The Voyage of M.S. Explorer to Antarctica 19/11/06 - Part 3

Penny and Jim were at my table for dinner once more, though there was no lengthy discussion today. After the meal, 'North by Northwest' was being shown in the Lecture Room. A strange choice, I thought, but a welcome one for me; it's one of Hitchcock's best regarded works. Of course, in this day and age, the laughter it evokes is not always intentional and more than one person thought it silly.

Well, yes, it is silly, but then so is a James Bond movie (I'm not rushing to 'Casino Royale'), but we forgive it because it's a James Bond movie. 'North by Northwest', as has been commented upon many times, has all the elements of a James Bond (the debonair hero, the sexy woman working for the other side, evil mastermind, double entendres, action set pieces, etc., etc.), but came well before 'Dr. No' (1962). I think it's a wonderfully written piece, with a great Hermann score and lovely cinematography.

Ernest Lehmann, the scriptwriter, consistently uses the aparatuses of our safety - the police, the intelligence agencies, even social convention - against our hero, Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant). A classic example is the auction scene where Thornhill must defy convention to avoid certain death (he is even asked by the auctioneer to 'play by the rules'). Consistently he must accept his criminal status (one thrust upon him) and break the rules in order to ultimately validate them. It is a tale of an adolescent's rebellion against authority in order to be accepted as an adult by that authority. Indeed, it could be argued that in his marriage to Eve at the end, he embraces commitment and maturity (in contrast to Bond who is the eternal boy, a kind of sexually promiscuous Peter Pan).