MovieChat Forums > The Tourist (2010) Discussion > Total 60s homage

Total 60s homage

posted 13 years ago by m-j-mooney
4 replies | jump to latest

I'm surprised no-one has remarked on this: "The Tourist" is clearly an homage - verging on an ouright spoof - of what amounted to a 1960s genre, namely the romantic comedy/thriller romp.

Think Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" (which has a very similar plot - hapless sap meets mystery woman on train and gets embroiled in a mistaken identity chase). Think "The Italian Job". Think various Bond movies.

Sure, it has a groan-inducing denouement. Sure, it has corny acting and bad guys who can't shoot straight. A heavy who should be stroking a white Persian cat. Boat chases through Venice. Cliches all, and that's the whole point.

It's no masterpiece for sure, but I'll bet they had great fun making it, and I had fun watching it.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] kes58 13 years ago

Right idea, wrong decade. I saw this as a typical Cary Grant/Gregory Peck/Audrey Hepburn style rom-com; but from the fifties not the sixties. North by Northwest was released in 1959, and To Catch a Thief (1955) also came to mind.

When I saw the badly-made close-up of Jolie in the boat, obviously in front of a screen and with someone holding a fan just out of shot to make her hair move, I even wondered if this was done deliberately to emulate similar scenes in 50s movies.

[–] bls1-2 13 years ago

Yep, kept thinking of Cary Grant starring in it instead.

[–] sixpetite 13 years ago

To compare this movie to the classics is a travesty, but yeah I got the 50's vibe. I don't think they succeeded at all in executing it though.