Vertigo

From the first Arts & Faith Top 100 list in 2004, voters have wrestled with and disputed the meaning of “Spiritually Significant.” When discussing what makes a film spiritually significant, seemingly the only constant has been that it means something other that craftsmanship or artistry. Sight & Sound’s critics’ survey of the Top 100 Films of all time remains the gold standard of all such lists, and it is notable that three of its top ten films — Citizen Kane, 8 1/2, Man With a Movie Camera — have never appeared in an Arts & Faith Top 100. (The first two did appear on the 2015 themed list of Top 25 films on “Memory.”) Another two, The Searchers and Rules of the Game, appeared on the 2011 Arts & Faith List (#18 and #88) but are absent from the 2020 list.

Vertigo famously ended Citizen Kane‘s fifty year run atop the Sight & Sound list, making it as close as there can be to a current consensus pick for the greatest film of all time. But is it “Spiritually Significant”? Some Arts & Faith voters treat the list as a collective memoir, citing the films that have had a significant impact on their individual (or the group’s) moral, spiritual, or ethical consciousness. Others have suggested and championed films that invite or necessitate spiritual contemplation.

For this voter, Vertigo fits the second descriptor. It is a film with a compulsively selfish protagonist that probably should prompt viewers to contemplate if there are limits to what we would do for and to the people we claim that we love. James Stewart’s affable screen persona might mask Scottie’s cruelty for a while, but hard indeed is the viewer who can take in the film and not be repulsed by his treatment of Judy. Of course, Scottie appears repulsed by himself at times, helping to make the film an object lesson in the agonizing compulsions wrought by temptation and the damage wrought to self and others by giving in to it. 

— Kenneth R. Morefield

1. Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
2. Produced by: Herbert Coleman Alfred Hitchcock
3. Written by: Alec Coppel Samuel A. Taylor
4. Music by: Bernard Herrmann
5. Cinematography by: Robert Burks
6. Editing by: George Tomasini
7. Release Date: 1958
8. Running Time: 128
9. Language: English

Arts & Faith Lists:

2011 Top 100 — #83

2020 Top 100 — #65