North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock

                  North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock

North by Northwest is a thriller film about how a helpless, innocent New York advertising executive Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent by the name of George Kaplan. A of foreign spies called Philip Vandamm and his henchman Leonard try to eliminate Roger Thornhill , and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive. However, when Thornhill tries to make sense of this case, he is framed for murder. Now on the run from the police, he manages to board the 20th Century Limited bound for Chicago where he meets a beautiful blond, Eve Kendall, who helps him to evade the authorities. His world is turned upside down yet again when he learns that Eve isn't the innocent bystander he thought she was. Not all is as it seems however, leading to a dramatic rescue and escape at the top of Mt. Rushmore.

It was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Ernest Lehman. The stars are, Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason,

Thrillers are characterised by fast pacing, frequent action. There were quite a handful of fast paced action  in 'North by Northwest', for example, when Roger Thornhill was chased by the crop duster in the corn field would keep the audience interested as it is a very odd weapon  to kill someone with. Another fast paced action scene was when Roger Thornhill was was chased in the train station by the foreign spies. There was a lot of straight cuts which adds to the speed of the atmosphere. The literal cliff hanger at the end keeps the reader interested and think of what could have happened in the end and how they got safe. 

Thrillers include resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans more powerful and better equipped villains. In North by Northwest, Roger Thornhill was very clever in escaping from the spies in the middle of the action by running into the hands of the police.Roger Thornhill thwart the plans of the spies by pretending to be killed by blanks which is very heroic of him.

Devices such as suspense, red herring and cliffhangers are used extensively in thrillers. In 'The Birds' was an element of suspense when Roger Thornhill was awaiting the person he thought he was supposed to meet in the cornfield and suddenly this odd crop dusting plane was approaching him from afar, this creates an element of suspense as the scene was quiet with no background music and all we could hear is the sound of the crop duster getting closer and closer.A red herring was used when Roger Thornhill was shot with blanks by Eva Marie Saint in order to fool the foreign spies that Roger Thornhill is dead. A cliffhanger was used toward the end when Roger Thornhill and Eva Marie Saint  was in danger hanging off a cliff and then we get a dissolve shot to a scene where they are well and safe. This is a cliff hanger because it doesn't tell us how the got safe or what happens to the foreign spies..

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A thriller is a villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the her must overcome. In 'North by Northwest' the foreign spies drove the plot as the storyline depended on what mishaps they would make for Roger Thornhill next.