Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but definitely NOT great!
Review: With 166 reviews against me, I feel a bit like the little boy at the parade of the emperor's new clothes. Admittedly I didn't read all those other reviews, but if they average out to five stars, there can't be much point.To start with the small stuff, how did Scotty get rescued from his predicament in the opening scene? Surely it would take quite a number of precious minutes for a rescue team to arrive, and how long can any normal man hang on, let alone one who faints when he climbs a step-ladder or blacks out completely on the long drive home from the mission? And it's pretty hard to swallow that a "master of suspense" would pass up an opportunity like this to keep the audience hanging on until the hero is rescued. Then in the first scene with Bel Geddes, we get lots of stagey, artificial dialog to fill us in on certain background details we need to know. A good team of writers and director would present this information dramatically as the story unfolds, not spoon-feed it to us through talk. A few minor points that add up to a lot: Why oh why does everyone drive on the wrong side of the road when they're going to the mission? Does England own that stretch of highway? And why isn't the bell tower locked and/or guarded, especially after what has occurred there? And how could Madeline and her supposed husband get away so easily? Such a crime scene in the real world would have been swarming with cops. And how does the nun get up there so noiselessly and quickly? So many little technical blunders add up to a director who is not paying attention or is simply dumb. Oddly enough, the aspects of the film that one might expect to criticize--its slow pace, Kim Novak's acting--turn out to be positive points. For once in a movie from this era, the relationship between the two stars is built up slowly and believably, at least in the first half. Then Hitchcock scuttles through the second relationship as if to make up for lost time. Unfortunately, it's the Judy relationship that he should have taken more time with; that sort of thing needs to be done very, very carefully to make it credible. Novak's acting, if that is what it is, is amazing. I suppose it's because she plays someone who is always acting, and since Novak can't act but can only act like she's acting, everything works out perfectly perfect. And finally, the worst of the bad: Scotty's nightmare is done in the form of a little Disneyesque Fantasia cartoon, mixed with the most woodenly primitive "special effects," making it downright laughable. But the thing that absolutely kills the movie's chance of being really good is Hitchcock's decision to give away the plot in the form of Judy's flashback after she meets Scotty. Again, the "master of suspense" blows it completely by giving away the ending 30 or 40 minutes before the movie ends. So, another disappointment from this vastly over-rated director. He always starts with a good basic idea and then messes it up one way or another. That anyone could call this one of the greatest films ever made is more frightening than anything that Hitchcock ever conjured up.
Rating: 
Summary: Movie Goers also reach for the Unobtainable
Review: Sir Alfred Hitchcock was trying to make a statement that we as moviegoers are voyeurs and are just as fanatically obsessed by the images on the screen as "Scottie" Ferguson is with Madeleine in VERTIGO. VERTIGO is in effect a movie about people who love the cinema and are captivated by it. Those people who do not like VERTIGO state that it is not realistic and too improbable. That is just the point. VERTIGO is about an artificial world and the fascination of that world. Those who like VERTIGO are drawn to it over and over because it is about something that is inside each of us that is ever so fleeting and will always remain unobtainable. Bernard Herrmann, the film's composer seems to have understood the essence of this film as he captured the erotic passion and ultimate hopelessness of its characters with his haunting score. Herrmann had always expressed his desire to be a symphony conductor, yet the lure of the cinema was more than just a means of collecting a paycheck for him. I think he had a great understanding of the cinema and its power over human emotions, yet it seems to have remained an enigma even for him. This is one of my most favorite films ever made.
Rating:
Summary: James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Hitch--All at Their Best
Review: I must admit that reviewing a movie like "Vertigo" is a bit intimidating. Here is a classic that's been dissected, analyzed, and studied by film gurus everywhere. What can be said about this film that hasn't been said before? James Stewart, Kim Novak, and director Hitchcock are all at their career best. It's startling to know that it was a box-office and critical disappointment upon release in 1958, but over the years, it has apparently since been hailed as a masterpiece. No argument here. Even better is the DVD presentation. The picture is Ginsu-sharp and clear, with vibrant colors. The guys who did the restoration apparently put a lot of love into the project. I should also add that, as far as I know, this is the ONLY Hitchcock DVD featuring 5.1 surround sound. At times, it reveals its age, but it works best during Bernard Hermann's awesome score. While my favorite Hitchcock movies are "North by Northwest" and "Psycho," this film is a confirmed classic that belongs in every collection.
Rating:
Summary: Stewart +Novak=Perfection
Review: James Stewart plays a retired cop who quit because his vertigo caused a co-worker's death. An old school chum hires him to tail his wife. She believes she is a Spanish woman named Carlotta who lived over a hundred years ago and came to a bad end. She tries to kill herself by jumping into San Francisco Bay, Stewart saves her, and falls in love with her. They try to solve the mystery of her so-called possession by visiting the tiny mission town where Carlotta lived, but there is a shocking accident... James Stewart is wonderful as the obsessed and heartbroken detective. He is tender, haunted, and desperatly in love with a woman he doesn't reallly know. Kim Novak is excellent in the dual role of the school chum's classy wife and a very brassy shopgirl. The writing is great: you really care about the characters. The soundtrack sets the mood for the film: suspenseful and shocking. If you like romance, mystery, and suspense, Vertigo is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Vertigo Looks Sharp and Offers Extras
Review: I first saw Vertigo in the early 80s and was quite impressed although I was just a youngster. The restoration has made Vertigo more crisp and colorful and a better viewing experience. The DVD has sort of a patchwork commentary track with the architects of the resurrection along with producer Herbert Coleman and then suddenly other discordant people speak up like Art Director Henry Bumstead and Kim Novak. Don't get me wrong, the added commentaries were insightful and well done, but it kind of disrupted the conversation that the primary players were having. My guess is that the elderly Coleman must have rambled during parts of the movie. He sometimes didn't understand the content of the restoration team's questions and would cut them off. But Coleman & Company do share a lot of gems along the way. Another feature of the film is the making-of documentary that was a pure pleasure. I'm a believer that a DVD needs a lot of extras and Vertigo certainly has plenty to make it worth the purchase.
Rating:
Summary: . . . AL - VERT HITCH - IGO . . .
Review: A thought about this controversial stretch of rainbow/ thriller . . . This movie has ultimately created its own pocket of dizzyness and VERTIGO. Years after its production, and Hitchcock's ultimate demise, it crops up like an accident waiting to happen. Then lo and behold, everyone is dashing about, tottering this way and that, pro and con, dancing, spinning, whirling, debating, instead of enjoying, whether it's any good... Enough already. Alfie's had his joke on us. We're standing dizzy long after he's gone horizontal. No doubt he is reclining comfortably, a vertiginous grin on his face, forever. . . Just enjoy this pleasurable if subdued thriller. The color is great, nobody hates Bernard Herrmann scores, and if you allow for a few Hitchockian/ Hollywoodian exaggerations, this is a good film. Then move on. There are other things to watch (like THE LADY VANISHES, and 39 STEPS) Let's face it, it's better than most of the American celluloid bosh that's floated around before or since. Own a copy. You'll watch it more than once, guaranteed.
Rating:
Summary: Maintains its originality and beauty...
Review: This is undeniably one of Hitcthcock's greatest films. It is a masterpiece that continues to motivate heated discussion on its many themes, specifically its inferred representation of male dominance, mysogyny and obsession. Freudian notions run rampant in ~Vertigo~: the woman as sexual object and the eternal 'dark continent' that Freud himself, because he couldn't make fit in his theories, abandoned - the female psyche that is...however, these critical interpretations have turned a bit stale over the years. But this is a very complex film, and the fact that it can be interpreted on many levels, studied and analysed endlessly by professionals and academics in various fields, really is a testimony that ~Vertigo~ is in a class by itself. The popular interpretation of the film posits the central protagonist, Scotty, (Jimmy Stewart) as an obsessed misogynist, a pathological stalker, chasing the object of his sexual desire through the streets of San Francisco. He loses the object, Madeline, (Kim Novak) because of her apparent suicide. The poor man then slides into a deep melancholia, (the character doesn't speak for a year) to surface again to discover Madeline's doppelganger on the city street. It is at this point in the film that the reader's sympathies begin the shift. Scotty doesn't act like a victim anymore, and intentionally manipulates the 'new' sexual object into the image of the old one. He goes to extremes - down to what she can wear and her hair color. There is no denying it - the character becomes an oppressive chauvinist, and when his wish for the perfect image of his desire does not eventuate, he inadvertently destroys the object, casting her over the edge of the tower to her death: man as oppressor, woman as victim. After watching the film again, a new thought came to mind: it is possible that the male protagonist is the true victim of manipulation throughout, led by the woman, unconsciously, into the murky world of obsession. When the protagonist discovers that his love and the object of his love has all been a sham, a product of clever manipulation, he simply feels betrayed and retaliates. Scotty is the true victim in the relationship, not the woman. Because of guilt for betraying the man she loves, Madeline destroys herself, which can be seen in the last scene. Perhaps. It is well known that Hitchcock was a autocratic director, instructing his actors, male and female, to move and speak exactly to his specifications, giving the actors no creative room at all. This interestingly manifests in ~Vertigo~ in a variety of ways, symbolically and otherwise. The million dollars spent by Universal to restore this incredible film was well worth the money: Hitchcock's creative and dynamic use of color can now be viewed in its original glory. This is the type of film that will never get old or become cheesy over time. ~Vertigo~ continues to maintain its depth, originality and beauty. And will undoubtedly continue to do so in another fifty years.
Rating:
Summary: Truely Hitchcock's Masterpiece
Review: My third favorite movie of all times. One of the three films I give five stars to. Why it did not win or was nominated for any Oscars is beyond me. A great story, a great cast, a great movie through in and through out, Hitchcock is the Master of Suspence. Highly Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock at his absolute best
Review: Vertigo is an amazing, incredibly absorbing motion picture. This is vintage Hitchcock--complex, disturbing, and brilliantly shot. San Francisco has never looked more beautiful than it does in this movie, which features backdrops of the Golden Gate Bridge, a forest of giant sequoias, and other local landmarks. Jimmy Stewart, one of my personal favorites, delivers a dead-on performance, and Kim Novak is wonderful in her dual role (even though I kept wishing Grace Kelly were playing the role). Even some of the bit actors are stars in their own right--"Grandma Walton" plays a hotel manager and "Milburn Drysdale" from The Beverly Hillbillies plays a doctor. In a more important (and somewhat confusing) role, Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie from TV's Dallas) plays Scottie Ferguson's (Stewart's) long-time friend. The music is a perfect fit with the cascading emotions of the story, as Hitchcock understood just how important the musical score is to the overall presentation. The sense of vertigo is conveyed rather well by the camera action, and the psychedelic dream-like sequence was original and intriguingly uncanny. I cannot imagine why this film was not a ringing success with critics and fans alike when it was initially released because it is a model of incredible filmmaking. I hesitate to even mention the plot because it is incredibly complex and should be experienced by the first-time viewer with no preconceptions and no prior knowledge of the twists and turns involved. It is a pleasure to watch a movie in which the viewer simply must participate on an intellectual level to grasp the evolution of the plot. I believe the plot is hard to figure out, which is a wonderful thing. My own initial suspicions were quite wrong, I am pleased to say, although I was a little disappointed that the character who earned my suspicions was sort of forgotten in the final stages of the action. This movie is a masterpiece. It works on all levels, and while some may feel the first half of the film develops a little slowly, there is plenty of action and revelation to be found in the last half. It is a little over two hours long, so you should be sure to set aside enough time to watch the movie without any interruptions or breaks. And for goodness' sake, do not let anyone tell you what happens before you watch it.
Rating:
Summary: Favorite Hitchcock film
Review: ONE OF MY FAVORITES!!!! I've seen 35 hitchcock films and this still tops them. The story twists, but never shakes you. the trick is that you have to keep your eyes on the screen. Don't watch this while folding laundry. Be smart and indulge in a movie experience. The colors are vivid, and almost scare you. This is one film that really couldn't have (and thank god, wasn't) been done in black and white. SEE IT! KNOW IT! LOVE IT! James Stewart is amazing. This is one of the best mysteries/love stories, and has one HECK of an ending.
| 
