North by Northwest (1959)

North by Northwest (1959)

-A ‘innocent’ New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Ernest Lehman

The trailer to this film is really appealing to the audience, as it gives the audience a sense of what will happen in the film. This is effective as it grabs the audiences attention, which makes them want to watch the whole film.
North by Northwest is an archetypal thriller because it has a lot of features of a classic thriller.There are a lot of fast pacing and frequent action in North by Northwest, for example at the beginning of the film when Cary Grant who plays Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a secret agent. This has a fast pace as two strange men then grab him and force him into their mansion, which confuses Roger, as he doesn't know the person they keep calling by.Resourceful heroes do spoil the plans of the more powerful villains, as he does in fact save Eve Kendall, who is played by Eva Saint, from being taken away by the villains. This adds to the classic thriller, as the villains plans end up being ruined in the end. 
A thriller is a villain driven plot, with obstacles that the hero must overcome. This is shown in North by Northwest as there is a McGuffin. A McGuffin is a element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot which is on most classic thrillers. The McGuffin is what the spies actually care about and would almost sacrifice anything to have it, no matter what the McGuffin is, even though the audience don't care about it. The McGuffin could also represent power and survival. Although towards the end of the film, the McGuffin is normally forgotten.
Hitchcock said that thrillers allow the audience to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like. This is achieved throughout the whole of North by Northwest.

Devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used in North by Northwest. In the auction scene, as Roger Thornhill creates suspense due to the fact that Eve Kendall doesn't know why he is in the auction and what he is about to do.

The crop duster scene is a great example of an iconic action sequence as Alfred Hitchcock believed the stress on the visual makes the cinema accessible in different languages. Hitchcock likes the subjective viewpoint. Close ups on a faces, to shots of what they're viewing then back to close up so that the characters reactions can be seen. He said he wants to transfer the menace that appears on screen into the mind of the audience.

Mt Rushmore is a symbol of order as Hitchcock uses Roger Thornhill to throw everything into disorder. Audiences often need relief from suspense, a change of pace and also a bit of a laugh.