Just watched Vertigo for the first time
In fact, Vertigo is only the second Hitchcock film I've seen. The first was Rear Window, which I watched in a film class I took a few years ago.
I'll start by saying that I enjoyed this film considerably more than Rear Window. Rear Window was okay, but it certainly didn't blow me away and it's not a film I've ever felt a desire to revisit. It's kind of funny that the only two Hitchcock films I've seen both happened to star Jimmy Stewart, though.
There were lots of twists and turns here and a lot of things I didn't see coming. Just when I would start to get a little bored and feel like the film was in a rut of predictability some unforeseen twist would come out of nowhere.
My first observation was how visually impressive the movie was. Just from the first shot of the hands gripping onto the ladder, and then the follow-up wide shot of the chase across the roof with downtown San Francisco in the background I knew we were in for a visual treat. And the film definitely delivered on that front, both with its awesome use of color and lighting, and also the fantastic choice of locations.
I must say that I rarely like plots where marital infidelity plays a role. And I had some similar concerns here, as Scottie begins to fall for Madeleine. It bothered me with the way he's just going to go after his buddy's wife and, apparently, not even feel the slightest tinge of guilt for doing so. But thankfully that whole element of the plot didn't last through the entirety of the movie.
He really was kind of an idiot, though. From the beginning, he should've left Madeleine alone and gone after Midge. She clearly was in love with him, and she also was charming, intelligent and had an attractiveness that was just a little off-beat, but in a good way. She also was a talented artist and enjoyed the movies, a girl who seemed like a pretty rad and laid back chick that you could just relax and enjoy a comfortable life with. THAT was his girl, not the blonde bombshell who was half his age!
When Madeleine commits suicide--supposedly--I really was not prepared for that. It was one of those twists that just leaves you going, "Wait . . . what? Where do we go from here with the story?" It really was shocking. And then they have that strange court scene, which I didn't really understand. What kind of court proceedings would happen right there at the mission, seemingly the day of the accident, with a jury that spends no real time deliberating? I dunno, that whole thing seemed weird and like it wasn't something that was actually part of our justice system.
Once Madeleine resurfaced--now as Judy--I didn't recognize her at first. She really did look pretty different, and I think I probably like her Judy look more than her Madeleine look. And then when we have the scene where she is writing the letter, and revealing the murder plot, I was confused because I was thinking, "Oh, the body he threw must have been a dummy then. . ." But if that was the case, the police obviously would've realized it wasn't a real body. I actually had to pause the movie and read the plot summary on Wikipedia up to that point to fully understand the reveal.
But after I did understand it, I was like "Holy shit, this just got good!" But then I felt like the rest of the film fizzled out just a little. I guess I wanted more plot, not just Scottie acting creepy as shit trying to dress Judy up as his dead ex-lover, and then the finale at the mission. I mean, it was okay. But the ending didn't really land with me and cost the movie a point or so. With a more thrilling conclusion, I really think I'd be pretty over the moon for this one.
As it stands, I thought it was a really good movie, both on a narrative level and a technical level. But an ending that, in my opinion, doesn't quite live up to the promise the rest of the film makes might hold it back from being one of the GOATs. I think I'm going to go 8/10 on this one . . . maybe 8.5/10.