North by Northwest [AS Media Studies]

North by Northwest

The Trailer

This trailer includes information about how the movie begins and ends. There is also a lot of critic quotes in it, which can encourage audiences to watch the film. It can appeal to audiences because all the audiences knows to begin with is that North by Northwest is a thriller. However, by watching the trailer you can experience hearing the theme music to the film which creates the suspense that you can feel whilst watching the movie. The trailer also shows scenes such as when the crop duster crashed into the truck, and when Roger Thornhill got framed for a murder. But, cleverly, the trailer does not tell audiences how or why these scenes occurred, because that is what the trailer is for, to make audiences intrigued to know what will happen and to make them want to watch the motion picture.

What makes this a Thriller?

This movie contains a lot of suspense and a lot of times when the audience may predict that something is going to happen, but instead there are twists. For example, Eve Kendall, the main female character is first of all made to seem like a genuine character when she helps Thornhill escape from being captured by the police. However, we soon learn that she is working with the villains, or so it seems, so the audience is fooled. This is called a red herring. Later on, whilst the audience suspect she is a wrongdoer, we soon discover that she is a good character after all, and eventually is saved by the main character right at the end. The various twists and parts that shock the audience such as when the crop duster is sent to kill Thornhill, and when it crashes, almost killing him, the audience could find this thrilling since the main character was so close to death several times in the film as well as almost falling off a cliff at the very end.

"Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action."

This quote describes the majority of the scenes in North by Northwest.