Meaning and Ideology of Vertigo - Essay Example

MEANING AND IDEOLOGY OF VERTIGO Meaning and Ideology of Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock directed and produced the Vertigo film in 1958 (Berman 2000). The Vertigo draws a huge audience and impact in the American film industry, which have made it of the greatest films ever made across the globe after displacing Citizen Kane film in 2012 (Smith 2012) according to the British Film Institute (BBC NEWS 2012). The Vertigo revolves around the life of a desperate and insecure man who suffers from the affliction of love and deaths resulting from love afflictions (Vertigo) (Filmsite 2014). The film follows the man’s obsession to eliminate his vertigo, which leads to the dominant themes of male domination, obsessional love, female victimization, and feminism (Filmsite 2014). Indeed, the film stars Scottie who acts as a retired police detective (Berman 2000) who goes to early retirement due to his phobia of heights and vertigo that had led to the death of a colleague (Samadder 2012). This forced him to take up the job of a private investigator with a mission of following Madeleine who manifested weird behaviors courtesy of the possession by the spirit of Carlotta Valdes (Samadder 2012). It is quite clear that Vertigo had political and social implications since it used classic narrative devices to establish deeper communication with the audience. Ideally, Hitchcock who directed the film was a political figure who depicted modest liberalism. Moreover, since Hitchcock was not a socialist, the film manifested capitalism, which is a political aspect (Nicholson 2011). The film presents class problems that emanated from the pressures of the class situation in America in the 1950s (Nicholson 2011). By defining the stressing lives of Judy, Madeleine, and Scottie, the film shows how individual stresses depict class and class struggles (Nicholson 2011). From the film, we can establish that we can understand cinema better as a series of representations shaped by culture, history, and ideology rather than as a direct reflection of reality. Indeed, Vertigo shows cinema as an exploration and commentary on the nature of representation that defines an active male protagonist and a passive female spectacle. The film focuses on feminist perspectives. Indeed, by the time of producing the Vertigo, gender was a major issue across the globe especially in America (Busam 2014). This aspect is clear in the entire film as depicted by the male and female characters. In the film Vertigo, the main characters, Scottie and Madeline/Judy sought to establish sexual domination for socially recognized gender roles (Busam 2014). Moreover, through the character of Midge, the Vertigo manifests the ideology of a submissive woman (Busam 2014). This leads to the aspect of power and freedom where the film confirms that men enjoyed various favors in the past but such favors or male domination do not exist in the modern life. Indeed, Scottie envies his past life when men possessed immense power and freedom over women. Moreover, Pop Leibel who owned a bookshop confirms to Scottie when he was researching about Carlotta Valdes’ history that the man who abandoned Carlotta and kept her child used corruption to do that since men had the power and freedom over women (Busam 2014). Through the character of Scottie, the film manifests the loss of male dominance in the 1958’s (Busam 2014). Pop Leibel’s assertion defines the lack of male dominance and power in the modern life compared to the past when men had immense privileges over women. Most specifically, the last scene of the film shows Scottie overcoming his vertigo when he made it to the top (Blakesley 2004, p. 8) but also shows how his world fell apart courtesy of Judy tumbling out the window (Busam 2014). Ideally, Judy led to Scottie’s downfall, as Scottie had to go back for her, which made him lose the power he possessed in Judy leading to lack of male dominance. In fact, Scottie repeated the words freedom and power as he struggled to pull Judy up the stairs of the bell tower. The film depicts gender problem and downward spiral of males as female characters take advantage of the weak male characters (Busam 2014). For instance, Madeline takes advantage of the weak-minded Scottie by maximizing on his insecurities and weaknesses (Busam 2014). Scottie fails to regain his control and masculinity over Judy and Madeline respectively (Blakesley 2004, p. 10-12). In fact, Scottie had an obsession to possess and change Judy to suit his need to exert his control over Judy’s identity and regain male dominance (Busam 2014). At the time of producing the film, the society adopted a conservative desire to promote male domination and female subservience as depicted by Scottie who fosters male dominance (Busam 2014). The film reflects the diverse ways in how Scottie was speaking to the men and how the female characters were speaking to women of the 1950s (Busam 2014). The film presents a strong female character in Madeline who was sexy, complicated, and taking advantage of Scottie to avoid criminal liability without Scottie’s knowledge (Busam 2014). The film has downward spiral as the main image that defines women as the cause of mans downfall in the entire film (Busam 2014). Nevertheless, the film demeans female dominance by suggesting that Madeline is not real. This makes men (Scottie) enjoy the prospect of the absence of a strong woman and depicts the inexistence of a strong woman (Blakesley 2004, p. 10-12). This helps in showing that women cannot succeed in evading their ideological gender roles in the modern times. The film Vertigo presents the ideology of criticism (Wexman 2004). Indeed, the film succeeds in defining the correlation between film aesthetics and the ideology of criticism as it attracted diverse opinions from cinema scholars (Wexman 2004). Indeed, since the Vertigo became the greatest movie of all times, it is subject to criticism that has led to significant conflicting critical writing (Samadder 2012). Some artists have criticized Hitchcock by arguing that the film manipulates the codes of pure cinema with abject masterly, which defines Hitchcock’s creativity (Wexman 2004). Other artists criticize the film’s value in how it presents an objection to women power in the society that forms the basis of cinemas codes of voyeuristic pleasure (Wexman 2004). The film equally manifests feminist critics who have been playing an important role in advocating for women involvement in leadership in the modern society (Wexman 2004). The critics of the film Vertigo oppose the film and Hitchcock’s position on gender, class, and ethnic differences. This criticism shows how the society has been unable to address class, gender, and race and manifests the themes addressed in the film. Works Cited BBC NEWS 2012, Vertigo is named greatest film of all time, retrieved 22 August 2014, < http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-19078948> Berman, E 2000, Hitchcocks Vertigo, retrieved 22 August 2014, < http://www.psychoanalysis.org.uk/epff3/berman.htm> Blakesley, D 2004, Defining film rhetoric: The case of Hitchcock’s Vertigo, retrieved 22 August 2014, < http://parlormultimedia.com/burke/sites/default/files/blakesley-VertigoProof.pdf> Busam, S 2014, Vertigo Spiral of Gender Confusion, retrieved 22 August 2014, Filmsite 2014, Vertigo (1958), retrieved 22 August 2014, Nicholson, M 2011, ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents Class Struggle,’ Monthly Review, vol. 63, no. 7. Samadder, R 2012, My favorite Hitchcock: Vertigo, retrieved 22 August 2014, < http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/aug/10/my-favourite-hitchcock-vertigo> Smith, M. 2012, Vertigo ousts Citizen Kane for best movie of all time in critics poll, Washington. Wexman, V 2004, The Critic as Consumer: Film Study in the University, Vertigo, and the Film Canon, retrieved 22 August 2014, < http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft5h4nb36j&chunk.id=d0e1800&toc.depth=1&brand=ucpress> Read More