deadness (aka death), she was crazy to keep playing along, even after the death of the undead and dead was settled, but it was really her fate to plummet and join everyone else in the land of the dead. She had it coming, in case you didn't follow, I know I didn't. Then you have Madeleine, who we never really know, but she's dead so moving on. Her husband deserved to be dead but we don't know what happens to him, he just gets away with it. And then Scottie's friend, Midge, was just pretty and crazy enough to paint that weird picture of herself. Either way, maybe it was best she denied the engagement.
What was most impressive was how the movie ended. I mean, after Madeleine's death, I had no idea where the movie was going. And then slowly, and perfectly timed, we find out everything of what actually happened, which left me watching Judy fall, Jimmy looking down a tall tower and a nun who literally frightened a girl to death. Woah.
But like in most Alfred Hitchcock movies, there's a moral and lesson to be learned. We all remember "Don't throw rocks at birds and eat and kill as many as you can" from the beloved classic The Birds, and "Move all windows to the front and mind your own business," in the family friendly Rear Window. Well, Vertigo leaves the children walking away with an important lesson, "In order to face your fears, scare someone else and make them cry until you feel better about your own insecurities." Also, "Nuns can kill you."
Thank you Alfred.
This message brought to you by the Children for a Better, Less Scary America.
