After his intensely personal psychological thriller Vertigo received mixed reviews due to its length and obsessive attention to detail Hitchcock set out to follow it with a fast paced, action packed, stylish, comic, chase picture to end all chase pictures.  Screenwriter Ernest Lehman wonderfully parodies and trumps all of Hitch’s previous films of the 1950s making North by Northwest the quintessential ironic comedy thriller.

The success of the film is largely due to the effortlessly charming and hilarious star performance by Cary Grant as the hapless Madison Avenue advertising executive Roger Thornhill, a bachelor approaching middle age and stuck in a rut, juggling a routine job between lunch dates with his doting mother and the worry of gaining a few extra pounds each year, he is cruising through life unencumbered by real responsibility or commitment; that is until he is mistaken for a government agent by a gang of foreign spies headed by the suavely sinister Phillip Vandamm played by James Mason.

What ensues is the prototype Hollywood action comedy in which we see the reluctant hero Thornhill’s comfortable life turned upside down as he is chased across America.  Cary Grant plays the part with such utter bemusement that you empathise totally with his predicament, however he is also able to subtly send up his own on-screen persona which heightens the comedy.  The scene where the bad guys force him to drink a whole bottle of whisky and then put him behind the wheel of a car is a case in point, as is Thornhill’s attempt to sober up and try to explain what’s going on to the police.

Eva Marie Saint provides the love interest as Eve Kendall, an undercover agent who appears to be Vandamm’s lover but seduces Thornhill on a train bound for Chicago in a scene packed with double entendre and repressed sexuality.  Eve’s true allegiances help to propel the narrative as we realise that Thornhill has fallen in love with her and finally found someone to commit to and take responsibility for but then inadvertently blows her cover to Vandamm and puts her in jeopardy setting up the final chase across Mount Rushmore and specifically President Lincoln’s nose, a set piece Hitchcock had been dying to film for many years.

North by Northwest looks incredibly good for its years on Blu-ray sporting a pristine full 1080p/VC-1 encoded vibrant picture and a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack which, surprisingly for a film of its age, are demo quality especially in the iconic Crop Duster sequence.  The movie’s appeal will long endure because of the universal themes of mistaken identity, innocence overcoming evil and love prevailing in the face of adversity, delivered with plenty of good humour and genuine wit; it may not be Hitchcock’s most complex thriller but it’s certainly one of his most entertaining.

Fresh from the success of furnishing the scripts for the extremely lucrative Bourne franchise, Tony Gilroy was given the rare opportunity to make his directorial debut with his own original screenplay Michael Clayton, an intricate, character-driven suspense story which finally confirms George Clooney to be one of the most distinguished screen actors of his generation.

Clooney plays the title role, a ‘fixer’ with a prestigious New York City law firm; he is an opaque figure who, as a former criminal prosecutor, is uniquely gifted at his job which usually involves finding legal loopholes exonerating high paying clientele from their dubious actions as typified by his late night call to a wealthy businessman (Denis O’Hare) who has just been involved in a hit and run accident.

You can tell from the opening moments of Michael Clayton that it’s going to be a thoughtful film, methodically paced but exceedingly tight, reminiscent of the conspiracy thrillers made by Alan J. Pakula (The Parallax View) or Sydney Pollack (Three Days of the Condor)  in the 1970s.  Not surprisingly Gilroy enlisted the help of Pollack who appears here, in one of his last roles in front of the camera, as Clayton’s boss and the firm’s senior partner Marty Bach.

Michael is a complex character with a history of gambling, he is currently in debt to a loan shark due to a failed restaurant venture with his drug-addicted brother and he is being put under great pressure to come up with the money.  The firm are currently defending a class-action lawsuit filed against fictional pharmaceutical giant U-North and their leading attorney Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) has a mental breakdown during a deposition, stripping off his clothes and declaring undying love for one of the key witnesses.

It transpires that Arthur has been diagnosed bipolar and it’s not the first time Clayton has been called in to salvage the mess caused by the disorder whilst he’s off his medication.  U-North’s general counsel Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) has Edens put under surveillance and discovers that he’s in the possession of a report proving their latest product is carcinogenic and that he’s about to ‘go rogue’ and expose this publically just as they’re closing in on a settlement deal.

Michael Clayton is “total cinema” at its very best; woven of a semi-byzantine plot line and meticulously framed cinematography, steeped in the thought processes and actions of acutely convincing central characters, the usually buoyant Clooney really bares his soul in this film like no other, whilst Wilkinson and Swinton deliver unshakable supporting performances.  In many ways it’s the antithesis of the Bourne movies yet despite lacking outright action sequences it still clutches audiences, bringing them to the edge of their seats.

I am gratified that I went to see Michael Clayton at the cinema when it first came out in 2007; I know I am amongst a minority who managed to catch it as it appeared on very few screens for only a brief stint.  I am willing to go out on a limb and claim that in time it will likely be remembered as the film of its decade and I’m hopeful that the Blu-ray release will introduce it to a wider audience.

There is nothing flashy about the 1080p VC/1 transfer, the soundtrack is a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and apart from an informative audio commentary from writer/director Tony Gilroy and his brother John, also the movie’s editor, there are no extras to speak of, no matter because Michael Clayton is exactly the kind of cinematic gem that doesn’t need a deconstructive light shined on it in order to be appreciated but rather should be wallowed into in the dark, with the comforting knowledge that from time to time they do make them like this anymore (sic).

At the 2011 Academy Awards Aaron Sorkin said in his acceptance speech, “It’s impossible to describe what it feels like to be handed the same award that was given to Paddy Chayefsky 35 years ago for another movie with ‘network’ in the title.”  It was his first Oscar win for adapting The Social Network and he was referring to the unexpectedly prescient satire Network directed by Sidney Lumet in 1976.

You don’t have to look very far for Chayefsky’s influence on Sorkin’s writing, not just in the awe-inspiring speeches throughout The West Wing but more specifically in his follow up series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a behind the scenes focus on putting on a live light entertainment television show which draws directly from the milieu of Network.

Peter Finch stars as news anchorman Howard Beale who is about to “retire” after 25 years on the air due to a fall in ratings, during the corporate takeover of a fictitious national television network UBS. In a moment of madness Beale announces to camera his intention to blow his brains out in his final broadcast on live television and is immediately fired until long-time friend and producer Max Schumacher (William Holden) is persuaded by the company’s President to allow him back a final time to apologise and bow out gracefully.

However, once Beale is back on air his psychotic state causes him to launch into a candid tirade claiming that “life is bullshit”; ironically this strikes a chord with the public and fledging producer Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) who has been looking for edgier material suggests to Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall), the chief executive appointed by the conglomerate who have acquired the station, that Howard Beale be given his own show so he can sound off on whatever topics he likes.

Network is an outrageously believable black parody that is at once very funny yet deeply biting, years ahead of his time Chayefsky predicts not only reality TV but also the theory of the New World Order run by one massive ‘ecumenical’ holding company.  In the film’s touchstone scene during one of Beale’s televised rants on the night of an electrical storm, he manages to rouse his viewers to get up and go to their windows and shout “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” which not only became the movie’s tagline but is now an oft-quoted, indelible moment in cinema history.

Despite looking its age in terms of costume and set design Network fares remarkably well on Blu-ray, the 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode is displayed in the original aspect ratio 1.85:1 showing off the film’s impressive use of stylised lighting particularly in the memorable monologue where the chairman of the corporation (Ned Beatty) evangelises his global capitalism to Howard Beale, appearing like a haloed vision of God in a starry night sky.  The DTS-HD master audio mix of the original mono soundtrack is perfect for a film which is reknowned for its exceptional dialogue.

There are a wealth of extras on the disc, including an in-depth “Behind the Story” analysis of the movie as well as a rare interview with writer Paddy Chayefsky recorded at the time of the film’s original release and an hour long episode of Private Screenings with director Sidney Lumet where he discusses in detail his substantial body of work recorded in 2005 after he was awarded the honorary life time achievement Oscar which, for fellow cinephiles, is worth the price of the disc alone!