North By Northwest

In North by Northwest research papers, many elements of the film can be explained. Character analysis or the directing of Hitchcock may be the focus of research. Since Paper Masters writes all their projects custom, any topic in film can be completed by our writers.

In Alfred Hitchcock's movie North by Northwest, he depicts the United States Government and their use of spies during the Cold War. When reading about the covert operations used by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War it is astonishing how little the general public knew about the affairs of the government. With the fall of the Soviet Union papers have been released by the former Soviet Union that show the behavior that was typical of the KGB at the time of the Cold War. While looking at the information given by those papers, it must be questioned how the actions of the United States Intelligence Agencies compare to that of the KGB. Since most of the actions of the CIA and FBI are not available for public knowledge we can only assume that some of what the KGB reported along with accounts from some former agents are correct. After looking at Hitchcock's depiction of the United States covert operations, it will be compared to that of the KGB and to what we know of the United States covert operations.

Hitchcock's Spy Game

In Hitchcock's depiction of the "spy game" during the Cold War, Cary Grant gets caught up in a dangerous scenario, dangerous for the following reasons:

• Grant is thought to be a spy by a powerful man who trades secrets with the Soviets during the Cold War.
• Somehow the men come under the impression that Grant is a spy that is on to their spy ring.
• The alleged spy, whose name is George Caplin does not exist; the government made him up. However, when the government makes something up they do it all out.
• Everyone was under the belief that Caplin existed because he checked in and out of hotels, left forwarding addresses, had his clothes cleaned and even had toiletries in his room including medication for dandruff.

As the movie unfolds other never before seen things about the government are shown. For instance, Grant's love interest in the movie was recruited by the government simply because she got involved with the man who was trading secrets.

Conspiracy in North by Northwest

The movie continues to show the things the government can do and how they do things as the murder and conspiracy continues. At the beginning of the movie, Professor, the man in charge of the agency that made up Caplin, turns a deaf ear on the troubles of Grant. This is enough to aggravate the movie watcher. Here is a man who is a tax paying citizen, who gets caught up in the mess that the government has made and then they do not even try to help. In fact, Professor discusses the fact that it is better that Van Dam chase after Grant rather than realize that the real spy is right under his nose.