Finally the greatest movie ever is actually recognized as such!

This is spot on. Rear Window is my favorite Hitchcock–I just can’t shake how it hit me the first time I saw it–but the score cannot hold a candle to the Vertigo score, which I listen to all the time.

-xtien

Spice Girls or gtfo.

The ride cymbal in “Hey Jude” begs to differ.

Dr. Strangelove forever

Also, I would love to see Sight & Sound do “Greatest Movies Since 1970” list.

I’m a huge old movie nerd and a massive Hitchcock fan and … there’s no just way Vertigo is the greatest movie ever made.

It has outstanding performances from the leads, many classic scenes, and one of the all-time great scores. But its plot is utter nonsense – it makes Prometheus look coherent. More importantly than that, Smittie is a woefully underwritten character. In fact, he’s not actually a character at all, just a single character attribute, Obsession. Everything he does, he does because the movie – not his character, the movie – requires him to be Obsessed. So Obsessed he’ll be, even if it makes no sense for who Smittie is alleged to be.

It’s also, as its fans like to point out, “languorously paced.” Which would be fine if Hitchcock had been good at languors, but he wasn’t. It’s frankly sluggish in spots, giving everyone ample time to reflect on just how silly the plot it as we watch a car drive very slowly around San Francisco one more time.

There’s no difficulty in listing better Hitchcock movies: Rear Window, Pyscho, Strangers on a Train, North By Northwest, Shadow of a Doubt, even The Birds.

Not to mention movies by other directors. Hell, I just saw The Crying Game again for the first time in 20 years, and it’s better than Vertigo.

“Sluggish!” You go too far, sir. Entirely too far. It’s a languid fever dream. I wouldn’t cut a second.

At least as I remember seeing it 25 years ago.

“Smittie” totally sucked. Point granted.

“Scottie” on the other hand–the character played by James Stewart? He was terrific. Richly drawn, you sense from the very beginning that there’s something a little off with him, even when he’s flirting with Midge or getting the details of a messy situation from his buddy Gavin.

In conclusion: I don’t know what movie you saw, or if you’ve seen Vertigo.

It’s spectacular.

Best movie ever made.

Sorry!

Only 4 movies between 1980 and today made the cut. And one of them is Mulholland Dr? Yikes.

Any movie without a music number should automatically be off the list as clearly The Blues Brothers is the greatest movie of all time.

With No Country for Old Men on the list of No Score Movies, I’m not sure you should be so quick to dismiss them.

You made me come back just to say… espresso.

Vertigo is probably the most disappointing movie I’ve ever seen. I was expecting one of the best movies of all time, and instead I got an average Hitchcock movie. Strangers on A Train and Psycho are much better.

I saw Vertigo for the first time a few months ago. It was alright! Definitely too much driving around. I really liked the scenes with Midge, and the whole dynamic of those characters. The whole secret plan that the bad guy had was pretty stupid. Seems hard to defend as the best movie ever made.

For years people have been telling me they just don’t see what’s so great about ‘Citizen Kane.’" Now they tell me they just don’t see what’s so great about “Vertigo.” My answer will remain the same: “You’re insufficiently evolved as a moviegoer.” Or, more simply, “You’re wrong.”

Let’s close by returning to “Vertigo.” Every time I’ve gone through any film a shot at a time over several days, someone in the audience has noticed something amazing. When I was at the University of Virginia, we got to the point when Scottie (James Stewart) rescues the unconscious Madeleine/Judy (Kim Novak) from San Francisco Bay and takes her unconscious back to his apartment. He gently undresses her and puts her into bed.

“His action is incredible,” I said. “He’s taking charge of an unconscious stranger.”

“She’s not unconscious,” said a voice in the dark.

“What?”

“She’s pretending. That wasn’t Madeleine attempting suicide, but Judy playing Madeleine. She’s pretending to be unconscious.”

And Scotty saved her, did not ravish her, treated her gently, and tucked her in. That may help explain why the next time we see her, coming into the living room and joining Scottie, she has a glow in her eyes. Madeleine went into the bedroom, and Judy came out. It’s then she starts to love and pity him. Oh, this is an even deeper film than it seems.

From Ebert’s blog yesterday. Take that, haters.

Like I said, it’s a great movie, but it is not the greatest movie ever.

For a refreshing change, I 100% agree with Ebert. Vertigo is not a movie you can absorb fully within a single viewing. Watching it once gives you the story, which is tricky enough to follow that it demands a certain level of attention, aside from the occasional mental note that Barbara Bel Geddes was super-foxy in glasses. (That last part might just be me.)

It’s only on subsequent viewing that the real magic comes out, and this is where Vertigo separates itself from other Hitchcock films. Movies like Rear Window and Psycho are great, great movies, but they’re also essentially entertainments. In both of those examples, it’s arguably the first viewings that are the most impactful because you don’t know the movies tricks yet. And while I’ve watched each multiple times, it can’t ever compare to the first time watching Psycho when I was young enough to somehow not have known about any of the major twists.

I also find it weird that, as Ebert puts it, 8 1/2 is now the “go-to” Fellini film. Not because it isn’t great, because it is - one of my all-time faves, in fact - but it’s also a movie that requires a fair bit of context in order to appreciate. Even the title (a sly reference to Fellini’s previous six movies, plus two shorts and a collaboration, therefore making 8 1/2 his eighth-and-a-half movie) requires context to appreciate. It’s also the final break from neo-realism, not just for Fellini, but for film as a whole. Fellini provided the blueprint for how creative directors could break free of the artistic constraints of neo-realism, but that impact is definitely lessened if you’re not familiar with the constraints in the first place.

The porn version of Rear Window was really good.

You mean Body Double?