In a Northwesterly Direction: Cultural Landscapes in
by Bill Lorand -- (Geog 110, Spring 2008)
>> Introducting...VistaVision
From the criss-crossed cartographic lines that announce the title sequence of "North by Northwest" to the climax atop Mount Rushmore, geographic references take center stage and fill every inch of the big screen in director Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 feature film. Behind the pop culture curtain of the film's technically incorrect directional title and MGM's ultra-new "VistaVision" film process lies the geographic heart of this feature, a "picturesque romp" across the American landscape. And it is through the lens of cultural landscape, defined as "all the built forms that cultural groups create in inhabiting the Earth" (Jordan-Bychkov, 2006) that the film reveals itself most forcefully.
While Hitchcock often preferred the control of the studio environment, location shooting (and by extension, landscape shooting) were paramount in early discussions for the film, where Hitch would riff on ideas like "I've always wanted to do a murder at the U.N.," and "I've always wanted to do a chase across Mt. Rushmore." (McGilligan, 2003). (These early ideas both made the final cut, but created friction from authorities who were resistant to have such macabre events stain their symbolic landscapes). According to Hitch's instructions to screenwriter Ernest Lehman, the plot was to move "In a Northwesterly Direction" (the working title), starting in New York: "With all the instructions Hitchcock had given him, Lehman felt he'd been given a treasure map with a whole array of Xs to explore. He took a two-week tour of New York, Chicago, and Mount Rushmore to get a feeling for the locales Hitchcock had specified." (McGilligan, 2003)
>> Dateline New York
For his first film for MGM, Hitch conceived a cinematic painting of expensive and exclusive places, and a portrayal of jet-set lifestyle that happens in elitist landscapes. What better place to start than with the skyscrapers of New York City, with its urban skyline symbolizing the power and dominance of America's financial capital. And the film's protagonist, ad executive Roger Thornhill (played by Cary Grant), echoes the urban cool of the landscape, whether he's directing a cabbie around Madison Avenue or gliding gracefully through the lobby of the Plaza Hotel. When the character's story arc, which can be summarized as "an ingenuous American saddled with mistaken identity," removes him from this urban milieu, the theme becomes one of a man dislocated from a landscape that has become integral to his cultural identity.
When Thornhill is taken out to the Townsend country estate (get it? "town's end") on Long Island, we see a radically different geographic settlement form. Replacing the dense vertical spaces of Manhattan are impressive and manicured grounds spread out horizontally, a place Thornhill later recalls as "a large, red-brick house with a curved, tree-lined driveway". And when Thorhill's shoe-leather investigation takes him to the United Nations building back in New York, Hitch revels in the stately architecture of yet another symbolic landscape. Yes, the director got to film his murder at the U.N., but reportedly had to shoot the interior shots with a concealed camera, as international authorities remained sensitive to the landscape's portrayal in the popular media.
>> First Stop: Sweet Home Chicago (plus Dead End: Indiana)
As the plot sends Thornhill on the run, we are reminded of another aspect of the American landscape, that it reflects a culture that is always "on the move." In his "Northwesterly" travels, we see the characters in trains, planes and automobiles throughout the movie. (A "Northwest Air[lines]" sign also makes its way into the frame at one point) On the way to the exclusive Ambassador Hotel in Chicago, our hero (foreshadowing the moves of James Bond) takes time to explore the metaphorical velvet landscape of Eva Marie Saint, before an encounter with a cropduster that produces "one of the most recognizable [scenes] in all of film." (Chandler, 2005)
When Thornhill attempts a rendezvous in an Indiana cornfield "in the middle of nowhere" to try and discover the owner of his mistaken identity, he is at the zenith of his dislocation from his home landscape. The flat, nearly featureless dust-bowl represents the polar opposite of the nucleation and high density of urban New York, and provides a land-use pattern that lies in stark contrast to that represented by the character's "civilized" coat and tie. And Hitch is very aware of the contrast, replacing the bombastic sounds of the city with more than seven minutes of silent screen. Ironically, this scene was filmed far from the Midwest, among corn "planted" by the filmmakers in the California desert on the outskirts of Bakersfield.
>> Diversion: Architecturally Digesting the VanDamm House
Another settlement form created for the film was the villainous VanDamm House, though it was mostly designed on studio sets and situated using matte photography tricks, as its site close to Mt. Rushmore was a precarious one: "Far from being an area where a spy could build a mountaintop mansion, the top of the monument was considered so ecologically fragile...Building anything up there was absolutely out of the question." (McLendon, 2001)
Again, Hitchcock's intention was to elicit the idea of elitist landscape, this time using the fashionable forms of Modernist architecture: "It almost had to be a Modernist house: the rocky hills of South Dakota didn't lend themselves to traditional architecture. And...it had to be...obviously in the same class of expensive good taste as the Plaza [Hotel]...Hitchcock knew that there was only one way to fill these requirements - a Frank Lloyd Wright house....In 1958, when 'North by Northwest' was in production, Frank Lloyd Wright was the most famous Modernist architect in the world. His magnum opus, 'Fallingwater' was conceivably the most famous house anywhere...If Hitchcock could put a Wright house in his movie, that mass audience was going to get the point [about elitist landscapes] right away." (McLendon, 2001)
But getting the renowned architect to design the house himself proved to be too costly, and would have run counter to Hitchcock's notorious style of absolute control. So Hitch had MGM set designers build the house in "Wright's manner". Here's the architectural digest that provides the details of site and situation: "The final design was of a hilltop house of limestone dressed and laid in the manner made famous by Wright, along with a concrete cantilever under the living room area. The house was correctly situated just under the top of its hill; Wright was famous for saying 'of the hill, not on top of the hill'. The house's massing - heavy with limestone in the rear where the house met the hillside, light with glass and concrete at the free end of the cantilever - was also correctly Wrightian."
>> End of the Line: Mount Rushmore:
After having his characters run through a myriad of distinctly American landscapes, where more appropo for Hitchcock to turn for the climax of his thriller but to that symbolic stone monument to the U.S. Presidents that sits atop Mount Rushmore. And for Hitch, it was also a culmination of sorts: "For years he had wanted to use Mount Rushmore as a setting and 'North by Northwest' was the picture that could accommodate it." (Chandler, 2005). This symbolic slab, emblematic of the American notion of the people's role in "completing" the landscape, truly embodies "the cult of bigness" on the visual landscape of pop culture outlined in David Lowenthal's seminal 1968 article "The American Scene."
But in order to film the American scene on this mythical site, "The location manager had to promise there would be no depiction of violence atop the 'Shrine of Democracy' or even on the slopes, in order to secure the necessary filming permissions from the National Park Service." (McGilligan, 2003) This promise was hard to fulfill, as the script called for the villian's henchman to fall off the monument to his death; so the Park Service ended up revoking the permits and the scrambling climax atop Rushmore was actually filmed on studio sets with huge plaster set pieces standing in for the granite monument. And yet the results look seamless, the scene's impact was immediate and visceral on movie audiences, and its effect drove them to visit the living landscape that they had seen portrayed on screen: "The great success of 'North by Northwest' caused renewed interest in Mount Rushmore, and brought millions of new visitors to the area." (Chandler, 2005)
>> Coda: The Legacy of Landscape
The July 1, 1959 world premiere of "North by Northwest" was held in Chicago, an ode to the Northwest culture region that is represented on screen. It is a quintessential American picture in subject matter, rhythm and tone, ironically directed by an Englishman now firmly planted on this side of the pond: "From his first day in Hollywood, Hitchcock has sought to bring an American authenticity to certain films...[in] 'North by Northwest,' the director proved increasingly adept at conveying a trenchant vision of his adopted homeland." (McGilligan, 2003)
But not everyone was thrilled with his treatment of the American landscape: One critic even advised Hitchcock to "go home to England and show a murder at Buckingham palace instead," lending weight to the notion that members of a culture group can get quite protective when it comes to their homeland.
Now widely regarded as one of Hitchcock's "masterpieces," 1959's "North by Northwest" can be seen as a clear forerunner to the James Bond films as well as the Mission Impossible and Jason Bourne movie franchises, stock full of location shots and action stunts. While these movies and others continue to reflect cultural landscapes as they criss-cross the globe, perhaps Hitchcock and the landscapes that live "North by Northwest" deserve part of the credit for that.
List of Sources
Chandler, Charlotte. It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock, a personal biography. First Edition. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Destination Hitchcock: The Making of 'North by Northwest'. Dir. Peter Fitzgerald. Perf. Eva Marie Saint. DVD. Fitzfilm, 2000.
Jordan-Bychkov, Terry, Mona Domosh, Roderick Neumann and Patricia Price. The Human Mosaic: A Thematic Introduction to Cultural Geography. Tenth Edition. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 2006.
McLendon, Sandy. "Modernism at the Movies: The Vandamm House in 'North by Northwest'." JetSetModern.com. 05 June 2001. 11 Apr 2008 <http://www.jetsetmodern.com/modatmovies.htm>.
McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. First Edition. New York: Regan Books, 2003.
North by Northwest. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason. DVD. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 1959.
"North by Northwest." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). 2008. IMDb.com, Inc.. 12 May 2008 <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125/maindetails>.
Romkee, Jen. "North by Northwest Film Locations." The Ultimate Cary Grant Pages. CaryGrant.net. 11 April 2008 <http://www.carygrant.net/reviews/NxNW%20Locations.html>.