North by Northwest Overview

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North by Northwest Overview Upon viewing Alfred Hitchcock’s film North by Northwest, we are first introduced by Hitchcock’s famous opening credits. These credits utilized horizontal and vertical lines which fade into the skyline view of a building, these lines continue remain prevalent throughout the rest of the film. If one looks closely nearly every scene contains constant vertical and horizontal lines, whether it is in the rooms, outdoor buildings, farms, even the Mount Rushmore chase scene contains dozens of vertical lines. Whether this was done purposely is unknown to me, but knowing how Hitchcock hand draws every scene wouldn’t make me surprised if he did. Aside for that we can look into the journey that our protagonist takes. This journey to me seems to follow that of the Hero’s Journey. His journey begins by that of an exterior call that aids the hero in beginning this quest. That scene would of course be when Roger is mistakenly thought of as being Kaplan and is forced into this journey of “Who is George Kaplan” and “Why do they think I’m this George Kaplan”. We know that in the hero’s journey, the hero has a choice to at first refuse the call, since it normally means leaving a comfortable existence and walking straight into unknown and dangers grounds. This situation almost mimics that of Roger’s journey in North by Northwest. In some cases, a guide or supernatural aid will direct the first part of the Hero's Journey. In this film we know this figure to start as Mr. Townsend, who leads Thornhill to try and find out exactly what is going on and who exactly Townsend is. This then leads to the United Nations murder and Roger’s boarding of the train where he meets his true guide for the rest of the film, that being Eve Kendall. The rest of the film then continues to follow the remainder of the hero’s journey, in which Roger would have to overcome certain
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