Films like Hitchcock’s North by Northwest were innovative in their time and set the benchmark for future action and suspense films to follow, but films of this quality are rarely made today.
People these days expect films to move at a frenetic pace with no more than 5 minutes between ‘action’ scenes. action plots and characters are almost always the same: a down on his luck hero (a cop with a drink problem perhaps), an evil bad guy, and an independent sassy love interest (an ex-wife perhaps). As the plot and characters are almost always the same, films don’t need to waste time developing them. We already know how it goes.
We don’t even need convincing actors or good dialogue. The “actors” only need to deliver sound bites and look good while they do it. At some point the hero will make an intolerable speech about goodness, truth or justice, and will be involved in a chase of some kind (car chase if possible). Otherwise, the stunt double spends more time on camera than the lead actors do.
For the penultimate action scenes, the make-up department smear some dirt and blood on the lead actors and his love interest, carefully done to ensure they still look alluring. There might even be wet T-shirts. The supporting cast should include at least one sleazy female and a mutilated corpse. The overall effect is often is so slickly produced, it’s hard not to be impressed.
If North by Northwest seems, by comparison, dated and slow with an insufficient number of explosions, it’s because nobody makes this kind of film any more. There are no sleazy females or dismembered bodies. There is only one explosion. The love scenes are tame. Cary Grant isn’t a maverick cop and he doesn’t
make speeches about truth, or justice. The dialogue is excellent.
Although it may be a little dated, North by Northwest is still a pleasurable viewing experience that doesn’t assault your senses and insult your intelligence.
