North by North-West (1959)

1. Production year: 1959
2. Countries: UK, USA
3. Cert (UK): PG
4. Runtime: 136 mins
5. Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
6. Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Leo G Carroll, Martin Landau

In my Media Studies class we watched a 1959 thriller called North by North-West which i thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend a thriller fan to watch. 

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This exciting, fast paced thriller is about an innocent New York advertising executive who was mistaken for another government agent by a group of spies. He was pursued throughout the film to varieties places in hope to survive overcoming a range of obstacles. 

The most well none obstacle in North by North-West is the famous plane chase as  Roger O. Thornhill who had been mistaken for a fake character 'George Caplan' runs for his life in hope to survive as he gets shot at. This fast pacing action is a typical element to a thriller genre film. 

Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequency action, the scene in this great thriller was the murder in the United Nation, the villains in this film murders an innocent man and the killer was mistaken to be Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant). He flees from the scene and then became a wanted murder

Resourceful hero's who must thawf the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains  You see see this in North by North-West as Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) pretends to be bad at the auction to be arrested by the police. Devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively throughout the film which is an typical aspect of a Thriller film. Red herrings is when the writer deceives the audience deliberately to make it more interesting, this is evident in North by North West as The character Eva Kendall ( Eva Marie Saint) first impress was good, as she was seems to be helping the innocent character Roger Thornhill escape from the villains, we then realize that she wasn't, she was real on the villains side and tried to set him up to get captured. The other extensive device that was used in this great thriller was cliffhangers, there was a part at the end of the film where the character Roger Thornhill was hanging off a cliff was one of the villains puts his foot down on the innocent characters hand, this literally puts the audience on the edge of there seat.

A thriller is a villain driven plot, where by the present obstacles the hero must overcome. This is present in North by North West as the character Roger Thornill is pursed to different places in hope to escape form the villians who are try to kill him.

The Macguffin is the element in the film which catches the viewers attention  It is something the characters think is important, what they think the story is all about, e.g. Lord Of The Rings; 'Have to return the ring to where it belongs'. This is also present in North by North west as he villains believe that the elimination of the character Roger Thornhill is important.

The defining aspect of a Macguffin is that the major player in the story are (at least initially  willing to do and sacrifice almost everything to obtain it regardless of what the Macgufflin actually is. In-fact the specific nature of the macgufflin isn't the main point/ interest in the film, it is just what keeps the film going.

In the majority of films this is commonly aspects such as; Money, victory,glory, survival or a source of power or even a potential threat.

This film has been a very successful thriller as is meets all the elements to make one. Hitchcock said thrillers allow the audience; 'To put their toes in the cold water of fear to see what it is like'. This is has have been achieve in north by north-west as there are aspects in the film where you don't know what happens next and keeps the audience on their toes.