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Alfred Hitchcock's America, by Murray Pomerance
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With a sharp eye for social detail and the pressures of class inequality, Alfred Hitchcock brought to the American scene a perspicacity and analytical shrewdness unparalleled in American cinema.
Murray Pomerance works from a basis in cultural analysis and a detailed knowledge of Alfred Hitchcock's films and production techniques to explore how America of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s is revealed and critically commented upon in Hitchcock's work. Alfred Hitchcock's America is full of stunning details that bring new light to Hitchcock's method and works. The American "spirit of place," is seen here in light of the titanic American personality, American values in a consumer age, social class and American social form, and the characteristic American marriage. The book’s analysis ranges across a wide array of films from Rebecca to Family Plot, and examines in depth the location sequences, characterological types, and complex social expectations that riddled American society while Hitchcock thrived there.
- Sales Rank: #2108382 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Polity
- Published on: 2013-02-18
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.30" h x 1.00" w x 5.60" l, .90 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 352 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Curiously Unsatisfying
By J. Hundley
While I am not a Hitchcock scholar by any means, I have read a handful of books about him and his work, most of which I found more satisfying than this. Not without its insights and merits, I just didn't find this particularly, um, satisfying. Here are my thoughts on it:
I realize that this is a scholarly series, and Pomerance doesn't stint on the scholarship, the writing here is often needlessly byzantine. Not only are there too many instances of severely twisted syntax, some of the dependent clauses become like poorly marked subway maps. I had to go back and reread a sentence far too often to remember what it started to be about. The same can be applied to some of the subsections of the chapters. The author routinely whiplashes from one topic or film to another with little or no connective tissue. I frowned a lot reading this - not because I necessarily disagreed, but because I got lost in the transition, or lack thereof.
Unlike the Spike Lee volume in this series, which failed to support (or often even make) an argument for a specific vision of America in Lee's work, Pomerance has vision a-plenty. But too often it feels like he is creating a vision of, specifically, 1950s and 1960s America, then cherry-picking from Hitch's movies to bolster his own thesis rather than examining Hitchcock's films and then seeing what they do say. As a result, it feel like the tail is often wagging the dog. It may not be the case for him, but it feels like whole films and significant parts of other films are ignored because they don't support the author's thesis.
It is also not really clear exactly what that thesis is, if there indeed is one. The book simply, um, ends. There is no summary, no tying together. The introduction, which features the weakest writing in the book kinda sorta talks about what he wants to say, but not in a way that pulls these parts together as a whole.
On a less significant, but very curious note, Pomerance goes to great length in his discussions of Psycho to avoid revealing the surprise ending, while acknowledging that it is difficult to write about the film without revealing it. The tack is odd to me since a) Psycho is almost certainly Hitchcock's best known film and even people who have never seen it know the twist, perhaps the most famous twist ending in American film history; b) it is hard to imagine that someone who has never seen Psycho would be reading a scholarly volume about it's director's presentations of American culture and society, and; c) he blithely reveals the plot intricacies and twists of virtually every other film he discusses here. Curious.
Lastly, while I tended to enjoy the little bits and pieces of trivia included in the footnotes, they, too, seemed rather jarring in that they appear to be almost random bits and pieces which have no real connection to the text in which they are appended. I know they are footnotes, of course, but the very randomness of when he includes them seem more like a certain amount of showing us only how much trivia the author knows about Hitchcock's films. They are interesting, but kind of pointless. For example, the significance of Edna May Wonacott's height at the time she was in Shadow of a Doubt is kinda sorta interesting, but why not, then, Theresa Wright's height? Or Joseph Cotton's favorite flavor of ice cream?
In all, while there is a good deal interesting here, the issues above keep me from being able to rate it any higher. It will be of some use and interest to Hitchcock scholars and those interested in popular representations of mid-20th Century American culture and society.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting, but questionable premise
By Ekat
I'm a total sucker for anything Hitchcock. I own many of his movies, and just recently read the excellent and very detailed biography, Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light by Patrick McGilligan. So this book looked like it would be an interesting new perspective on Hitchcock's work during what most consider is his masterpiece era. And it is interesting if you already interested in Hitchcock. However, I had a few issues with the book.
First, after reading the book by McGilligan, I did not need detailed plot summaries or production factoids about the various films. I understand that for those that did not read McGilligan's book that these notes could be of interest. However, I often glossed over these, particularly when I saw many were citations from that book.
Secondly, there were odd diversions that really had no point to the overall narrative. Did I really need to know that Ridley Scott filmed a movie in the facility that built the Golden Gate Bridge?
Lastly, and most importantly, I question the premise of the book. Many of the examples of how Hitchcock's films show American values, American personality, American way of life, etc.. seem like a stretch. I felt that it was a story of finding facts and points to support a premise versus examine the source material to develop a premise. For example, in the introduction the author goes into detail about Hitchcock's film Lifeboat and it's examination of class structure and how it showed American beliefs seemed odd. I would say a film made in 1944 by Hitchcock depicting social stratification would have more to do with his British upbringing and what was occurring in Europe at the time. Even later, the depictions of Rear Window being a study of New York/American life is a stretch to me. When I watch Rear Window (one of my absolute favorite films) I don't see it as a study of New York/American life. It is a depiction of characters that anyone, anywhere in the world could relate to along with a sense of voyeurism that seems to be a human (not just American) trait.
So with that, why do I still rate this a 3/5? It is partly because it is about Hitchcock, which can always keep my interest. However, it is also in general interesting to read about what in the author's opinion is American and why Hitchcock's films express those traits/values. I may not agree with all the connections, but the discussion is interesting. It does make me question my beliefs about what makes something 'American'.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Mostly written for serious students of film.
By Paul Tognetti
"My intention with this small book is to raise new questions and considerations, challenge viewers to look at Hitchcock's wonderful films yet again, and see in his work an illumination of American form and life that has perhaps not been shown in this way." - page 14
I have always considered him to be the most fascinating public figure of my lifetime. During a half century of filmmaking in his native Great Britain and here in America director Alfred Hitchcock produced some of the most stylish and compelling movies ever made. I have always been a huge fan. That is why I jumped at the chance to pluck a copy of Murray Pomerance's new book "Alfred Hitchcock's America" off the Amazon Vine. Starting with 1939's "Rebecca" this book concentrates on Hitchcock's work here in the U.S. Despite the fact that I lack any formal education in filmmaking I was able to gain some fresh insights into the work of this most remarkable director.
In "Alfred Hitchcock's America" I discovered that Hitchcock never proceeded with a film until he had done intensive research on all of the locations he was going to shoot. He was all about detail. Every single element -- casting, performance, lighting, camera angle, construction of setting and even the music were painstakingly woven together to create just the impression he was looking to make. For example, in preparing for "Rear Window" Hitchcock recorded more than 2 minutes of typical Greenwich Village sound made on the small side streets of the community. Such attention to detail is what gave Hitchcock films their authenticity. Speaking of "Rear Window" I loved the author's characterization of this film as "an intriguingly-detailed portrait of American life, less a full-fledged landscape and more a set of artist's sketches delicately flashed out in detail." A very apt description indeed! Murray Pomerance also offers some perspective of scenes Hitchcock shot at some of this nation's most iconic places including Mount Rushmore, the George Washington Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, the Hoover Dam and the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Throughout the pages of "Alfred Hitchcock's America" Murray Pomerance offers informed observations about dozens of Hitchcock's American films including some of the more obscure ones. Despite the fact that I am a huge fan I was unfamiliar with quite a few of them including "The Trouble with Harry", "The Wrong Man" and the 1956 remake of "The Man Who Knew Too Much". While I certainly intend to view these films in the not too distant future I had absolutely no context for what the author was talking about. This happened numerous times over the course of the book. In addition, I found that some of the author's observations went right over my head. My lack of formal education about film-making started to become an issue. Having said that, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the marvelous photos that the author culled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. At the end of the day "Alfred Hitchcock's America" is certainly worth a look-see but in all honesty I would not recommend it for general audiences. I could easily see this book being assigned reading in a college-level Film Appreciation course. The bottom line is that the more you know about film the more likely you will appreciate what Murray Pomerance has to say.
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