How does the Film 'North by Northwest' Convey Espionage from the Essay

How does the Film 'North by Northwest' Convey Espionage from the 1950's - Essay Example The two powers never had direct military action, but the period contained sets of high tension crises and race for supremacy. The Cold War era affected the culture of the US. Soldiers who served in the World War II returned home and started new lives and families. They started new businesses and the trade expanded along with job opportunities. The 1950s witnessed major events that was a huge leap and changed our culture and lifestyle. President Harry Truman approved production of the Hydrogen Bomb. 1951 saw the introduction of television and in 1958 the US launched its first satellite Explorer I. National Airlines started domestic passenger flights in 1958. These are major developments in a decade and have affected our culture and society. These were baby steps and foundation of events that led US to supremacy in culture, economy and military as well. The atomic explosions in the 1950s demonstrated power of the US and the Soviet Union and the events were the cause of escalation of th e Cold War. The decade included the Korean War and the beginning of the space race. Along with these developments intelligence gathering accelerated and espionage activities increased. The decade was very active and it had profound effects on the culture as well. The culture of the time is fairly represented by the films. The paper, however, is aimed at studying the culture of the decade along with examination of Alfred Hitchcock’s film North by Northwest in context with the espionage activities at the time. Before examining the film in detail, it is necessary to give a brief plot along with introduction to characters. Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock was an English born film director. His films usually centered on murder or espionage, with deception and chase sequences. Mistaken identity was common in his films. An innocent man wrongly accused of crime or espionage was a theme in many of his films. His greatest strength was his expertise in building and maintaining suspense . He used very elaborate with editing techniques and used camera viewpoints for his visual effects. The soundtracks were carefully chosen and edited.1 His thrillers maintained reality and believability which was different than other spy films of the time. Alfred Hitchcock was the main spy film director who made this genre popular in the 1930s. The Cold War era increased desire of audiences to see spy thrillers and the 1950s saw a major growth in this genre. Alfred Hitchcock made many of the spy films in the decade and depicted the espionage activities along with culture. Government operations along with operational style and activities of intelligence agencies were shown in the films. Spies and their work were mostly fiction but the films gave audiences an insight into the profession. Furthermore, the Cold War saw an increase in real world espionage activities and the intelligence agencies were very active at the time. The films, especially by Alfred Hitchcock came close to depictin g real world scenarios in espionage and were liked by audience for being suspense spy thrillers. North by Northwest â€Å"North by Northwest† was a Cold War spy story released in the year 1959 by Alfred Hitchcock. The cast included Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. The film’s theme is of mistaken identity with an innocent man chased by an unknown organization. The main theme of this motion picture is espionage activity and shows some insight into government intelligence agen