A representation of American ideals

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2001)

Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest is an adventure-thriller guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat, as well as a film with great ties to American society during the late Â‘50's. As the cold war was in full swing in 1959, threats of world war or even a nuclear war were looming; American's were unsettled, and fear was omnipresent. Roger Thornhill of North by Northwest gave American people a sense of hope in this tense cold war era. He portrays the average man, perhaps even somewhat immature initially, who turns himself into an all-around `good American,' working to fight the spread of communism. Thornhill, along with the ideas embodied in North by Northwest, represents many American ideals at that period in time.