# I saw Vertigo for the first time recently and I didn't like it! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2013, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995 "2013-04-06T06:30:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/21 "2013-04-07T01:17:49Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > And for laughs, have a look at de Palma’s later film _Body Double_ which is even closer in premise to _Vertigo_ but with… > > …a happy ending! Well, sort of, but IIRC the guy didn’t know he was supposed to pull out for the money shot… I…I can’t quite believe I typed that. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/22 "2013-04-07T01:25:53Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Am I the only one here who actually likes Hitchcock in general, but pretty much disliked Vertigo in its entirety? Not at all. I agree it is slow, at times markedly dull and the characters aren’t appealing. It strikes me as one of those _films_ that some critics and students of _film_ think is just _marvelous_ for reasons only the true cognoscenti can appreciate. _Vertigo_ is toward the bottom in my rankings of Hitchcock movies, above _The 39 Steps_ but well below _Frenzy_. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/23 "2013-04-07T02:05:37Z")
Well, I wouldn’t say I love Hitchcock, though Psycho did terrify me and Rear Window, I thought, was great. But Vertigo I’d agree had very little to recommend it. I should probably add that the technical details of filmmaking and specifics of camera shots, while I’m sure they affect me as a viewer, don’t do much for me. Whether a movie’s cinematography is innovative or even really good doesn’t really factor in to my judgment of the movie in general, which has much more to do with story, plot, characters, and acting–and Vertigo wasn’t very good on any of those counts. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/24 "2013-04-07T02:06:55Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Already noted in post #4 :smack: Was it the first or did it simply popularize it? I have a nice DVD edition with lots of extras, but I don’t recall if they said specifically, and the Wiki article actually isn’t precise on the topic. At least I managed to add the “Citizen Kane effect” (it’s boring because everybody’s done it) comment… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/25 "2013-04-07T04:29:10Z")
I think it is about Scotty being a creeper. He has the perfectly beautiful Barbara Bel Geddes after him, and instead he chases the young murder accomplice. The part is for an older man chasing a much younger woman, and perhaps Stewart is too old, but it is a film about obsession ruining a man’s life. And Hitch’s obsession with San Francisco. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/26 "2013-04-07T05:02:12Z")
I agree with the OP. This is a ridiculously over-rated film. I too have never understood why folks rave about it. I prefer most other Hitchcock films to this one. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/27 "2013-04-07T05:16:57Z")
So most of the praise and love for Vertigo comes from the technical film-making aspects of it such as choices of color, camera angles, etc, and not so much for the others? I guess maybe if I went back and watched it again looking for that kind of stuff I might appreciate it more. If the whole thing about Stewart’s character being weird and creepy and not connecting was intentional, it just didn’t work for me as a positive for the movie. I just couldn’t honestly believe or understand why he was so obsessed and in love and whatnot. I guess it failed in making me believe in his obsession/love/whatever-you-want-to-call-it, and so it didn’t work. But maybe after another viewing or two I might see it in a different light. Glad I’m not the only one who was disappointed with it after hearing so much great stuff. I think I’ll give Rear Window a try for my next Hitchcock film. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/28 "2013-04-07T06:28:51Z")
For what it’s worth, it’s not really true that the people who liked it praised it mostly for its technical aspects: > **[Vertigo](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vertigo)** > > Hitchcock's romantic story of obsession, manipulation and fear. A detective is forced to retire after his fear of heights causes the death of a fellow officer and the girl he was hired to follow. He sees a double of the girl, causing him to transform... > **[Vertigo (1958) - External reviews - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357/externalreviews/?ref_=tt_ft)** > > Vertigo (1958) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more... > **[Vertigo (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_(film))** > > Vertigo is a 1958 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The story was based on the 1954 novel D'entre les morts (From Among the Dead) by Boileau-Narcejac. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor. The film stars James Stewart as former police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson, who has retired because an incident in the line of duty has caused him to develop acrophobia (an extreme fear of heights) and vertigo, a false sense of rota... Click on some of those reviews. It tends more to be praised for its “deconstruction of the male construction of femininity and of masculinity itself.” Personally, it barely makes it into my top 100 favorite films. The people who like it so much though think that it has deep psychological insights. This is one of those cases where you have to be convinced that you know what the typical male attitude toward women is and understand how the movie comments on that attitude. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/29 "2013-04-07T14:02:42Z")
Oh, good, it’s not just me. I’ll watch \*The Birds \*anytime it’s on, and most of Hitch’s other work, but I’ve never understood the critics’ reaction to _Vertigo_. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/30 "2013-04-07T15:36:36Z")
Films that seem to say something about the filmmaking process itself are like catnip to critics. If the plot of the film has a male-female relationship that works as an analogy to the relationship between a male director and his leading actress whom he molds into, or reimagines as, a fantasy persona, that’s even juicier. And to top it off, it’s Hitchcock with another beautiful blonde, so critics can talk about a presumed fetishization process at work in the making of the film. The wiki entry for _Vertigo_ tries to trace how the critical reevaluation of the film started and it points to Canadian critic Robin Wood in the late 1960s, but Jean-Luc Godard had put the film at #3 on his list of “Ten Best American Sound Films” in an essay in _Cahiers du Cinema_ back in 1963 - which might be a more likely origin. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/31 "2013-04-07T23:14:33Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > :smack: > > Was it the first or did it simply popularize it? I have a nice DVD edition with lots of extras, but I don’t recall if they said specifically, and the Wiki article actually isn’t precise on the topic. > > At least I managed to add the “Citizen Kane effect” (it’s boring because everybody’s done it) comment… I don’t know if it’s the first film or the first major film to use it. It’s certainly the earliest fil that _I’ve_ seen with it, but that doesn’t prove anything. The Wikipedia page i link to doesn’t say it’s the earluiest, but doesn’t list any earlier uses. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/32 "2013-04-08T01:09:01Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > (“Vertigo”) tends more to be praised for its “deconstruction of the male construction of femininity and of masculinity itself.” And that’s why I go to the movies. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/33 "2013-04-08T04:55:33Z")
To be fair that zoom technique thingy was pretty damn cool and I can’t really say I understand _how_ exactly it is done. But sadly it didn’t seem to do much for me in the context of the movie at all. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/34 "2013-04-08T05:24:17Z")
That’s not why I go to the movies either, Jackmannii. But then look at it this way: I made a list a few years ago of the 250 films usually considered the best ever, based on a combination of critical and popular opinion. I’ve seen a little more than two hundred of them, and I try to see more whenever I get the chance. A number of them strike me as quite overrated. I just saw _Shane_ for the first time. It doesn’t seem to me to be that great either. _Vertigo_ at least seems to me to be a reasonably good movie, although I might rate it as being no more than my 100th favorite film. I’m not sure that I would rate _Shane_ as being more than my 500th favorite movie. Yeah, the supposed psychological insights in _Vertigo_ don’t really seem to me to be that deep, but it’s pretty good in other ways. In any case, my point was that critics do not think that _Vertigo_ is a great film because of its clever camera work. They think that it makes some important point about “the male construction of femininity and . . . masculinity itself,” whatever that means. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/35 "2013-04-08T13:29:09Z")
[Roger Ebert’s comments](http://www.cbsnews.com/8334-207_162-57578074/roger-eberts-10-greatest-films-of-all-time/?pageNum=11). He listed it in his top 10 for the recent Sight and Sound survey of top movies. > [@](#): > > ‘Vertigo,’ which is one of the two or three best films Hitchcock ever made, is the most confessional, dealing directly with the themes that controlled his art. It is _about_ how Hitchcock used, feared and tried to control women. He is represented by Scottie (James Stewart), a man with physical and mental weaknesses (back problems, fear of heights), who falls obsessively in love with the image of a woman – and not any woman, but the quintessential Hitchcock woman. When he cannot have her, he finds another woman and tries to mold her, dress her, train her, change her makeup and her hair, until she looks like the woman he desires. He cares nothing about the clay he is shaping; he will gladly sacrifice her on the altar of his dreams. I was never a fan of Vertigo. I may go back to it and reevaluate it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/36 "2013-04-08T22:55:46Z")
I guess I’m totally against the consensus on this one, because I’m NOT a big Hitchcock fan, but I DO like Vertigo. And not for any of the psychological mumbo-jumbo above, or even for the innovative camera-work. I’m not smart enough to understand the former, and I don’t know enough about movies to appreciate the latter. I just like the clever plot and original structure. You get what seems like the big reveal about 2/3 of the way through, and then what seems like a conclusion (the first “suicide”), and then things go on for another 45 minutes and you get the _real_ conclusion and you’re back where you thought you were 45 minutes ago. Plus as an inveterate tourist I like the SF tourist attractions, not as backdrop but as important plot elements. Not a very deep analysis, I suppose, but hey, I got my rental money’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/37 "2013-04-09T00:06:35Z")
I give Vertigo credit for one of the best opening sequences ever. It’s not my favorite Hitchcock movie but it is beautifully shot. I prefer the ones with more action and more humor (The 39 steps, North by Northwest). ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/38 "2013-04-12T00:38:40Z")
At this point, it feels like I’m thread-shitting to say that I think the film is absolutely brilliant, perhaps my favorite film made in the sound era and one which I never ever get tired of. Here’s an excerpt from [my blog](http://filmatelist.blogspot.com/2010/10/apt-pupil.html) on the subject: > [@](#): > > Today is the 50th Anniversary of the release of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). It also stands as perhaps my favorite American movie of the sound era. It’s hard to tell when it took this particular position for me, but as time has passed, Hitch’s other films, as amazing as they are, recede in importance to me, while Vertigo still stays so immediate and real and palpable. > > Don’t get me wrong—I’ll very happily sit down to consume North by Northwest or Strangers on a Train or Rear Window again and again. But there’s something about Vertigo that is uniquely compelling. Perhaps it’s the fact that it largely eschews his trademark gallows humor, which makes his other films undeniably entertaining, but which I suspect also acted as a defense mechanism so we don’t get too close to his sensibilities. But Vertigo cuts to the bone, and is as raw and open an exposé of Hitch’s pathologies as one can find in his body of work, without allowing levity to distract or dilute its impact. > > Perhaps I love it so much because it acts as a perverse metaphor for the task of film director—a man crafts a woman to his exact specifications of performance: how to walk, dress, behave, with every small little detail meticulously, even obsessively, stage-managed. It’s all about power and control and is a highly revelatory insight into Hitch’s own self-awareness of how pathological a director can be—especially one who embeds so many details and subtexts so carefully in his films as he. > > But the truth is, it isn’t the story of one man manipulating a woman to his specifications—it’s the story of two. And that’s another thing I like about the film, because the “mystery” of Madeline is revealed far earlier than would be typical for most films. Some take issue with Judy’s flashback letting the cat out of the bag so early. But it’s a smart decision, because Hitch’s MacGuffin in Vertigo is the murder plot altogether. It’s completely incidental to what really matters in the film, for the story is Scottie’s obsession and how it dooms him. But unlike most of Hitch’s films, there is no resolution, no tying up of loose ends, no comeuppance for the killer. Just the figure of Scottie at the top of the church tower, devastated and alone. > > I think I also have grown to love the film more since I moved to the Bay Area. For San Francisco, to me, is a city of history and romance, memory and heartbreak, and it’s hard not to drive through it without encountering some of the stops in Scottie’s journey through the film… One thing that _Vertigo_ isn’t that almost all of Hitch’s films are is Fun. It’s not. It’s high-strung, deeply emotional, broadly operatic, and like an exposed nerve when it comes to burrowing into the psychological nature of these two very damaged people. It has amazing technical artistry, true, but it offers far more than that–it’s a real window into human nature and neuroses, and a fearless and heart-breaking character study. You don’t have to like “La Boheme” or Crime and Punishment or _Nude Descending a Staircase_ either. But they’re all masterpieces. And so is this. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/39 "2013-04-12T01:45:54Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > To be fair that zoom technique thingy was pretty damn cool and I can’t really say I understand _how_ exactly it is done. But sadly it didn’t seem to do much for me in the context of the movie at all. The effect is accomplished by the camera moving forward (dolly in) while simultaneously zooming out. You can approximate the effect with a video camera by zooming out while you walk forward. ---
**Author:** ![David\_H\_Singanas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@David\_H\_Singanas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_H_Singanas)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995/40 "2013-04-16T09:56:39Z")
None of the respondents mention that Kim Novak was at the apex of her career as a sex object. I would bet that a lot of male teens were very interested in Novak’s bust and much less interested in the mystery or in James Stewart’s role of older man obsessed with a young blond. I personally was in love with Novak as well as Greta Garbo during my highschool years. But I agree. A second viewing of Vertigo in later years did not shed new light on the story’s meaning or message. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-vertigo-for-the-first-time-recently-and-i-didnt-like-it/654995.md?page=3)