North By Northwest Film Analysis

Movies are all about taking you on an adventure. They expand our minds, they bring our imagination to life, and manipulate our emotions. Directors do this in many ways, whether they are peculiar camera angles and shots, extreme lighting, or music that intensifies a scene. If a director correctly implements these within their movie, the audience’s emotions can very easily be manipulated.

The first manipulation tool directors use is peculiar camera angles and shots. In the movie North by Northwest, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, there is a miraculous establishing shot. This shot captured the entire landscape for miles and miles. This accurately set the tone for the scene and gave you an idea of how the actor felt. Another example is
Spielberg was able to capture this in such a way that made is so intense and so meaningful that the manipulation of his audience became very simple. Shots like these can really dig deep into the emotions of an audience. Furthermore, in the movie, Raising Arizona, directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, the shots were very well done. During the chase scene, there were not many cuts. Most of the shots were elongated. The camera also seemed to be constantly moving, whether they were dolly moves or just following the car. This made you feel as if you were there with them, running away from the cops. Casino Royale, directed by Martin Campbell, is on the opposite end of the spectrum. In the infamous chase scene, the shots were rapid. In a matter of 2 minutes, there were over two-hundred shots. This scene captured our emotions very well, keeping us on the edge of our seats, waiting to see what happens. The death-defying stunts along with mesmerizing camera angles make the scene that much more easy for the director to capture the audience’s
The first example of this is in the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, directed by Steven Spielberg. In a very suspenseful scene where the aliens come to the house, the mom keeps her toddler son away from the door. In doing so, she hits the record player. The record player begins to play a very soothing song, a love song in fact. This creates a juxtaposition in the fact that during a very intense scene where aliens are coming for this lady’s son, a very soothing love song is playing. This bends our emotions because we do not know how to feel; should we feel scared because of the aliens or should we be calm because there is a love song playing? This scene sparked a whole new way to film movies by creating two different atmospheres within a scene. A second example of strategically used music is in the movie, Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg. Throughout the movie, whenever the shark is coming or is in the immediate area, this music begins to play. This music gives you chills. You never see the shark but once the music starts playing, you know something is about to happen. The director takes full control over the audience’s emotions because the scene automatically becomes more suspenseful and keeps everyone on the edge of their seat. The third and final example of emotion capturing music is in the movie, Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. The thing with