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Vertigo - Collector's Edition

Vertigo - Collector's Edition

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $14.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Turning and turning
Review: This is a truly beautiful movie, unlike those more popular Hitchcock movies, North by Northwest and Psycho. The first half is a little slow (on second viewing), but it's absolutely engrossing the first time around. And after Scottie meets Judy, Hitchcock evokes Scottie's sick obsession so well that it's painful and pleasurable to watch. One of the most intense kissing scenes ever filmed in an American movie is in Vertigo. The whole movie is intensely romantic and subtly anti-romantic at the same time.

The soundtrack is the greatest ever made. Bernard Hermann outdid himself here. Warning--don't listen to the soundtrack alone. You'll internalize it too easily and it'll spoil the movie for you.

As to those who say that the plot is convoluted, this is true of every Hitchcock movie. Dial M for Murder had a more involved plot than Vertigo. And North by Northwest had an enjoyably ludicrous plot (the plane was pretty funny). The man knew this: "I don't film slices of life, I film slices of cake."

Mmmmmmm.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Everybody's dizzy...
Review: Some films are able to twist time to their advantage. Few contemporary critics cared for Vertigo when it debuted (though some will lie otherwise). Today, critics have enshrined it as Hitchcock's finest. A shame.

Vertigo's first hour is hypnotic. Jimmy Stewart, a retired cop who suffers from the title ailment, is persuaded by a friend to follow his wife, suicidal Kim Novak, for her own protection. One especially excellent scene involves Stewart examining Novak as she walks through a garden and studies a picture. The mystery seeps through the film's atmosphere, and the scene is quietly beautiful in a way Hitchcock seldom is.

Eventually, Novak does kill herself, and so does the film. Stewart soon meets a woman closely resembling Novak and grows obsessed with her. There is a plot twist, but it is so terribly transparent I doubt anyone is surprised. Unfortunately, what little suspense lurks in the second half hinges on this twist, negating Hitchcock's supreme talent. Characters begin acting with little or no believable motivation, and Stewart descends into frenzied rants and raves that are pretty funny to watch. The surprise ending is foolishly revealed before the ending, and when the final scene finally arrives, the melodrama is hilarious. The film nosedives after a promising start and wrecks itself.

Critics praise the second half of the film as self-revelation on the part of Hitchcock. Maybe, but most people do not watch films because they care about the director. They watch films because they like films, and Hitchcock's films are more interesting than Hitchcock himself. Naturally, Hitchcock scholars are interested in Hitchcock, and this interest accounts for Vertigo's inflated reputation. The sad truth is Vertigo is a flawed failure.

I'm wagering time will straighten itself out. In twenty years, true Hitchcock classics such as North by Northwest will replace Vertigo at the top of critics' list When it does, I'll be the one collecting bets and wearing an obnoxiously smug grin.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great movie
Review: I recently had the chance to check out this DVD and it's great.The extras are fantastic and the overall quality is good.James Stewart was such a great actor.The ending is truly shocking.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It continues to haunt me after 41 years
Review: I was only 10 years old when I saw Vertigo in 1958 at St. Cloud, Minnesota's wonderful picture-palace Paramount Theater. Young as I was, the movie instantly grabbed my emotions in a haunting way I could not understand. Well, the movie still does and I still can't quite explain it. You could be blind and still love this movie: the great score, Barbara Bel Geddes great cameo and the way she says, "Now, Johnny." Novak's forlorn voice, Stewart's obsessive love-desperate voice. It's just incredible: those hazy San Francisco scenes, the prowling car, the glimpses into groves and museums, the scene in the redwood forest. It's really about the evanescence of life itself, about how you can only glimpse its deep, rich beauty and its terror in blinks, in things half-seen, half-remembered and in emotions blurring into one another, shifting in that haunting kaleidoscope, impossible to pin down or grasp. Anyway, as I said, Vertigo is hard to explain. It is without a doubt my all-time favorite movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply the best movie EVER
Review: I have just read the last 20 or so reviews, and I am gratified to see that others besides myself found this film to have a deep impact, to be profoundly moving, and to be their favorite movie. This is a dark, complex, very deep, but exhilirating and--yes--dizzying movie. My parents took me to see it when I was all of 6 years old! At that time, I did not understand the very end of the film, but nonetheless the fascinating aspects of it--the musical score, the twists in the plot, the nightmare sequence, the heartbreak, the rich colors, the tautness of Judy's sweater--stuck with me for decades. When I was able to see it again, some 25 years later, I realized that this is my personal favorite movie of all time, which means that I think it is Hitchcock's best movie--and that is high praise indeed. This movie demands your full attention, similar to the attention demanded by a symphony, but you will be very richly rewarded, and perhaps your perceptions of life and love will be changed forever.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gorgeous
Review: After watching North by Northwest and Psycho, I didn't see why Hitchcock was so venerated. After Vertigo I know why. This movie is virtually perfect. Not a frame wasted--even the scenes of Jimmy Stewart driving around San Francisco are captivating. The acting and dialogue perfectly restrained. And the plot has a beautiful twist. The whole movie has the feel of rich, dark silk.

I do not recommend buying the soundtrack--Herrmann's music forms a seamless whole with Hitchcock's images, and separating the two would lessen both.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: by far one of the best movies ever made
Review: james stewert in one of his best roles. the best thing about this movie is every time you watch it you see somthing new. everyone should see this movie..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: hitchcock's best film and also the best suspense film ever
Review: what can i say? this is a must see

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Suspenseful Movie... Vertigo!
Review: Vertigo is a great movie! In the beginning, it can be boring, but once you get wrapped up in it, it can be very suspenseful!! It has a very interesting plot, and a tremendous intensity. It is odd to watch the first half of the movie and not know that what you think is going on really isn't!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: IT WAS A GREAT MOVIE!!!
Review: Vertigo was such a great movie. It has a great Hitchcock twist that keeps you bitin' your nails 'til the end.


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