Strait of Hormuz and Syria

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><br /><div style="color: blue; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Geo – Strategic Puzzle - Black Gold </b></span></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div style="color: blue; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE SYRIAN, </b><b>LEBANESE</b></span><span style="font-size: large;">, </span><span style="font-size: large;"><b> IRAN - STRAIT OF HORMUZ  USA CONNECTION </b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBwJ3Ya4zl3wa_3z9OLOwQXL1demT_OLHiB4rMG2oebzt9r2zSFgplQlYrXcei9Ji3inChJCz3UkQvifIOM0O1ovfAwW2D6qyk1aB6qxtZl9e6XWF_QaRNQGuO0T5wjjexjcako3NuNMI/s1600/irimages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Recent war mongering between IRAN and the USA regarding the blockage of the STRAIT OF HORMUZ and the attempt by foreign entities to tumble the SYRIAN regime are most likely connected and part of broader geo strategic plan, orchestrated by SAUDI ARABIA, the USA and to some extend the UK. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>NEW ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST REGIME IN SYRIA IN ORDER TO REACTIVATE SAUDI ARABIA’S AND USA ARAMCO  TRANS ARABIAN OIL PIPELINE? </b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Many geo strategic analysts and political experts are at odds over the reason why even the UNITED STATES, a key ally of ISRAEL, is pushing for a regime change in SYRIA, even if such move will probably turn SYRIA into a fundamentalist Islamic State at the doorsteps of ISRAEL. It could be argued that the USA and SAUDI ARABIA prefer a SUNNI fundamentalist Islamic government in SYRIA in order to eliminate IRANIAN influence in SYRIA and at the same time reactivate, for geo – strategic reasons, SAUDI ARABIA’S  ARAMCO company constructed TRANS ARABIAN OIL PIPELINE “TAPLINE” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">(See<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1662211321" style="color: red;"> </a><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2011/12/syria-cause-and-effect.html" style="color: red;">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2011/12/syria-cause-and-effect.html</a></span><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOhwxGh3t7CPx2x_6KMx9lJw0XR9Qy1Q2IDPZ5wJRZE_6CgtY1taV4CVuuejSwSQs4cA3heJ1uzVQNTCZmiWtX_1NdJKQE1bCc5cWDJCsE32afPpoyDaoC2nIRagwga6dtaAOuHZwjBBw/s1600/Tapline.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOhwxGh3t7CPx2x_6KMx9lJw0XR9Qy1Q2IDPZ5wJRZE_6CgtY1taV4CVuuejSwSQs4cA3heJ1uzVQNTCZmiWtX_1NdJKQE1bCc5cWDJCsE32afPpoyDaoC2nIRagwga6dtaAOuHZwjBBw/s400/Tapline.png" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Tapline route from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon, crossing Jordan,Syria and the Golan Heights </span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>REACTIVATION OF PIPELINE WOULD ELIMINATE THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Reactivation of the pipeline would eliminate the geo strategic importance of the STRAIT OF HORMUZ and thus IRAN’S leverage over the passage, through which 35% of the world’s crude oil is shipped. Needless to say, a blockade would have enormous global consequences. Sunni SAUDI ARABIA and Shiite IRAN have been at odds with each other over theological as well as economic issues for centuries (See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Hormuz" style="color: red;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Hormuz</a>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8FgUrb9RBE7EPQjp-2FztSuyP9jipw0WzJQBxRXnpwKY-FPh-2P7sPtYFoCvKqvtM5k6YdHlM9pPWo6jh1hJQAuNULBX_mKu7Xh2dY9UtiVKe-HDM_fpU-cVd3_uG4oavdH21OSeurk/s1600/Strait_of_Hormuz_map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8FgUrb9RBE7EPQjp-2FztSuyP9jipw0WzJQBxRXnpwKY-FPh-2P7sPtYFoCvKqvtM5k6YdHlM9pPWo6jh1hJQAuNULBX_mKu7Xh2dY9UtiVKe-HDM_fpU-cVd3_uG4oavdH21OSeurk/s400/Strait_of_Hormuz_map.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Reactivating the Tapline in Dhaharan would reduce the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz. Looking at the map one also realizes why Saudi Arabia intervened in Bahrain for it could not afford to loose Geo strategic control over the  peninsula.   </span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>PIPELINE ROUTE LEADS THROUGH PRO IRANIAN SYRIA, THE GOLAN HEIGHTS AND LEBANON, THUS A SAUDI FRIENDLY REGIME IS REQUIRED IN SYRIA IN ORDER TO ACTIVATE THE PIPELINE </b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJdBTyDNM6YLm3JeEC4xkf9ou6Cs9rvjp3JqfurvYMeluJMF4SR7Z2maf4UQcw3GF_NplNihyphenhyphenz3nfHckZLKWYRBA-aGLJuwZVO-CyIyxCJ_CzKpuJcDbnISkBiVkc0hhVrwPTtR-x5fUE/s1600/golan-heights-closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJdBTyDNM6YLm3JeEC4xkf9ou6Cs9rvjp3JqfurvYMeluJMF4SR7Z2maf4UQcw3GF_NplNihyphenhyphenz3nfHckZLKWYRBA-aGLJuwZVO-CyIyxCJ_CzKpuJcDbnISkBiVkc0hhVrwPTtR-x5fUE/s200/golan-heights-closeup.jpg" width="156" /></a>In order to reactivate the TAPLINE however, SAUDIA ARABIA and its allies need to eliminate IRAN’S influence in SYRIA and stronghold in LEBANON, which is also home to pro IRANIAN HEZBOLLAH, because the route of the pipeline leads over SYRIAN terrain, ISRAL occupied GOLAN HIGHTS, ending in the Mediterranean oil terminal ZAHRANI, south of the city of SAIDA in LEBANON.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since SYRIA fosters close eco – political ties with Shiite IRAN, SYRIA will hardly permit the reactivation of the “SAUDI” Tapline on its soil. Not to mention the GOLAN HEIGHTS, which had been seized by ISRAEL during the 6 day war and which are now monitored by United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, UNDOF. Israel and Syria technically are still at war, thus permitting reactivation of the Tapline on the Syrian side of the seized Golan Heights is out of the question, for it would need the consent of both, ISRAEL and SYRIA. (See: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War" style="color: red;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War</a> )</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">By tumbling the SYRIAN regime however, SAUDI ARABIA would be able to expand its influence in SYRIA and LEBANON, and thereby gain control over the pipeline and direct access to the MEDITERRANEAN SEA oil terminal south of SAIDA, from where crude oil could be shipped to EUROPE and the USA, at 40% less transport costs than by oil tankers passing through the SUEZ Canal in EGYPT. One could now keep on speculating why the “Arab Spring” in EGYPT did not turned out the way it was expected to be expected by the protesters!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>GEO STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE OF IRAN’S NATURAL RESOURCES AND GAS PIPELINE DEAL BETWEEN IRAN SYRIA AND IRAQ</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some analysts argue that Iran is bluffing with its threat to block the strait, for it can’t afford not to export its own oil resources which also have to pass through the strait. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">What many forget though is that IRAN is not solely relying on oil export but also proves to be a major gas exporter, thus in August 2011, IRAN, SYRIA and IRAQ signed a gas pipeline deal which will transport Iranian gas via the new pipeline trough SYRIA to EUROPE. The deal benefits EUROPE and would also give SYRIA more strategic importance. Negotiations on constructing an IRAN - CHINA oil pipeline, although shelved for now, could easily be reactivated in case CHINAS demand for crude is increasing. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>REGIME CHANGE IN SYRIA WOULD DIMINISH RUSSIA’S IMPORTANCE AS GAS EXPORTER AS WELL AS NAVAL PRESENCE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA </b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">By tumbling the ASSAD Regime, SAUDI ARABIAN and USA would also cause a serious economic as well as strategic blow to RUSSIA who’s only naval base in the Mediterranean Sea is located in the SYRIAN port city of TARTUZ. But asides from the military strategic point of view it would also mean that RUSSIAS gas exportation to the EU and other parts of the world would suffer a blow, because dependence on RUSSIAS gas supplies to various regions would diminish. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Looking at the SYRIAN issue from the natural resources point of view it becomes evident as to why the sudden change in strategy by key world players.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>REGIME CHANGE IN SYRIA, FULL SCORE FOR ISRAEL? </b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi926p8wbgDBiVG0MPMAt26vw6MCYhfv4zvdD54G3euEpc606tZyIN1S8yZr0Rgb7v43oYYueLGuFpq9uFRbkXKQ5gjY3VCj03ZdXsbG2QtWFiHWc07M3KANBt84xoZXCbmzkj3RNnKDD4/s1600/tributaries.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi926p8wbgDBiVG0MPMAt26vw6MCYhfv4zvdD54G3euEpc606tZyIN1S8yZr0Rgb7v43oYYueLGuFpq9uFRbkXKQ5gjY3VCj03ZdXsbG2QtWFiHWc07M3KANBt84xoZXCbmzkj3RNnKDD4/s200/tributaries.gif" width="133" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Freshwater Supply For Israel</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">As for ISRAEL a regime change in SYRIA in the end might not be such a bad deal after all. SAUDI ARABIA and ISRAEL have been fostering unofficially economic ties for quite some time because of both countries close ties to the USA and vice versa. ISRAEL would in most likelihood once and for all be able to keep the GOLAN HIGHTS, something the ASSAD regime would never have accept and always made it a precondition for peace talks with ISRAEL. For ISRAEL keeping the GOLAN HIGHTS on the other hand had been always a priority, not so much for strategic advantages or prestige, but for its freshwater supply, a key issue which is hardly addressed in mainstream media.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The minute SYRIA’S IRAN ties are cut; HEZBOLLAH would lose its influence in LEBANON and thus ease tensions on ISRAEL’S northern frontier. SAUDI ARABIA on the other hand would probably make sure that the SAUD ARABIAN friendly fundamentalist Islamic regime in SYRIA would keep its distance to ISRAEL in order to assure permanent oil flow from SAUDI ARABIA to the Mediterranean Sea, thus making SAUDIA ARABIA and its alley the USA an even bigger player in the oil market. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Links to related topics: </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="background-color: yellow;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: yellow; color: red;"><a href="http://pipelinesinternational.com/news/iran_iraq_and_syria_sign_on_for_pipeline_to_europe/062853/#">http://pipelinesinternational.com/news/iran_iraq_and_syria_sign_on_for_pipeline_to_europe/062853/#</a></div><div style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: yellow; color: red;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: yellow; color: red;"><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/12/the_pipeline_paradox?page=0,0">http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/12/the_pipeline_paradox?page=0,0</a></div><div style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: yellow; color: red;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: yellow; color: red;"><a href="http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=52026">http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=52026</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: yellow; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

Strait of Hormuz and Syria

Geo – Strategic Puzzle - Black Gold THE SYRIAN, LEBANESE, IRAN - STRAIT OF HORMUZ  USA CONNECTION Recent war mongering between IRAN and the USA regarding the blockage of the STRAIT OF HORMUZ and the attempt by foreign entities to tumble the SYRIAN r…

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Deadly Obsession: Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO

<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>by guest contributor R.D. Finch</i></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Q461R4v6TaoOiZsNb__lq68SMG7t1x6WOayngCaFhVkhfU2MWnIGy6ZoP_1OmzNlbfTSTC9aXvLv8MwQVI4sbq5-sADXjD3FcW0bxx6vYYDBryIM0fdWvmKyscbhnKaamrzd0GCZmK_J/s1600/RD+vertigo+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Q461R4v6TaoOiZsNb__lq68SMG7t1x6WOayngCaFhVkhfU2MWnIGy6ZoP_1OmzNlbfTSTC9aXvLv8MwQVI4sbq5-sADXjD3FcW0bxx6vYYDBryIM0fdWvmKyscbhnKaamrzd0GCZmK_J/s1600/RD+vertigo+8.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">"What's that old Oscar Wilde thing? 'Each man kills the thing he loves...' That I think is a very natural phenomenon, really."</span></i><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: small;">Alfred Hitchcock, in a 1963 interview</span></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;">In his fifty-five year long career in films, Alfred Hitchcock directed sixty-seven movies. At least a dozen of these are bona fide masterpieces, and about an equal number are excellent movies that fall just short of the masterpiece mark. By any measure that's an impressive record, one unequaled by any other filmmaker I can think of. Even more impressive is that Hitchcock's pictures are not rarefied works of art of interest mainly to aesthetes and film scholars, but full-blooded movies that appeal equally to ordinary filmgoers looking for accomplished entertainments and to cinephiles looking for an intellectually and artistically stimulating film-viewing experience. Of all Hitchcock's pictures, none managed to combine these two modes—entertainment and art—so skillfully, so intriguingly, and so pleasingly as his 1958 film <i>Vertigo</i>.</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"> Most people are familiar with the plot of <i>Vertigo</i>. A retired San Francisco police detective, John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart), psychologically traumatized after a rooftop chase to apprehend a criminal ends badly, is targeted as a dupe by his old college friend Gavin Elster, who exploits Scottie's crippling fear of heights to bring off an intricate scheme to murder his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak). The film's plot is a clever one and since this is a mystery thriller with hints of the supernatural (can Madeleine really be the reincarnation of her ancestor, as she believes?), neither the audience nor Scottie realizes what is really happening until quite far into the film. This allows the viewer's understanding of the situation to be manipulated, just as Scottie's is, to create a mood of suspense and, after the truth is revealed to the viewer about three-quarters of the way through the film, for that suspense to be prolonged as the film proceeds in a completely unexpected direction right up to its shock ending.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvzUFAe1aYlBpATnyvewIqIhDd87pwj_0Fq4llaSlw5J3YxCFT5sEG4wLdKrkcg0B1uwRWunVg11MMEUDKSXdgqmDOdTdEXEPuH5KJsfi5WkB4FN0aovjxlOshmns6lqcB_XIxmR_57Vfg/s1600/RD+vertigo+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvzUFAe1aYlBpATnyvewIqIhDd87pwj_0Fq4llaSlw5J3YxCFT5sEG4wLdKrkcg0B1uwRWunVg11MMEUDKSXdgqmDOdTdEXEPuH5KJsfi5WkB4FN0aovjxlOshmns6lqcB_XIxmR_57Vfg/s320/RD+vertigo+5.jpg" width="243" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">Such a narrative strategy requires that the viewer's reactions be precisely guided at every turn, and nobody was more expert at this than Hitchcock. Well known for his need for absolute control over all aspects of his films from conception to release, Hitchcock was by temperament the epitome of the film auteur, the director who puts his stamp on every element of his work. The way he accomplished this was by meticulous attention to detail. Because each shot was storyboarded in advance, the final film essentially needed no editing and thus was immune to tampering with by producers and studio executives. Like most filmmakers who began by directing silents, Hitchcock viewed cinema storytelling as essentially a visual process, with dialogue, music, and sound used to augment the film's imagery. Because the way he chose to show the action—placement and movement of the camera, the use of visual effects that formed his famous set pieces, the exact way images succeeded one another to form a spatial and narrative continuum—was the product of his own imagination, his films always seem expressions of a personal and very distinctive vision. Many directors have made movies in the Hitchcock style, but I can't think of a single one of these films that on close viewing could actually be mistaken for the work of the master himself.<br /><br />Because of the convoluted and deceptive nature of its plot, <i>Vertigo</i> is even more dependent on Hitchcock's almost obsessive attention to detail as a means of controlling audience response than any other film he made. But in <i>Vertigo</i> he uses his working methods as much more than merely a practical means of telling a story in his own way. He amplifies his control-freak approach to directing until it becomes an all-encompassing aesthetic used to suggest a great deal more than is apparent in what at first seems little more than a deftly contrived suspense melodrama. It is this effect of using every device in his vast panoply of cinematic tricks to evince the complex psychological and thematic undertones of the film that makes <i>Vertigo</i> Hitchcock's greatest achievement. It's a haunting film that can be watched again and again and still continue to entertain and thrill and deliver new revelations.<br /><br />Perhaps the most powerful and resonant thing about the film is the way Hitchcock uses repetition to emphasize the idea of doubling. Elements in the first part of the film recur later in the film, and elements in the later part of the film mirror those in the first part, giving the film a strange pattern of symmetrical associations. Scottie seeks out places where he saw Madeleine in the beginning of the film and revisits them later in the film: the missions, the florist's shop, the museum, Ernie's restaurant. He watches Judy at her hotel window the same way he watched Madeleine at her hotel window earlier. His transformation of Judy into Madeleine exactly duplicates Elster's transformation of Judy to pass her off as his wife.<br /><br />Near the end of the picture Hitchcock expresses the complete fusion of Madeleine and Judy, of past and present, of Scottie's memories and his dreams, in the most striking of several memorable set pieces in the film—a long, passionate kiss between Scottie and Judy after he sees her for the first time as the fully re-created Madeleine. The camera swirls, Scottie and Judy swirl, and the room appears to revolve around them. The background fades from Judy's room to the stable where Scottie and Madeleine kissed for the last time and finally back to Judy's room again, while Bernard Herrmann's glorious music—clearly inspired by Wagner's <i>Tristan und Isolde</i>—surges and pulses in unison with the intense emotions of the passage. It's the most rapturously erotic scene in a Hitchcock movie since the kiss in <i>Notorious</i>.</span><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhASvzr1-h-M6YtpfVA_PbFsm8wxDUuQFoVPi2O4mx85GoDSZlJ2nlWEIoi-bLYuWRtj9wFgFuFp947ix19nr22Fe1YS4-2pEV8iwjXBbLPStuCB0frUKFcK2N8iiT7V5XAsr4mdheRHvPd/s1600/RD+Vertigo+3+b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhASvzr1-h-M6YtpfVA_PbFsm8wxDUuQFoVPi2O4mx85GoDSZlJ2nlWEIoi-bLYuWRtj9wFgFuFp947ix19nr22Fe1YS4-2pEV8iwjXBbLPStuCB0frUKFcK2N8iiT7V5XAsr4mdheRHvPd/s1600/RD+Vertigo+3+b.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hitchcock was famous for his lack of interest in the acting of his performers, and for saying that actors should be treated like cattle, that is, prodded into doing what he needed for the shot he was working on. This was perhaps a holdover from his silent days, when facial expressions, body language, and movement were more important than character development and line delivery because the director essentially created the performance visually, through the staging and editing of the film. This is one reason experienced theater actors often found working with Hitchcock such a frustrating experience. Yet for all this, in <i>Vertigo</i> he gets two remarkable performances from his stars.<br /><br />It is well documented that Kim Novak was not Hitchcock's first choice to play Madeleine/Judy; Vera Miles was. But by the time he was ready to begin shooting, Miles was pregnant and so somebody else had to be cast. I have no idea how he hit on the idea of casting Kim Novak, but I did notice that just as Elster and Scottie transform Judy into the image of Madeleine, Hitchcock almost seems to transform Kim Novak into an uncanny image of Grace Kelly, right down to her hair and makeup, and her accent and diction. I can't help wondering if one of the reasons <i>Vertigo</i> seems to be Hitchcock's most personal film is his own understanding of the compulsion behind Scottie's Pygmalion-like behavior.<br /><br />At any rate, Novak, who under the right conditions could be a much better actress than she is generally given credit for, does a tremendous job as the mysterious, spaced-out Madeleine. But her more demanding incarnation as Judy is even more impressive. If Madeleine is an enigma, Judy is a fully defined character. Hitchcock and his writer, Samuel Taylor, make a daring narrative decision that happens soon after Scottie meets Judy. The conventional thing to do would have been to conceal the truth about the murder plot from the audience until the end then reveal it to the viewer and Scottie at the same time, in the kind of twist ending typical of films of this kind. Instead Hitchcock and Taylor devise a situation in which Judy writes a letter to Scottie explaining everything to him then impetuously tears it up before he sees it.<br /><br />The audience is now aware of the true nature of events even if Scottie isn't, and the entire tone of the movie has changed. Now that we know the truth, the point of view shifts much more in Judy's direction. The crux of suspense is no longer what really happened, but how long will it take Scottie to figure it out and what will be his reaction when he does. What all this means for Novak's performance is that she can no longer play her character as an enigma, but must externalize the conflict Judy feels about what she has done to Scottie and the ambivalence she feels about his controlling attitude. Novak's role immediately becomes much more demanding, and she handles the requirements of those demands admirably. If only she looked less like a caricature of a rather common shopgirl!<br /><br />But the real center of the movie is James Stewart's Scottie, a character who inspires Stewart to give one of the most remarkable performances of his career. We tend to think of the screen persona of James Stewart as that of an optimistic, boyish everyman. But in truth Stewart's characters often had a dark side to them, a willfulness that threatened to cause the passion of their emotions to spill over into obsession. We tend to forget this because until <i>Vertigo</i>, even though that dark side might threaten to take over whatever character Stewart was playing—George Bailey or even Jefferson Smith for Frank Capra or one of the revenge-driven men in the Westerns he made with Anthony Mann, for instance—at the end of the film his character always managed to pull back from the brink before he went over the edge. Hitchcock himself perceived the latent darkness in Stewart's screen image and used it as a sort of dangerous recklessness in the characters Stewart played in <i>Rope</i> and <i>Rear Window</i>. But in <i>Vertigo</i>, for the first and only time I can think of, Stewart's character is completely overcome by the darkness in him and propels the film to a catastrophic conclusion.<br /><br />During the course of the picture, Stewart must convincingly go through a series of changes that illustrate the stages of the disintegration of Scottie's personality. At the beginning of the movie, he seems like the familiar James Stewart. He has experienced a traumatizing event, his life has been drastically changed by it, and he must live with the handicap of disabling acrophobia. But his resilience and sense of proportion intact, he seems able to cope with the changes in his circumstances. As he reluctantly follows Madeleine, he finds his detective's curiosity about this mysterious woman aroused. Curiosity soon turns to fascination and then to passionate love. At this point he is already beginning to lose his objectivity as he desperately tries to rationalize Madeleine's delusional behavior.<br /><br />After Madeleine's death, he is a broken man, a state he conveys in his scenes in the mental hospital through his dazed expression and total lack of affect. If he seems to have regained a precarious sense of balance after several months of treatment, he begins to lose it as soon as he first spots Judy. As he grows closer to her, he progressively loses control of himself until he has become an emotional juggernaut moving inexorably toward the annihilation of both himself and the object of his love. This idea that external and internal forces could collude in such a way to transform a person's ego into an unstoppable engine of destruction is a chilling one indeed.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpiNl0Djp-SxMcLF7OPyWZmjxRhZDFv7AaDfJH1qNYFdFHJadf5Egp6OKAvAPc9d3aNlpHrOu7TIISMR8uAovvwHNhO39J7iG4u8CwhcpEyyHb2fXT_2ECCT0qqvLu96G4NYuF02Ou7SH/s1600/RD+vertigo+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpiNl0Djp-SxMcLF7OPyWZmjxRhZDFv7AaDfJH1qNYFdFHJadf5Egp6OKAvAPc9d3aNlpHrOu7TIISMR8uAovvwHNhO39J7iG4u8CwhcpEyyHb2fXT_2ECCT0qqvLu96G4NYuF02Ou7SH/s1600/RD+vertigo+9.jpg" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By the film's conclusion, Hitchcock has carefully guided us to a place where he is at last able to make the point he has been aiming for all along: the fine distinction between passion and obsession, between real life and dreams, between creation and destruction. The death of Judy at the end makes real the fake suicide that was staged for Scotty's benefit earlier. What began as make-believe has taken on a terrible life of its own and become reality, a reality born of the destructive potential when love overpowers reason.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">~ </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><i>A nearly life-long cinephile, <b>R. D. Finch</b> lives in rural Northern California. His favorite films are the classics (roughly 1930-1980), both American and foreign. His blog,<a href="http://themovieprojector.blogspot.com/" style="color: #990000;">The Movie Projector</a><span style="color: black;">, was honored with two CiMBA Awards in 2010 from the Classic Movie Blog Association: Best Film Review (Musical or Comedy) for his post </span></i><span style="color: black;">Love Me Tonight (1932)<i>, and Best Classic Movie Article for his piece </i>The Best Fred Astaire Musicals Without Ginger Rogers. </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRnTmRO1yjFf66xDkJjVVVGxWhfpebXHMz7G6WoPVXm9PV1LDeJz7KSV_g3gt-yyAR_OV8J5C3iaDc2LeQgo9azZkZ4PKlbgxey9WqoVrCKKK5sPKjO8F7pcIqxJrKBy73Uh2jZb0YFb0/s1600/The+Movie+Projector+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="77" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRnTmRO1yjFf66xDkJjVVVGxWhfpebXHMz7G6WoPVXm9PV1LDeJz7KSV_g3gt-yyAR_OV8J5C3iaDc2LeQgo9azZkZ4PKlbgxey9WqoVrCKKK5sPKjO8F7pcIqxJrKBy73Uh2jZb0YFb0/s320/The+Movie+Projector+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div></div>

A Month of Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock Bernard Herrmann James Stewart Kim Novak R.D. Finch Vertigo Deadly Obsession: Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO

by guest contributor R.D. Finch"What's that old Oscar Wilde thing? 'Each man kills the thing he loves...' That I think is a very natural phenomenon, really."Alfred Hitchcock, in a 1963 interviewIn his fifty-five year long career in films, Alfred Hitc…

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