Hitchcock's magnum opus

Rating: 10/10 (12 April 2011)

Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 psychological thriller Vertigo has enjoyed a gain in stature over the past 15 years, not bad for a film that was thought to be totally unremarkable when it first came out. In 1998 the American Film Institute broadcast its list AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, ranking Vertigo in the 60s. In 2007 they rewrote their list, moving Vertigo to the top 10- specifically #9- making it Hitchcock's highest ranking film on the list. At the Academy Awards it was nominated for art direction and sound but was otherwise ignored. It wasn't even in the running for Best Picture or Best Director. (Hitchcock never won an Oscar for Best Director; his only film to win Best Picture was 1940's Rebecca).
The film's direction and music score are masterful, so the look and atmosphere of the film become hypnotic. That much, Vertigo's critics would find hard to dispute. But the story is also deep- in fact, so deep that Hitchcock felt the need to follow up on it with the more fun film North by Northwest (also a classic). Vertigo is about the dangers of obsession as it can affect anyone- the destruction it causes and the way it twists love. Like Rebecca, in a way it's a ghost story without ghosts or even a tale of necrophilia, like Hitchcock himself said, in that Jimmy Stewart's character believes the woman he loves is dead, but he still can't let go of her. He can't forget her. He goes out looking for someone like her. And he forces the image of his beloved on his new love interest, also played by Kim Novak.
But the movie is also a tale of deception and betrayal. For Stewart's character, the world is turned upside down when he realizes the girl he loved and his new love interest are the same person. The way this ends is incredible. He lost his woman on the tower twice. That was the only way to end it- a happy ending with Stewart and Novak reconciling wouldn't have fit the overall sinister tone of the story.
The movie hooked me from the beginning, because of the atmosphere Hitch created. When Jimmy Stewart is first following Kim Novak around, seemingly nothing is happening but the tension is high, the mystery is compelling. I've never understood the criticism that there's too much of Stewart following Novak in his car; Hitchcock acted in moderation. He acted in moderation again when we didn't see any nudity in an erotic scene where Novak is naked in bed.
I've heard other criticism, including that the story is counterintuitive. In real life, Stewart would have recognized his new girlfriend and his dead lover were the same person, even if the hair colour was different. The movie may also lack closure. Foreign audiences got an added ending in which we see Stewart back together with his old friend Midge and news has come that the murderer is about to be arrested and extradited. The so-called "Foreign Censorship Ending," which is included in the bonus features of the DVD, was needed for countries that had laws against depicting murderers getting away with the crime. Hitchcock thought the added ending was unneeded, and indeed, it adds nothing to the story because the murderer wasn't emotionally a large part of the film.
As for the claim that the storyline is unrealistic, some people try to get around that charge in unusual ways like asserting the vast majority of the film is actually Stewart's dream. In an early scene in the movie, Stewart is seen dangling from a rooftop, making him realize for the first time that he has a fear of heights. The movie never reveals how he survived, perhaps because he didn't survive it at all. He fell to his death, and as he was falling the events of the film are what flashed through his mind. However, the "it was all a dream" thing is cliché. And too much happened in the movie for Stewart to imagine while he plunged to his death. The film may not be totally realistic- but it touches you in a real way.