North by Northwest was certainly an interesting film. I’m a fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s television series and after watching this film, I have to say that I prefer his production of shorter episodes. I think this movie was more action-based than what I consider a psychological thriller, so I was left a little bit disappointed. I didn’t think the movie’s characters were that compelling and I found the plot to be a little bit dry and all over the place. It started off as a typical psychological thriller where you don’t know if they main character has lost his mind or if it is in fact true that the entire world is conspiring against him. Somewhere in the middle, it turned into more of a James Bond spy movie, and by the end it was borderline absurdist. I would definitely hesitate to call it ‘the greatest film of all time’ as others have listed it as.

One thing that I noticed was that a lot of the movie’s thematic and plot elements reminded me of more modern films. This speaks hugely about how influential this work is as an art form and I definitely appreciate that even if it isn’t my favourite movie.