Jimmy Stewart at his best

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2017)

Vertigo has proven to be a timeless classic that has pioneered at least one major filming technique - the Dolly Zoom. With this effect, developed by Irmin Roberts, Hitchcock was able to show the audience the effect of Scottie's acrophobia. The mystery of the story easily captures your imagination, peaking with a famous Hitchcockian twist near the end. Stewart plays a believable and extremely sympathetic character, who is (spoiler) being manipulated without his knowledge the entire film. What starts out as a light-hearted mystery becomes a dark tragedy of Shakespearian proportions. One of the final scenes in which Stewart's character confronts the truth is absolutely heartbreaking. By this time in the movie, we are fully engrossed in the pure intentions of Scottie, and we wish to see him succeed. Once we step back, however, we realize that the "villain" has very similar intentions as the "hero" in the story. There is one shot in particular which will stand out forever in the minds of audiences and critics. Scottie embraces "Madeleine", the camera begins to rotate, the background changes completely in the same shocking shot as the wonderful score plays. Movies like Vertigo will continue to be analyzed by film students for as long as there are film classes.