Top movie lists are subjective. But this is the greatest film of all time. Vertigo is set in 1950s San Francisco. The haunting shots of the city set the stage for many later films set in San Francisco. Jimmy Stewart is John Ferguson, known as Scottie, who retired from the police force because of a traumatic experience caused by Vertigo. He becomes obsessed with two women. One, who he is hired to follow around by a friend. Another, Kim Novak, who reminds him of the first woman. Scottie’s former fiance, Midge, is his constant companion on the journey. Throughout the movie, I ‘m thinking, “come on, Scottie, go back to Midge! What more do you want?” Oh well…. After a mysterious, circuitous story, the mystery is solved at the top of a bell tower at a California mission, in a massive twist. Vertigo captures haunting loneliness, summarized in this short dialogue: Scottie: “Don’t you think its kind of a waste for the two of us…” Madeleine: “To wander separately? But, only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere.”
Reflections. By RevBruce. 