North By Northwest

A Review of a Movie I Admittedly Didn't Understand Very Well

Recently, we watched the film North By Northwest in film class, and let me just say, the punch sound effects in 1959 were quite unrealistic, and frankly, they were so bad it was comical. Now on to something a little more important than complaining about bad foley; the plot, which I will admit I had to look up on IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125/?ref_=nv_sr_1) to fully understand. Turns out it's about a guy who becomes a victim of mistaken identity, causing foreign spies to plot his murder, and accusing him when he tries to crack the case. Insert complicated love interest who is more than she appears to be and end it with a chase scene across the faces of Mount Rushmore and you have the 1959 masterpiece that is North By Northwest. 

Now there is a set of questions that I need to answer, but I'll be honest, I don't even understand what the questions are asking. So I'm going to just write and hopefully you learn a little something about this film.

One of my new favorite things to do when I watch movies is to try to find where green screens are/start/stop. It's not the most fun hobby, but I find great satisfaction in being able to find the line where green screen meets floor. It's definitely less fun however in older movies, such as North By Northwest, because the green screen capabilities back then were not as precise as they are now (though I was surprised how easy it was to find the line in Mockingjay Part I) it was obvious what was real and what wasn't. Not to mention that the footage/graphics used for them were highly unrealistic, such as the entire Mount Rushmore final chase sequence. Alright, I need to stop the green screen talk and get back on track. 

Something I've been really trying to learn about/ focus on when watching films is the sound, due to the fact that I was totally clueless in my time spent in the Sound Department for As Though Lost, our class short film (post about that experience to come later). The few times there was music playing in the background, it really fit the scene, and the foley sounds they used (at least most of them, minus the punches) were fairly realistic, for the time period at least. However, there was fault in some elements of the sound for this film such as the sudden, noticeable volume drops of music when dialogue came up instead of gradual decreases and the occasional scene completely lacking any foley, making it seem flat and out of place. However, I must always take into account the technology that was available in the 1950s, and in regards to that, this movie is fairly impressive.

The film did very well in it's portrayal of the time period, in the midst of the Cold War with threat of Communists and spies around every corner. The infiltration of foreign threats into the US government as it actually happened, or at least as it was expected to be true made the film all the more realistic and probably helped fill the theatres when it was first released.

All in all, the movie was fairly decent and I'm glad we watched it.