Deservedly labelled as one of the greatest of all time

Rating: 9/10 (23 November 2017)

So this is often labelled as one of the greatest films of all time; I haven't seen enough movies to agree or disagree, but it's definitely one of the best movies I've ever seen. Alfred Hitchcock is at his best with this suspenseful mystery, unraveled by a retired detective being the subject of merciless mind games.
The story and direction are nearly perfect and the mystery is solved with appropriate pacing and character development (mainly Scottie, the detective, and Madeleine, his target). The movie lets the audience figure out parts of the mystery for themselves (so there's lots of, "OH THAT THING," moments, which is the movie engaging the audience and making the viewing experience even better). The effects and music are excellent - my favourite scene is Scottie's nightmare where he looks into the grave (you'll find out) and falls into a spiral with flowers transforming into colours and all this beautiful stuff (it's 1958, so you don't even expect much, but Hitchcock nails it with stuff that looks better than some of what you see today). No scenes in the film feel out of place; there's no bad or unsuitable moments - whenever the film's not being brilliant, it's still very good and sustains itself well.
The lead performances are great, especially Stewart's (he plays Scottie), who works in the unfortunate victim role brilliantly, with his acting of fear and nervousness being the most notable parts. Their romance is steadily driven along a fine line with over-sexualisation on one side and being annoying on the other, being perfectly woven into the story and seeming entirely human (doesn't even seem like a movie, given how their relationship develops with Scottie's behavioural changes).
The only potential problem would be people not fully understanding the mystery (I did, and people should put in some effort to process events and connect the dots themselves because films - especially masterpieces - rarely explain everything explicitly).