North by Northwest

Rating:
Summary: Suspend your disbelief and jump aboard...
Review: Forget about the numerous improbabilities (e.g. that death by cropduster is an effective way to get rid of one's enemies; that a good place for foreign agents to have a hide-out is right on top of Mt. Rushmore; that Jessie Royce Landis is old enough to be Cary Grant's mother, etc.)--and just enjoy this ride. I've seen this movie several times and tend to forget the details between viewings--which allows me to be surprised all over again. And surprise is what North by Northwest is all about.

Casting James Mason and a young but very creepy Martin Landau as the villains was sheer genius. Eva Marie Saint is the icy blonde in this one and suggests a fair amount of fire beneath that ice. Grant, already in his mid-50s, was obviously meant to be younger (mid-40s at the most), but you'll find yourself suspending disbelief about that and everything else and just allowing yourself to get caught up in this extremely entertaining film. There is no better example of Hitchcock's cinematic mastery. Aside from the aforementioned crop duster pursuit (scarier than any low-flying plane scene in any WWII movie), there's the classic Rushmore sequence, and, of course, the tunnel bit at the end which delighted would-be Freudian critics with its (daring for the time?) symbolism. It's as witty as it is adventurous, with a wonderful Ernest Lehman script, excellent cinematography by Robert Burks and a great score by Bernard Herrmann. A classic...but then, you probably don't need me to tell you that.

Rating:
Summary: North By Northwest
Review: This is one of the best movies ever. It is a must see for everyone. It has GREAT acting, entertainment, action, suspense, and surprises. It is even entertainingly funny at times. Just when you think it is over, it goes on with more suspense and action. It is a long movie, but the time goes by fast.

Rating:
Summary: North by Northwest
Review: This is the best Alfred Hitchock movie, (although I have not seen "Rear Window", yet) and one of the best movies of all time. Great acting. Great story line. Great action. Great suspense. Great entertainment, even funny at times. Just when you think it is over, it goes on - with more suspense and action. Maybe more than any other movie, I felt a real hatred for the bad guys. This is a must see movie for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: a realistic point of view (north by north west)
Review: The film North by north west Hitchcocks best master piece, or so I'm told. Personally I can't see it. Cary Grants acting was wooden and a let down. I understand that the colour in this film is meant to be vivid,Colour is important in other Hitchcock films such as, Marnie, which I think is far better than N by NW. In Marnie red is important because of what happened to her as a child, in N by NW is it really necessary for Cary Grants skin tone to be so orange? It has no significance to the film what so ever. After watching the film repeatedly, much to my distress,a question was brought up on the relationship between the two villains, Vandam and Lenard. In one scene Rodger (Grant) and Eve (Saint) are walking along the train platform and the love music is on, then the shot switches to the villians and the music doesn't change could this mean that there is something romantic going on between them? Even though there is no visual evidence Lenard does say something about 'his womans intuition'. Do we really care? Some people might but I'm afraid This film really did disappoint me. The fight scenes were slow and the love scenes slobbering! The only thing that I thought was good, was the way Rodger lied to gain access to any form of transport through out the whole of the film. Still all in all, this one detail will not persuade me to watch this film for my own amusment!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best thrillers of all time...
Review: Hitchcock's best, and my personal all time favorite. Cary Grant is at his best as the Ad Man mistaken for a secret agent. He is charming and funny in his role as Roger Thornhill. James Mason is fantastic. The score complements the action perfectly. A must see!

Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock's finest
Review: Cary Grant is great in this movie.It is far better than Psyco. If you love Hitchcock thrillers you will love North by Northwest.

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Summary: The most visually impressive Hithcock film
Review: And that's not a small tribute. After all, Hitchcok, is maybe the best director in film history when it comes to visuality. For example, let's take the aeroplane scene in the middle of nowhere; Grant is waiting to meet some people in the US prairie. In the horizon he sees an aeroplane flying towards him. He keeps staring at him, but at first he doesn't really care about the plane, but when it keeps approching him he starts to wonder, and after a few moments, it flies right above his head, only about a meter over. This happens about four times, untile he stops a gastruck to seek for shelter from the upper haunter. The truck is in a fast speed, and has to stop suddenly, but it can't stop in tiem, so it slowly runs over Grant, who lays under the truck. Then the plane ,still chasing Grant, crahsehes into the truck, and after a while, when the driver , assistant and Grant are on a safe distance, the truck and the plane explode. Now if that isn't impressive, then what is! Other marvellous scenes take place in Mt. Rushmore, but actually the whol movie is like a two-hours-introduction into stylish visuality. Oh, and tha plot isn't bad either! And the acting is premier...

Rating:
Summary: Suberb Hitchcock
Review: When I first rented this movie, I rented it after two others. Namely "Psycho" and "Vertigo". After seeing those two, I thought how can he improve. When my mom suggested to me that we watch "North by Northwest", I was a little apprehensible. I wanted to see "The Birds." But from the Bond-like titles with the fantastic musical score by Bernard Herrman to the final scene on the train, I was captivated. After seeing this movie, I nominated it as my favorite of all and rushed out to see every Cary Grant movie that I could find. I also nominated him as my favorite actor. I found his acting in this movie similar to George Lazenby's in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Eva Marie Saint was wonderful and with all of the lines that this movie coined, my favorite was "she uses sex like some people use a fly swatter." If your looking for a barely dated movie, then you should see "North by Northwest."

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Summary: Aspect ratios
Review: Just a note to some people out there. Since "North By Northwest" was filmed with Vista Vision, it's original aspect ratio was 1.66:1. So you are barely missing anything in this full screen VHS presentation.

I too want to see it in it's theatrical matted 1.85:1 ratio on DVD, but the full screen version isn't as bad as some people here are making it out to be.

Rating:
Summary: Very cool
Review: One night I was with my mom and her friend. He picked out this movie to watch when we got home. I was like, "Oh great. This looks really bad." But when we got home and watched it I was like, "WOW!" Alfred Hitchcock is really talented. This was, however, not a movie you could talk through. You really had to pay attention. I would have missed one of the most crucial parts in the movie; when the say "George Kaplan, paging George Kaplan" over the loudspeaker had it not been rewound. See this movie if you haven't already.