Incredibly Creepy Romance

Rating: 10/10 (3 July 2008)

In my opinion Vertigo is the greatest movie ever and Hitchcock's masterpiece. This is just my opinion, so don't fault me for it. Vertigo is to thrillers what Casablanca is to Romances, what Raging Bull is to sports movies, and what Singing in the Rain is to musicals. Vertigo breaks rules and crosses lines that are not meant to be crossed. The fact that the main character even has Vertigo is a stroke of genius. But the real genius happens at the end, when James Stewart's romantic ordeal is over and he loses his Vertigo. It makes the movie seem like a circle, where in the end Stewart is the same as he was in the beginning. This really caught my attention and made me fall in love with this movie. Vertigo is also one of those movies that cannot be copied. Psycho was copied hundreds of times, as was Rear Window and the Birds, all Hitchcock masterpieces. I know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but each great director should have one movie that is unimitatable and incredibly unique. Hitchcock pulled this requirement off with Vertigo.