Vertigo Questions for Monday

1) Why does Scottie become so obsessed with changing Judy’s appearance to conform to his image of the dead Madeline?  What is the real image that Scottie idealizes?  

            Scottie becomes so obsessed with changing Judy’s appearance to confirm to his image of the dead Madeline to come to terms with his guilt for his hand in Madeline’s death. Scottie blames himself for Madeline’s death because he was unable to overcome his acrophobia and therefore failed to save Madeline from dyeing. When he found Judy, Scottie sought to have the opportunity to re-write history and this time save Madeline. Scottie forces Judy to embody Madeline in order to bring back the woman he loved and failed to save, Scottie does not love Judy but only idealized her for her potential to replace his beloved Madeline. The real image Scottie romanticizes is that of the fictitious Madeline that Judy merely masquerades as.

2) How do we as the audience feel about the way Judy looks?  What do we want her to look like?  What do you think this means?

            The audience sees Judy as a realistically pretty woman, while her Madeline persona is intangible and undeletable. The audience feels that Judy looks attractive and although Madeline is considerably more attractive she is only a fabrication of a man trying to kill his wife. We are introduced to the actress as she is masquerading as Madeline so we hold Judy up to Madeline’s impossible standards. Due to this initial appearance we subconsciously want her to continue this caliber of beauty, which shows the engrained shallowness of our society. Often we value appearance over character and our superficial nature is amplified by Scottie’s obsession with returning Judy to her initial appearance as Madeline.  

3) Discuss the resolution of the film.  Does Scottie resolve his issues by the end of the film?  In what way is Scottie still trapped at the end of the movie?  In what sense is he finally free? 

            Scottie resolves his issues by the end of the film when he finally is able to overcome his fear of heights and reach the top of the bell tower. In this very narrow view of the movie, as a simple story of overcoming vertigo, Scottie has full resolution for the movie is bookended by gaining the fear and conquering it. Yet at the end of the movie Scottie is still trapped by his obsession with Madeline for he is never able to accept Judy for who she is and make amends with her. He will now be forever haunted by his part in both covering up the true Madeline’s death and the death of his beloved Judy. The guilt he felt after he thought his Madeline had died shows his incapacity to deal with his failings and it is only logical to postulate that his part in Judy’s death would send him into another depression. Although by the end of the movie he is finally free of his vertigo and the object of his obsession, which ultimately brought him full circle to his life before the roof incident that the movie opened with.

4) Scottie tells Judy that she is his “second chance”.  In a movie that seems to be all about the present interacting with the past, what does this moment really mean?  Is it possible for Scottie to really get a second chance?  Why does Scottie repeat the refrain that “It’s too late…it’s too late”?
            In this moment Scottie reveals that he is using Judy as his opportunity to make up for his failing to save Madeline in the past, Judy is his “second chance,” to overcome his fears and be the hero. The entire movie does focus on the present interacting with the past such as Madeline fulfilling her ancestor’s past, Scottie re-living his vertigo, and Judy’s reverting back to her Madeline persona. Scottie has the chance to have a second chance with Judy but once he begins to change her into his fictitious Madeline he looses his chance for a second shot at love and dooms himself to re-live his past of being unable to save the one he loves. Scottie repeats the refrain that, “It’s too late, it’s too late,” because he has already been complicit in the murder of an innocent woman and his beloved is in fact only a fabrication that is not attainable.