Vertigo Analysis

Hitchcock’s film ‘Vertigo’ revolves around retired detective John ‘Scottie” Ferguson, who develops vertigo after witnessing the death of a policeman. Asked by acquaintance Gavin Elster to watch over his thought-to-be possessed wife, he follows Madeline and saves her after throwing herself into the San Francisco Bay. They spend the day together and go to Mission San Juan Bautista, where they confess their love for each other. Suddenly, as Madeline runs up the bell tower, Scottie is halted by his acrophobia and sees Madeline fall to her death. Scottie becomes depressed, and catches sight of a woman who looks like Madeline. She told him her name was Judy Barton, and everything is revealed.
For me, the characters stole the entire film . Scottie’s obsession with Madeline later in the film had me on the edge of my seat. He had become so incredibly enthralled with the Madeline he knew, that he would go to the extent of making Judy mimic her entire appearance to be like her, even to the point of accidentally calling her Madeline. His decent into madness was only accelerated after starting to see Judy, moving from depression into insanity. At the introduction
of her, as the audience, we sympathise with this woman, but when her secret is revealed I was left not knowing what to think. I found myself even sympathising with her during the scenes where Scottie would mould her into Madeline. Even after we know she was in on the murder, we see how
One scene in particular that I found memorable is after Scottie leaves Judy’s apartment, and Hitchcock frames the back of her head perfectly, to maintain a strong focus as she turns her head, as she looks straight into the camera lens as the screen turns red.
This is meant to be the reveal, but we are only two thirds through. I found myself identifying with Judy whilst watching her go down this hole to hell, and sympathising with her struggles in becoming a clone of Madeline. Another shot which resonated with me was when Judy comes out of the bathroom, looking exactly like Madeline, and there is a line of light over her, which makes her look unearthly, as if she was a ghost, as if she was the spirit of the now deceased Madeline. We where put in Scottie’s perspective in that moment and I feel we saw exactly what he
saw.
Beneath all of this another layer. Hitchcock was known to be overtly controlling of his actors, particularly women. His female characters where the same in characteristics and appearance; They where all blonde and quiet, restricted to their costumes and mesmerised men. We can see how his controlling nature shows thorough in Scottie’s character, and we are put in the position to sympathise with Judy’s, even though she was an accessory to the murder.
There is so much more I loved about ‘Vertigo’ that I could go on forever, but personally, the characters of Judy and Scottie stuck with me, and learning more about Hitchcock and how his character was shown through Scottie’s was such a great addition to such an interesting film.