CaveGirl Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 I think "Vertigo" is Hitchcock's paean to the non-existence of a belief still being paramount if you refuse to deny it. C'mon, Scottie was hanging on the edge of a rapidly being destroyed gutter when last we saw him. The film is about what happens between when he looks down and sees the dead cop on the ground...and when he falls himself. Being that Scottie is a passionless soul, with no real love affairs to think back of in his death throes or to reflect upon...he dreams about the elusive Madeleine, who does not exist, as he falls to his death. Why Madeleine? Well, maybe Scottie spent his long, lonely nights reading Proust and that makes as much sense as Kane saying Rosebud in his last expiring breath. Yep, the story in "Vertigo" reflects Hitchcock's own mortality and the fact that he himself was always dreaming of blonde women who would never give him a tumble. Alma, the soul...allowed Hitchcock to make these films to vent his frustrations and "Vertigo" is the crowning achievement to this ode to onanism. Prove me wrong and we can talk... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joefilmone Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 It's an interesting interpretation of the film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrroberts Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 How did Scottie get off that roof anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaytonf Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 At the beginning of the film, he was wearing a corset, and walking with a cane, so presumably he had a broken back. He must have fallen. . . . and landed on the dead cop, breaking his fall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Never mind that, how did he get his car home after Kim jumps in the bay? LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrroberts Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 That damn Hitchcock , leaving all of these loose ends The best one for me is how Kim goes into the old apartment house (Valdez home) up the stairs and into the room, then when Stewart enters and talks to the landlady, Kim and her car magically disappear. And the old lady never saw a thing, unless she was in on the whole thing. Maybe she was another girlfriend of Elster's ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Yeah, that too. That's another big one. Did Kim slip her a twenty?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Hey! mrroberts! I think I might have finally figured all this stuff out! Dietrichson was never *ON* that train!! . . . No, no, wait a minute.... wait a minute.... wrong movie. Ah, that's it! That's the big clue! NONE of this stuff ever really happened to Kim and Stewart....because.... because THIS IS A MOVIE!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John2Bad Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Being an ex-cop, Scotty knew the phone numbers of all the towing companies by heart. The little old lady desk clerk was Gavin's aunt. Elster, got to hand it to him, he covered all the angles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 LOL. I guess that works.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John2Bad Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 .......in a pinch. Elster is one of my favorite Sir Alfred villains. Understated, low-key, almost bland. None of that old look at how evil and weird I am. He just got the job done, and also, unlike most bad guys from that era, he got away with it. I've always seen Vertigo as Hitchcock's take, mostly positive, on the Eisenhower administration. Yes, Hitchcock never is very political in his films, but this is an exception. Ike is sort of a thinner, equally bald, Hitch. Notice the two M's--Madeleine and Midge. Now add a third M, Mamie. An obvious reference to the three branches of the U.S. government. The ubiquitous grey dress suit, the same color as the Republican elephant. All those references to the past of old S.F. A nod to the old Mr. Republican, Robert Taft, whom Ike beat out for his party's nomination. The various trips up and down the Cali coast, a symbol of Ike's Interstate Highway system. And finally, the high tower, a bow to Eisenhower's solidly high electoral wins. Yes, it's all there, for those who have the eyes to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaytonf Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 With the right eyes, one can see anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 LOL. You are kidding, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrroberts Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 John2Bad's observations are so obvious, I feel really stupid for never seeing them before. I can't wait to hear his review of *Rebecca* and how it relates to Roosevelt's New Deal policies . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 **** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaveGirl Posted September 12, 2013 Author Share Posted September 12, 2013 Well, an amazing array of fabulous interpretations. Thanks to all. I love the Mamie Eisenhower connection, as I've always dug the McCarthy connection to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". As for Dietrichson not being on the train, what's more questionable is who the heck is B.Traven and why was he hiding in South America under an assumed name after writing TOTSM? I don't really like to pick films apart and say "Oh this is impossible and Kong couldn't have been brought back to civilization because he was bigger than the boat" as suspension of belief is always fun, but oftimes one wonders if there is a hidden interpretation in the director or writer's mind, a bit like Mother Goose rhymes being politically inspired heresy. I think if Scottie did fall on that poor policeman, he must have made mincemeat out of him...haha! Edited by: CaveGirl on Sep 12, 2013 2:45 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John2Bad Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 The clincher is that the Republican convention in 1956 was held in ......San Francisco, the convention that nominated Ike for a second term. Of course John C. Fremont, the first Republican candidate for president, is identified with California, and was known as the Pathfinder, just as Scottie must be a pathfinder, not in the outside world, but in his own troubled mind. The scene in the forest with the huge Redwoods is a gimme reference to the short-lived Free Soil Party, which was folded into the Republican Party. Beneath the subtext lies the sub subtext. And if I'm lying, I'm dyi...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaveGirl Posted September 12, 2013 Author Share Posted September 12, 2013 OMG, John. This explains everything in "Vertigo". You've covered the Republican connection and all one need do to extend the subtext that Hitch obviously was using is remember the Dem's man, Adlai Stevenson who once said: "A hypocrite is the kind of man who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation. It's so clear now...Scottie, a redwood tree, mounting...ahem. Case closed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John2Bad Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 I tried to stop just short of a unified field theory. Since there were already a lot of moving GOP parts, Adlai would have been difficult to squeeze in. Egghead, hole in the sole. Maybe a connection with Midge as a two-time loser. And of course Ike's VP was from Cali, but I don't want to go there. Nix on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 John, I would love to hear your analysis of other Hitchcock films that might contain some hidden political meaning, and other films too that are based on situations the rest of us aren't aware of. Fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John2Bad Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 As I already mentioned, Vertigo is atypical in the fact that it does have a political sub subtext, as Hitchcock usually kept away from political subjects. Now, I have heard bubbling up the theory of some films scholars that Rear Window is actually an allegorical representa- tion of the asasination of Abraham Lincoln, but this is still developing, so it's best to wait and see what comes of it. Funny coincidence. Before I went to bed last night I watched just the intro to I Confess and Madeleine Stowe thought it was partly an analogy for McCarthyism-guilt by association, false accusations, etc. Seems like a bit of a stretch to me, but she is certainly entitled to that interpretation. Part of our short, semi-national nighmare is over now that the correct times are given for each thread and no one has to hunt for when a post was actually made. About time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaytonf Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 I've heard there are non-political subtexts to movies like Advice and Consent, and The Candidate. But I think it's a conspiracy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John2Bad Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 Yes, perhaps the mother of all conspiracies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanceroten Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 Doesn't make any of my top lists but, I always manage to catch something new in the movie I never saw before each time I watch it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaytonf Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 >lanceroten: > I always manage to catch something new in the movie I never saw before each time I watch it. Doesn't that give you an indication of the quality of the movie, and that perhaps you should consider revising one of your lists? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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