North by Northwest, a classic, done by the master of suspense himself Alfred Hitchcock. The movie revolves around a man named Roger Thornhill, who always happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whether it be at the beginning, being mistaken for a fictional man named George Kaplan and subsequently being kidnapped, or being accused of a homicide he did not do, the story is driven by these mishaps. Thornhill stumbles into scene after scene until he finds himself in a government attempt to foil the man after him, Vandamm, while also meeting his future wife Kendall.

This film is very different from Hitchcock’s normal films. This film is much more comedic than his others, and relies much less on suspense and shock, although those elements are still present. The movie at its heart is a thriller, featuring a plot that becomes increasingly complex, adding characters and twists to the story over time. At some points, I feel the twists are over used to drag out the story and extend it for longer than it needs to be. I often find myself disliking the use of multiple twists as it embodies bad storytelling to me, but they were used effectively and not abhorrent like some more modern movies. Overall it was a solid movie, one that I could see having the social impact it did in the 50s and 60s, and one impact that cannot be understated is how it was a building block for the many spy thrillers to come (Dr. No I’m looking at you). Showing how cool spies can be on the big screen, being thrown into all these crazy situations, like the crop duster scene, and coming out unfazed. This movie demonstrated that the villain can be just as cool and collected as the hero, and how they can be someone you don’t really hate right away. North by Northwest has everything that’s great about spy films while being one of the first to do it, and luckily for us future filmmakers caught on to this awesome way of telling a story.