Blu-Ray: North By Northwest

North By Northwest
1959 - MGM
Directed By Alfred Hitchcock



SYNOPSIS

A New York ad exec Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for a non-existent government agent by a group of foreign spies and gets kidnapped. Their leader, Phillip Vandamm (James Mason,) tries to get rid of Thornhill several times as they pursue each other across the country
Along the way he falls for Vandamm's girlfriend (Eva Marie Saint,) who's really a government agent. Hero and villain clash on Mount Rushmore.



MY THOUGHTS

Much has been said and written about this legendary classic so I'll leave that to the experts, keep it short, and focus more on the 50th Anniversary Edition Blu-Ray.

The film is usually ranked as one of Alfred Hitchcock's best and rightfully so. It is a perfect blend of all of Hitchcock's strengths as a filmmaker. Action, humor, suspense, intrigue are all there in equal portions, and many of his reoccurring themes are present. Hitch made this fun, breezy film between the much more serious and darker films Vertigo and Psycho.
Cary Grant strengths as an actor are all on display here. He's a tough action star, a romantic, and as silly as he was in his screwball comedies in the 30's all in the same film.

The Blu-Ray

When you see a classic film on Blu-Ray, it's like you're seeing it again for the first time. I've seen this film several times over the years. Seeing it now is like a whole new experience.
So much more detail is revealed than ever before. The notable set-pieces in the film (the crop-duster scene, the Rushmore battle, Cary Grant getting shot, etc.) looked great on TV, but on Blu-Ray with an HD television they look jaw-droppingly amazing. Hitchcock was a very visual director who knew how to fill the entire screen with his story and this becomes even more evident on Blu-Ray. Hopefully more of his films will be released soon.

Warner Brothers (who now owns the film) is known for stocking their classics on DVD/Blu-Ray to the gill with extras.. and North By Northwest is no exception.
The disc case is bound in a book-like format with 45 pages of information and photos arranged in a very appealing way.
The disc extras are exhaustive!

1. Cary Grant: A Class Apart - A 1:30 look at his life and career with extensive clips from dozens of his best films. It covers both his on-screen and off-screen lives.

2. The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style - Several film directors discuss their love of the master and the many reoccurring themes in his work. Hitchcock himself is also featured in some classic interviews

The only problem with this documentary is they only focused on films and clips that are currently owned by Warner Brothers. When they discuss his obsession/use of blonds I automatically thought of Vertigo (owned by Universal) and it wasn't even mentioned. Rights to show film clips cost money, but the documentary didn't even discuss his pre-Hollywood films which are practically all in the public domain and free to use.

3. North by Northwest: One for the Ages

4. Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North by Northwest (from an older DVD release)

These two documentaries track the making of the film and its innovations as well as it's influence. Remarkably there is little overlap in information in the two. One For the Ages features new interviews with cast members Eva Marie Saint and Martin Landau and screenwriter Ernest Lehman.

5. Ernest Lehman also provides commentary for the film.

6. An isolated music score. You can essentially watch the film as if it were silent, with Bernard Herrmann's amazing score playing without dialogue or sound effects covering it up.

You also get a stills gallery, the original trailer, (hosted by Hitchcock (see above)) a re-release trailer, and a TV commercial.


This is an absolutely amazing package and is definitely worth the money and the time to go through all the special features. Let's hope all classic films can have a Blu-Ray release as amazing as North By Northwest.