Episode 33: Vertigo
Justin:
This is not a new revelation in any way, but after watching VERTIGO and PSYCHO in consecutive days, it’s undeniable to me that Alfred Hitchcock is the king of the twist ending.
In the case of the film we covered in this episode, VERTIGO, watching it for the first time left me writing the word “what” with like seven “a”s three separate times. Simply put, both the big reveal and the final sequence left me stunned. Hitchcock is just not interested in giving you clues for where his story is going - he’d rather just surprise you! And the thing that makes it even more elite is that the twist itself is believable! So it’s something you can’t see coming and yet makes perfect sense once you know what it is! And when you add all that together, you realize what an incredibly difficult thing that is to accomplish. And he did it again and again.
To prove this idea, I also rewatched PSYCHO, a movie I hadn’t seen in probably fifteen years. This means I of course knew the twist, so I spent much of the time trying to find ways that Hitchcock tipped his hand. There’s…. Nothing. It’s a nearly flawless movie with absolutely no way to know what’s coming until it does and yet again, it makes all the sense in the world! But for all the moments leading up to the end… It's all just a mystery. What a goddamn genius.
This just made me think about all the great twists we’ve seen since then and how much those filmmakers owe to this OG of suspense. Sometimes there’s clues, sometimes there’s not. Sometimes you can kinda guess what’s happening and sometimes you’re floored. And sometimes a movie tries to be cute and clever and just falls on its face in the process (I’m talking about SPIRAL). But the one thing they all have in common is they’re following in Hitchcock’s footsteps, trying to master the craft like he did.
And I guess I can’t be too hard on these other directors when they drop the ball and pale in comparison to the master of suspense. He’s the best there ever was at it. And the only way we’re getting another Hitchcock is if there’s an even bigger twist than even he could have come up with.
